AFRICAN MIGRATION AND BRAIN DRAIN

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African Migration and the Brain Drain

Paper Presented at the Institute for African Studies and Slovenia Global Action

Ljubljana, Slovenia

20 June 2008

By David H. Shinn

Adjunct Professor, Elliott School of International Affairs

George Washington University

Washington, D.C.

Introduction

The British Royal Society coined the term “brain drain” to describe the outflow of scientists andtechnicians to the United States and Canada in the 1950s and early 1960s. By the 1970s the braindrain came to be associated with the flow of skilled individuals from the developing world toWestern Europe and North America. Of all the world’s regions, Sub-Saharan Africa hasexperienced the most serous negative repercussions.

Some African countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Cote d’Ivoire, are makingspecial efforts to utilize the talents of people in their respective diasporas. South Africa hasdeveloped a comprehensive data bank that catalogs the skills of many in its diaspora. Gainingcountries in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and the Gulf States have done littleto stem the inflow. Some have even designed visa programs to attract highly skilled persons fromAfrica and elsewhere while others actively recruit in Africa for skills in short supply such asnurses and doctors.

The brain drain from Africa and other developing nations has not yet become a public policyconcern of the advanced nations. This is due to widely accepted support for freedom of movement and choice of employment. It is a also a reflection of the complex and shiftinginterplay of “push” and “pull” factors that motivate individuals to leave one country for another.The advanced nations are generally unwilling to discourage Africans or anyone else fromseeking critical jobs where demand exceeds supply.

The impact of the brain drain on Sub-Saharan Africa is complex. There is the well knownmigration of highly educated Africans from the continent to other parts of the developed world.There is also substantial movement of skilled Africans within Sub-Saharan Africa. As a general



rule the migration is from poor, politically unstable, and/or conflict prone countries to those thathave stronger economies, are politically stable, and offer good security. The brain drain doeshave a silver lining for the losing country. In some cases, the diasporas have become significantsources of financial remittances back to the home country. Other Africans in the diaspora arefinding ways to make their technical expertise available through electronic networks and some

actually return to help out for short periods of time. Nevertheless, the brain drain is generallyharmful to Sub-Saharan Africa.

A Long History of African Migration

Africans have a long history of movement, some voluntary and some forced. In pre-colonialtimes entire villages and tribes moved from one part of Africa to another in order to escape theravages of warfare or agricultural and climatic conditions that led to drought and famine. Therewas also internal African slave-raiding that resulted in forced movements. During the colonial period most large population movements were linked to the economic polices of colonialgovernments. Plantations and agricultural projects in coastal countries attracted unskilled labor

from landlocked states. Large numbers of workers from further north migrated to South Africa towork the mines. White farmers forced Africans from the land in Kenya, Rhodesia (nowZimbabwe), and South Africa.

Perhaps the best known movement of Africans from the continent consisted of the Atlantic slavetrade. An estimated ten million Africans landed in the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Another nine million Africans moved through the trans-Saharan slave trade between1600 and 1900. Free Africans traveled as sailors, merchants, and students. African migrationoutside the continent increased during colonialism. France made liberal use of African troopsduring World War II and employed some 135,000 wartime workers in French factories. By theearly 1950s there were an estimated 2,000 African students in the United Kingdom. Senegalese

and Malian communities developed in France. Somalis established communities in Italy and theUnited Kingdom and the Congolese in Belgium. The United States, Canada, the Netherlands,Sweden, Australia, and other countries subsequently hosted sizeable African diasporas.

The Post-Independence Period

Movements of Africans in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s occurred in response to economicconditions, political repression, and conflict. There was an exodus from Idi Amin’s Uganda inthe early 1970s and from Mengistu Haile Mariam’s reign of terror in Ethiopia beginning in themid-1970s. Many Ghanaians fled a downturn in the economy from 1970 to 1982. The oil boomin Nigeria initially attracted Africans from neighboring countries but then resulted in massive

departures of skilled Nigerians when the price of oil collapsed in the early 1980s. They went tooil-rich Arab countries and the United States. Better pay and working conditions attracted professionals from various African countries to South Africa’s homelands (and later to black -ruled South Africa), Botswana, and Zimbabwe, until many Zimbabweans began leaving becauseof the failing economy and repressive government. Educated Kenyans found inadequate numbersof jobs in the country and sought work elsewhere in Africa or abroad.

Africans from Francophone countries tended to migrate to France, those from Anglophone



countries to the United Kingdom and the United States, those from Lusophone countries toPortugal, and those from Rwanda and the Congo to Belgium. Germany and the United States became the preferred destination for scientists and professionals. By the 1985-86 academic year,an estimated 34,000 African students were in the United States. Continuing political instability incountries like Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan, Mozambique, Angola, and Liberia caused more

professionals to depart.

Between 1960 and 1989, an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 highly skilled African workers and professionals left for Europe and North America. This constituted about 30 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s highly skilled personnel. In 1984 there were 10,000 Nigerian professionals inthe United States alone. Some 500,000 Sudanese, 80 percent of whom were skilled, workedabroad in 1985, mostly in the Gulf States. Sudan became a labor exporting nation and had to fillthe gap by hiring Egyptians. In the first 30 years of African independence, the brain drain was acomplicated phenomenon. Most of the movement by professionals and other highly skilled persons was away from the continent. Nevertheless, a few African nations like Nigeria in the1970s and Botswana benefited by the arrival of well trained Africans from other countries.

Recent Brain Drain and Migration Trends

Statistics on Sub-Saharan Africa’s brain drain and migration are often confusing andcontradictory. Nevertheless, there is general agreement on the trend lines. The brain drain hastwo categories. There are those who complete their education in Africa and then migrate for avariety of reasons. This group consists especially of scientists, engineers, health professionals,and entrepreneurs. The second category involves students who study abroad, finds jobs, establishfamilies, and become permanent residents or citizens of another country.

An estimated 300,000 African professionals live and work outside the continent. Since 1990,

Africa has lost some 20,000 professionals each year. About 30,000 Sub-Saharan Africansholding PhDs now live outside Africa. Over the last three decades, for example, Kenya has lostmore than one-third of its skilled professionals; 3,000 highly trained Kenyans leave every year.About 10 percent of South Africa’s IT and finance executives have departed in recent years. In2007, 150 professionals left Ethiopian Airways, mainly for higher paying jobs with airlines in theGulf States. Between 70 and 90 percent of Zimbabwe’s university graduates are now workingoutside the country. To fill the gap caused by this brain drain, Africa employs up to 150,000expatriate professionals at a cost of $4 billion annually.

There have also been significant movements of skilled Sub-Saharan Africans within the region.Oil rich Gabon and economically strong Namibia have had some success in recruiting highly

educated Africans. Majority rule in South Africa in the mid-1990s resulted in an influx of educated migrants from countries like Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Zaire, Kenya, and Uganda.Prosperous and politically stable Botswana attracted professionals, particularly to the privatesector and university, from South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Kenya. Themost recent data suggest that both South Africa and Botswana are now exporting more skilled personnel than they are importing. The HIV/AIDS crisis in southern Africa has contributed to the problem.



The health infrastructure in much of Africa is collapsing. Growing health challenges likeHIV/AIDS, high population growth rates, inadequate financial resources, and the brain drain arethe reasons for this health care crisis. Approximately 65,000 African-born physicians and 70,000African-born professional nurses were working overseas in a developed country by 2000. Thisrepresented about one-fifth of all African-born physicians and one-tenth of African-born

professional nurses. The World Heath Organization reported in 2006 that out of fifty-sevencountries worldwide suffering from a severe shortage of health workers, thirty-six were in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are fewer than ten doctors for every 100,000 people in twenty-four of theforty-four Sub-Saharan African countries for which statistics are available.

Individual country situations offer an even more depressing picture. More than 3,000 doctorshave left Ethiopia, leaving 900 to meet the needs of nearly 78 million people. There are moreEthiopian doctors on the east coast of the U.S. than there are in Ethiopia. Uganda has one doctor for every 100,000 patients. More than 500 Ugandan doctors work outside the country, 200 of them in South Africa. But one-third to a half of all graduating doctors in South Africa migrate tothe U.S., United Kingdom, and Canada while over 21,000 Nigerian doctors practice in the U.S.

There are reportedly more Malawi-trained doctors in Manchester, England, than there are in allof Malawi. Zimbabwe has lost 50 percent of its health care professionals. Kenya has an acuteshortage of neurosurgeons — one for each three million Kenyans while Tanzania, Uganda, andEthiopia have only two each for the entire country. Malawi and Zimbabwe do not have anyneurosurgeons.

The brain drain has led to interesting intra-African movements, including secondment byTanzania and South Africa of nurses and doctors to Swaziland. The Democratic Republic of theCongo (DRC), a country in desperate need of medical staff, offered doctors to Zimbabwe, acountry now facing an even more serious brain drain and the loss of professionals to HIV/AIDS.Some countries can cope more successfully with the loss of skilled personnel. Nigeria, South

Africa, and Ghana, for example, have large numbers of highly educated individuals, althougheven these countries are increasingly feeling the shortages. Others like Sierra Leone, Somalia,and the DRC that have been devastated by civil war are poorly equipped to respond to the braindrain. Concentration of doctors in the capital city is another problem. In Mozambique, for example, 70 per cent of the country’s physicians live in the capital of Maputo.

The brain drain has impacted some areas of specialization much more than others. Shortageshave been severe for most countries in medicine, nursing, physical and human sciences,engineering, technology, and computer programming. For the most part, Sub-Saharan Africancountries have continued to meet their needs in the liberal arts and humanities. There are evenshortages in these areas, however, when countries experience long-term civil conflict or the

destruction of their economy. In addition, some of the most capable persons in the liberal artsand humanities have migrated to more attractive situations in other African countries.

Causes of Migration and the Brain Drain

Complex push and pull factors determine the severity of the brain drain and migration for any particular country in Africa. Pull factors such as good security and better economic and socialopportunities in countries that attract skilled people have essentially the same effect on skilled



persons in all of Sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of push factors varies, however, from onecountry to another. Countries like Somalia, the DRC, and Sudan are impacted more negatively by conflict and political instability than they are by economic concerns. Others, such as Ghana,Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Zambia, are relatively stable but have faced serious economic pushfactors.

The Push Factors

Many political and security issues contribute to the decision of skilled Africans to moveelsewhere. The Red Terror in Ethiopia, interminable conflict in Somalia, genocide in Rwanda,civil war in the DRC, and human cruelty in Sierra Leone are extreme examples. Military coups, political persecution, arbitrary arrest, poor human rights practices, intolerance of politicaldissent, absence of academic freedom, illegal regime change, and favoritism based on ethnic or religious affiliation add to the brain drain. All of these conditions exist somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa today and in a few countries most of them prevail.

The newest scourge, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, contributes to the problem of the brain drain. Thegrowth of secondary school enrollments has slowed as a result of a decline in primary-levelenrollment and the negative demographic impact of HIV/AIDS. The disease is also decimatingeducational systems, including universities, in Sub-Saharan Africa. HIV/AIDS has had adevastating impact on both students and teachers. Although it is difficult to know the psychological impact of HIV/AIDS on the willingness of Africans to remain in the teachingsystem, it has probably become another reason to seek a less foreboding teaching environment.

A host of economic issues is responsible for or at least exacerbates the flight of skilled persons.As daily living conditions become more difficult, many professionals look for opportunitieselsewhere. A country with a weak economy, high unemployment, significant corruption, low

wages, periodic famine and/or substantial poverty is a prime candidate for a brain drain. Acountry that is unable to create a sufficient number of new jobs and has a limited capacity toabsorb qualified personnel is especially vulnerable.

Low salaries for professionals are often cited as a major reason for the brain drain. For example,new medical graduates in Kenya earn about $1,000 per month. In some developed countries,they could earn $14,000 monthly. In a few African countries a physician earns as little as $100 per month.

A related concern is the lack of professional opportunity, benefits and personal development.This includes issues such as training and research opportunities, morale and job satisfaction, and

human resource and management policies. Relations between the universities and nationalgovernment are sometimes hostile. This is especially a problem when universities are under thetight control of the government and the university administration has minimal involvement inmaking education policy. The university leadership may then lose its sense of direction and beunable to cope during crisis situations. Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have particularly friendly working environments, strong budgets, clear policies or generous researchfunds. There is often no national policy for and little investment in science and technology.



Some of the problems concern everyday living. Professionals become discouraged if they can notafford decent housing. Poor supervision and limited career advancement opportunities add to thefrustration. Poorly equipped institutions where computers and access to the Internet are limited pose a serious handicap. Libraries that house a modest number of mostly out-of-date books,laboratories with broken or obsolete equipment, and medical personnel without modern

equipment add to the brain drain. Inability to access professional literature is another issue.These problems are common to many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mitigating the Push Factors

African governments and societies must fix those problems that are driving skilled individualsout of the country. If a country has endemic conflict, the conflict must be brought to an end. If ithas a long history of dictatorial rule, it must become more free and open. If corruption is out of control, it must be controlled. If the wealth of a country is being squandered, it must bechanneled equitably into productive activities. If government and university appointments aremade largely on the basis of ethnicity, they must in the future be made on the basis of merit. If

wages in critical skill categories like medicine are unrealistically low, they have to be increased.If the government gives a low priority to support for science and technology, it must raise the priority. It is not realistic for any country to resolve all of the problems that cause professionalsto depart. Countries with strong economies such as South Africa, Mauritius, and Botswana andthose with significant natural resources such as Nigeria, Gabon, and Angola are in a better position to staunch the outflow. The poorest countries like Ethiopia, Malawi, and Somalia have amuch more difficult task.

Each country should create a comprehensive database on the impact of the brain drain. SouthAfrica is well advanced in this undertaking. The database will help decision-makers formulatemore effective policy for retaining persons with skills in those areas where the brain drain is

negatively affecting development priorities. Without detailed and up-to-date information on thenature of the problem, it will be impossible to ameliorate it in any significant way.

Science, technology, and medicine are the skill categories most adversely affected by the braindrain in Sub-Saharan Africa. Individual governments and regional institutions must make aspecial effort to counter loses in these fields. They can develop centers of excellence for scientific research and increase budgetary allocations for research. They can also help toestablish links between research and the private sector, share information on best practices andimprove ways to disseminate research findings throughout the continent. They should improvethe working environment in an attempt to ensure that these persons remain in the country.

Most African countries can do much at little or no cost to improve the climate for their highestskilled individuals. They can permit unrestricted academic freedom and value indigenous expertsas much they value foreign experts. For that matter, they can put pressure on the donor community to make greater use of African experts in assistance programs rather than importingspecialists from outside. They can reevaluate the nation’s education system to determine if it is producing the skills required for critical needs. Governments can promote development of astronger private sector and then encourage it to work with and draw on the skills of indigenous personnel. Governmental institutions and universities can encourage human resource policies





In addition to a strong economy, peaceful political environment, and high standard of living, animportant attraction of countries in Europe and North America is the ability to improve professionally. Career advancement and job mobility are high. More attention is given to humanresource policies, supervision, and training. Hospitals and universities have state of the artequipment and well stocked libraries. The private sector offers numerous opportunities for

entrepreneurs. Think tanks and non-governmental organizations are numerous. The Internet iswidely available. Research funding and scholarships are commonplace. Benefit packages for health care, life insurance, and retirement are routine and often generous. There are generallyfewer bureaucratic frustrations in the developed countries.

Some developed countries actively recruit in developing countries for skill categories such asdoctors and nurses. Canada, Australia, and some members of the European Union have used thistechnique in Sub-Saharan Africa. Tanzania and Senegal have lost many qualified primary andsecondary school teachers to aggressive recruitment efforts by European countries. On the other hand, the United Kingdom Department of Health published guidelines on the recruiting of nursesand doctors, noting that negative impacts on the country of origin are no longer acceptable. The

president of the South African Medical Research Council visited Canada in 2001 on behalf of theSouth African government to protest the organized poaching of South African health professionals by Canadian provincial governments. Canada replied it had little choice becausethe United States was poaching Canadian medical personnel. At the same time, South Africaonce recruited doctors from other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fields like medicine, this becomes survival of the fittest with troubled and economically weak countries the big losers.

Immigration policy is another important pull factor. The United States, France and Germany,among others, have put in place visa policies that encourage the brain drain. The United Statesoffers employment-based immigrant visas that are divided into five preference categories. The program includes persons of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business and

athletics. Applicants must prove they have sustained national or international acclaim andrecognition in their field of expertise. Outstanding professors and researchers fall in thiscategory. A second group includes professionals with advanced degrees. Investors who caninvest at least a half million dollars constitute another category. In 2007 the United Statesadmitted 162,000 persons under this program worldwide. The largest groups came from India,Philippines, and China. Africans received 4,300 of these immigrant visas. South Africa had thelargest number followed in descending order by Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. The UnitedStates admitted several thousand more Africans under other skilled, temporary employmentcategories.

The United States has a Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, better known as the DV program,

which is intended to encourage the immigration of underrepresented nationalities to the UnitedStates. Applicants must have a high school education or equivalent. The annual worldwide DVquota is 50,000 immigrants. In 2007, 42,000 persons entered the US under this program.Candidates are selected at random by computer from all qualified applicants. More than 19,000African entered the United States under this program in 2007. Egypt provided the highestnumber followed by Ethiopia, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, and Ghana.



Mitigating the Pull Factors

Sub-Saharan Africa has virtually no control over the pull factors; it is largely up to thosecountries that attract skilled individuals from the continent to consider the policy implications of the brain drain. This is hard for a country like the United States that is committed to the free

movement of labor, particularly when the total number of skilled Africans coming to the UnitedStates is small compared, for example, to the large number of Indians and Chinese who arriveeach year. The same situation applies to most other major importing nations. Unfortunately, the brain loss for many African countries in certain skill categories is catastrophic.

Governments of developed countries should discourage organizations from actively recruiting professionals who are in short supply in Sub-Saharan Africa. Some of these efforts constitutelittle more than raiding parties. More significantly, developed countries should take a hard look at immigration policies that are designed specifically to attract highly skilled temporary (many of them end up staying permanently) workers and permanent residents. This legislation may not bein the long term interest of the developed countries if it contributes to growing disparities

between rich nations and poor ones, contributing in the process to slower development and even potential conflict.

There are a number of smaller steps that would help reduce the brain drain. Donor countries,international non-governmental organizations, and international financial and assistanceorganizations could make a greater effort to use African experts rather than expatriates in their programs. Many donors, including the United States, offer short and long-term specializedtraining to Africans. Frequently, those persons trained in the donor nation or other developedcountry do not return to Africa. This defeats the purpose of the training and argues for anemphasis on short-term (six months or less) training provided by the donor in the country wherethe person being trained lives. It costs less, can be made available to more individuals, and

eliminates the temptation to remain abroad at the end of training. Long-term training poses a problem, but donors can send long-term trainees to other developing countries, like India, thathave an oversupply of skilled labor, thus encouraging the Africans to return home.

Returning to Africa

There has been considerable discussion and some action on the concept of encouraging highlyskilled Africans to return to their continent of birth. So far, however, these programs have metwith exceedingly modest success and are almost certainly not the solution to the problem untilmore African economies are able to attract skilled people and democracy takes firmer root. Thevast majority of African countries have not reached the point where they can attract significant

numbers of returnees nor could they accommodate them if they did return in large numbers.

A few non-African countries have had success with this concept. In the 1960s only 16 percent of US-trained South Korean science and engineering doctorates returned home. The figure jumpedto about 75 percent in the 1980s. Korea’s strong economy and progress on democratizationalmost certainly accounted for the change. Taiwan, Ireland, and Singapore have also had somesuccess with the return policy. In 2000 an estimated 1,500 highly qualified Indians returned from



the United States.

There are very practical reasons why the return option has limited appeal. Most in the diasporaare married, have families and children in school, and become accustomed to their new lives.Incentives to return such as free air fare, loans for housing, and temporary salary supplements are

just not sufficient to attract significant numbers of returnees. One group in the diaspora that may be more willing to return is recent retirees. Each new generation that is born in the diaspora willhave less interest in returning.

Drawing on the African Diaspora

If members of the diaspora are unwilling to return home on a permanent basis, there are other ways to utilize their skills. A few Sub-Saharan African countries have taken proactive steps totap into their diasporas. South Africa is promoting the creation of agencies in Europe and theUnited States to gather information on the professional profiles of South Africans living abroad.Cote d’Ivoire created a special department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dedicated to

nationals living abroad and promoted a conference in Abidjan on development of the country. Itappealed to Ivorians in the diaspora to participate. The Nigerian President has a Special Assistantfor Diaspora Activities. The government of Ghana hosted a homecoming summit for theGhanaian diaspora to encourage its involvement in and support for Ghana’s development.

Africans in the diaspora can contribute to development by returning on short-term programs,investing in the country, establishing professional links, creating virtual information networks,and sending remittances back. The Ethiopian North American Health Professionals Associationis engaged in several of these activities. The Canadian-based Association for Higher Educationand Development is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving education in Ethiopia. Itsends medical books and equipment to the medical faculty, provides scholarships to medical

students, and networks with the medical faculty. Ghanaians in the diaspora created a GhanaAssociation of Distance Learning and Computer Literacy. It has the full support of thegovernment of Ghana and colleagues in Ghana. The Association of Kenyans Abroad,Association of Nigerians Abroad, and the South African Network of Skills Abroad areknowledge networks aimed at linking the diaspora with its homeland for the purpose of exchanging knowledge and skills.

.

The Role of Remittances

The World Bank estimated that remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa in 2007 reached $20 billion,more than the total foreign direct investment flow and nearly equal to foreign aid. Remittances to North Africa were even higher — about $35 billion with Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria the leadingrecipients. The primary recipient in Sub-Saharan Africa was Nigeria at about $2.5 billionannually. Cape Verde relies heavily on remittances, especially from the United States. After many generations, persons from Cape Verde maintain close ties to their homeland, oftenretaining rights to land on which they eventually retire. Remittances amount to between 10-50 percent of GNP in Lesotho and 25-50 percent of the value of exports in Malawi. One study



indicates that the Ghanaian diaspora remits about $400 million each year. Ghanaian remittancesare the fourth largest source of foreign exchange after cocoa, gold, and tourism.

Countries in the Horn of Africa are especially dependent on remittances. Eritrea, a country of less than 4 million people, relies heavily on remittances. In 2003, remittances totaled $462

million and constituted about 70 percent of Eritrea’s GDP. Eritreans in the United States aloneremit $100 to $150 million annually as gifts and investments. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister toldParliament in 2000 that remittances from the Ethiopian diaspora almost equaled the country’sexport earnings from coffee, its major foreign exchange earner. The Ethiopian Central Bank reported that formal remittances reached $500 million in 2006. Including informal remittances,the total is probably about $1 billion. With a diaspora of more than 1 million persons,remittances have become crucial for the operation of the economy in both Somalia andSomaliland. The UN Development Program estimated remittances to Somalia at $500 million.The estimated total for much less populous Somaliland is also an astounding $500 millionannually.

Focus on the Future

As long as so many African countries are troubled by weak economies, conflict, concerns aboutsecurity, poor governance, and a lack of individual freedom, migration and the brain drain willcontinue to have a severe, negative impact on the continent. The long-term solution to stemmingmigration and the brain drain is to ameliorate the basic, internal problems. Impacted Africancountries should also focus on tapping the skills and finances in their respective diasporas andreinvesting in higher education. This will require reaching out more effectively in order togenerate more remittances, develop skills data banks, build more and stronger virtual networks by using the Internet, encourage nationals to volunteer their time on a short-term basis, and perhaps enlist skilled retirees to return. For their part, the developed, donor countries need to do

more of their specialized training in developing countries, hire more indigenous nationals in their assistance projects, discourage proactive recruitment of skilled individuals in developingcountries, and take a hard look at immigration policies that encourage skilled persons

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Brain drain and capacity building in Africa

Ainalem Tebeje

“In 25 years, Africa will be empty of brains.” That dire warning, from Dr Lalla Ben Barka of the UN EconomicCommission for Africa (ECA), reflects the growing alarm over Africa’s increasing exodus of human capital. Data onbrain drain in Africa is scarce and inconsistent; however, statistics show a continent losing the very people it needsmost for economic, social, scientific, and technologicalprogress.

Some statistics on Africa’s brain drain

Since 1990, Africa has been losing 20,000professionals annually.

Over 300,000 professionals reside outside Africa.

Ethiopia lost 75% of its skilled workforce between1980-91.

It costs US$40,000 to train a doctor in Kenya;US$15,000 for a university student.

35% of total ODA to Africa is spent on expatriate

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Semantics Aside examined the potential of virtual participation to facilitate an effective and sustained Diasporacommitment to Africa’s development efforts. The study concluded that virtual participation has tremendouspotential to channel the untapped intellectual and material input from the African Diaspora. Moreover, it recorded agrowing awareness among the African Diaspora of its moral, intellectual, and social responsibility to contribute to

Africa’s development efforts.

Africa has shown a growing will to reconcile with the African Diaspora. Both the New Partnership for Africa’sDevelopment (NEPAD) and the African Union (AU) have formally recognized the African Diaspora as a key player in the development agenda of the continent. In 2003, the AU amended its Charter so as to “… encour age the fullparticipation of the African Diaspora as an important part of the continent.”

Virtual linkages

Another potential area where the talents of the Diaspora could be channelled is virtual linkages. Virtual linkages areindependent, non-political, and non-profit networks facilitating skill transfer and capacity-building. These networksmobilize skilled Diaspora members’ expertise for the development process in their countries of origin. To date, 41virtual networks in 30 different countries have been identified. Six of these are African, including the South AfricanNetwork of Skills Abroad (SANSA) with members in 68 countries.

Individuals of the Diaspora also contribute through virtual networks, as visiting scholars, by investing in companies,and assisting in joint ventures between host and sending countries. According to author Damtew Teferra, Africalags behind: “… This pattern of contributing to scientific and technological development is repeated for many ThirdWorld countries, though not… for most of Africa.”

In 2001, IOM launched the Migration for the Development of Africa (MIDA) “to develop the potential synergybetween… African migrants and the demand from countries by facilitating the transfer of virtual skills and resourcesof the African Diaspora to their countries of origin.” Based on the notion of human capital mobility throughtemporary, long-term, and virtual participation, IOM works with African and host countries and Diaspora members.MIDA has launched pilot projects in a number of African countries.

Next steps

In November 2004, AHEAD, in collaboration with IDRC, organized an international Stakeholder Roundtable onMobilizing the African Diaspora toward Development Efforts in Africa. The roundtable, held in Ottawa, Canada,brought together key stakeholders, including the IOM, Canadian government agencies, African missions, non-

governmental organizations, and Diaspora groups to discuss brain drain in Africa and potential strategies for mobilizing the African Diaspora.

Some of the issues identified included the need to recognize the African Diaspora as a key stakeholder in thecurrent dialogue and efforts to address the issues of brain drain and capacity-building in Africa. Effective andsustained Diaspora engagement will require policy and resource commitments by key stakeholders, includinginternational organizations, African governments, and host countries.

The emerging Diaspora movement to become more active in Africa’s development efforts, the growing political willin Africa to recognize the Diaspora’s potential contribution, and the possibilities created by information technologyshow that the African Diaspora is not, after all, a total loss to the continent.

A former journalist, Ainalem Tebeje is Vice-President of AHEAD.

Sometimes, for months on end, young African men and women risk everything, including their lives, to take on the perilous trip across dozens of borders and the treacherous waves of theMediterranean Sea in search of a better life in the North. Some die along the way, some are

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turned back and some who finish the journey realize that life may not be easier across thefrontier. But with few jobs and dim prospects at home, millions of youths and young adults inAfrica still choose to migrate, often clandestinely.

Such movements of people pose difficult questions for many governments and for the

international community. One of the most pressing concerns of governments and citizens inindustrialized countries is irregular migration: illegal entry, bogus marriages, overstayingtemporary admissions, abuse of asylum systems and the difficulty of removing unsuccessfulapplicants.

Migration is currently at the centre of disagreements between the mainly poor sending countriesand the richer receiving nations. Today the world is more connected than ever. Information,commodities and money flow rapidly across national boundaries, a phenomenon often referred toas globalization. But while industrial countries are promoting easier flows of capital, goods andservices (which they mainly supply), they are at the same time restricting the movement of labour, which comes mainly from developing countries. Developing countries view this as a

double standard, especially since labour is an important factor in the production of goods andservices.

An aspiring African migrant on the road in Morocco, a common departure point for migrants seeking to

reach Europe.

Between 1960 and 2000, the share of merchandise exports and trade in services has roughlydoubled, owing to new global trade policies negotiated at the World Trade Organization (WTO).But during the same period the share of international migrants in relation to the world’s population has increased only slightly, from 2.5 to 3 per cent. This is due to increasingrestrictions on official migration, which are also partly to blame for the rise in illegal migration.



By 2000 there were an estimated 175 million migrants worldwide, most moving from low- tohigher-income nations. About 9 per cent — 16.3 million — were African, down from 12 per centin 1960. Between 5 and 12 per cent of the population of 30 industrialized nations are migrants,notes the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM).

Complex issues

Migration brings with it “many complex challenges,” says UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.The issues include human rights, economic opportunity, labour shortages and unemployment, the brain drain, multiculturalism and integration, and flows of refugees and asylum seekers. Policymakers also must grapple with issues of law enforcement. Especially in the wake of the terroristattacks on the US in 2001, many are focusing on human and national security.

“We cannot ignore the real policy difficulties posed by migration,” says Mr. Annan. “But neither should we lose sight of its immense potential to benefit migrants, the countries they leave andthose to which they migrate.”

Owing in part to labour shortages in certain sectors, an expanding global economy and the long-term trend of ageing populations, many industrial countries need migrants. They face shortagesin highly skilled areas such as information technology and health services, as well as in manual jobs in agriculture, manufacturing and construction. Many turn a blind eye to irregular migrationto fill jobs locals do not want to take on.

But there are limits to the number of migrants they can take, for a number of reasons, includingrising national unemployment. Some countries of the European Union, for example, have agrowing number of “underutilized” workers, who are either unemployed or forced to work part-time. In France and Italy, the rate of underutilized labour reached 21 per cent in 2004, up from

17 per cent in 1994. As a result, more receiving countries are becoming more selective about themigrants they are willing to take in, opting mainly for those with skills or capital to invest.

In contrast, developing countries are demanding more open policies. They view migration asoffering an opportunity to reduce the ranks of the unemployed, earn revenue through theremittance of workers’ earnings, and import skills, knowledge and technology via returningresidents. Yet they are also concerned about losing skilled workers to richer countries, a processreferred to as the brain drain. Aware of the detrimental effect of such migration, some haveintroduced measures to reduce the departure of people whose skills are needed, such as doctorsand nurses.

How to develop comprehensive policies to manage all these issues is daunting. Migration istoday at the point where international trade was 50 years ago, says Mr. DhananjayanSriskandarajah of the Institute for Public Policy Research in the US. For many at that time, thecurrent governance system for international trade was unimaginable, he says.

“Those thinking about a new international framework for managing migration face remarkablysimilar challenges,” he says. “How to design a system that leads to freer and fairer flows of people, skills and remittances?”



Creating jobs

Most people who seek to migrate are pushed by circumstances in their home countries. War, poverty and persecution prompt people to become refugees, asylum seekers and labour migrants.In most emigrant-producing countries, jobs are scarce or salaries are too low, obliging people to

seek opportunities elsewhere. Therefore, in times of peace, governments can stem the flow of citizens seeking to leave by creating jobs.

“We cannot ignore the real policy difficulties posed by migration, but neither should we lose sight of its

immense potential to benefit migrants, the countries they leave and those to which they migrate.”

— Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General

“Globalization has so far not led to the creation of sufficient and sustainable decent work opportunities around the world,” says ILO Director -General Juan Somavia. So far, he says,“better jobs and income for the world’s workers has not been a priority in policy-making.”

Over the last few decades many African countries have failed to create jobs, despite pursuingstructural adjustment policies recommended by the World Bank and International MonetaryFund. Instead, in many countries there has been a decline in job opportunities and real incomes.Between 1994 and 2004, the number of workers living on less than a dollar a day increased by28 million in sub-Saharan Africa.

“I dread to think of the scenes we may be contemplating in, say, 20 years if we do not make amassive consolidated effort to create jobs and opportunities in West Africa,” says UN SpecialRepresentative for West Africa Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. “What is happening now is only a tipof the iceberg, compared to what will occur if urgent solutions are not found.”

The Addis Ababa-based UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) proposes that job-creation policies on the continent focus on labour-intensive sectors such as agriculture. Governmentsshould work to minimize regulations to private, domestic and foreign investment, provideinfrastructure and promote political systems that allow the majority of citizens to becomeinvolved, ECA notes in its Economic Report on Africa 2005. Currently, jobs being created inagriculture are in the informal economy, at low levels of productivity, the ECA notes. Thesecannot provide workers with enough income to pull themselves or their families out of poverty.

International trade policies make the situation worse for many African countries. For example,most migrant-receiving countries protect their farm sectors through subsidies, guaranteeing their

farmers prices higher than on world markets and leaving poor farmers in sending countriesunable to compete.

Even investment policies in industrial nations, which could be used to manage the flow of migrants, are falling short. “The incentive to invest in developing countries is driven by expected profits, not the need for jobs to reduce emigration,” says Mr. Philip Martin, a professor at theUniversity of California in the US.



“We don’t need more diagnosing or one-size-fits-all solutions,” says Mr. Somavia. “It’s time for the international financial institutions, the entire UN system and bilateral cooperation to focusenergies on job creation in Africa, which we know is so fundamental to peace, security andunity.”

Toward fairer policies

Many developing countries maintain that freer migration would be a quick means of increasingtheir benefits from globalization. The challenge is to develop policies that are acceptable to bothindustrial and developing nations and that will spur global economic growth.

“Together, Africans and Europeans, we have a duty to dismantle the illegal immigrationnetworks, behind which hides an appalling and mafia-like traffic,” French President JacquesChirac told the France-Africa Summit in Mali in December. “Together, we must encourage co-development and enable Africans to enjoy decent conditions for living and working in their owncountries.”

But successful international cooperation to spur Africa’s economies will depend on adequatefinancing for the continental development str ategy, the New Partnership for Africa’sDevelopment (NEPAD), including increases in aid and a lasting solution to Africa’s debt burden.

African countries are also pushing industrial nations to drop barriers to the free movement of labour through ongoing negotiations at the WTO. African and other developing countries arearguing that just as trade in goods, services and information have been opened up, so should theflow of labour, a sector in which developing countries hold an advantage and from which theycould earn substantial revenue. Led by India, developing nations are using the liberalization of labour as one of the markers for measuring the success of the current round of WTO

negotiations, due for completion in 2006.

International conventions

The GCIM, a body established at the urging of the UN Secretary-General in 2003, proposes thatthe UN set up an Interagency Global Migration Facility. The agency would bring together morethan a dozen UN and other international agencies and would be the primary forum for migration.

Migrants who leave their countries in search of work are currently not adequately protected byinternational law. Two conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) are the maininstruments safeguarding their rights. The conventions emphasize equality, stating that the wages

of migrants should be the same as those of other workers doing the same jobs in host countries.They also recommend that sending and receiving nations adopt bilateral agreements to protectthe rights of foreign workers.

The UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers andMembers of their Families, which came into force in 2003, goes a little further. It covers alleconomic migrants, including seafarers and the self-employed. The law lays out the powers and



responsibilities of states to manage movements of people across their borders and spells out therights of international migrants.

“Nevertheless, the gaps in international law and norms remain, particularly related to migrationfor family and economic reasons,” notes Ms. Susan Martin of the Institute of International

Migration at Georgetown University in the US. The ILO conventions entered into force withrelatively few signatories and the UN convention has been ratified by only 27 states — all of them source countries for migration.

The international conventions are unpopular among receiving countries partly because they costmoney, for example, to provide services for migrants. Some developed countries argue that theselaws impinge on their right to determine their own laws.

Africans held by Spanish immigration authorities: Northern countries are increasingly concerned by

growing flows of undocumented migrants.

“The US believes that the International Organization of Migration, while not within the UNsystem, is the appropriate body to centre discussions on migration,” says Ambassador SichanSiv, a US representative to the UN, reacting to the GCIM’s proposal for an international agencyon migration. While coordination is important, he says, “such an effort must have at its core thatmigration law and policies are the sovereign rights of states.”

Temporary migration

In the US, where there are about 34 million foreign-born workers (11 million illegal), PresidentBush is pushing for new domestic legislation to allow temporary migration for workers for up tothree years. Those who participate would not, however, be able to apply for permanent legalstatus once their time in the programme expires. With more than 1 million immigrants caughttrying to enter the US from Mexico in 2005 alone, Mr. Bush’s plan recommends increased border patrols.



The proposals have generated heated debate, with some opposed to giving any concessions to people living in the country illegally. Such concessions, they argue, would reward “wrongdoers.”But there is growing pressure from US businesses for comprehensive immigration reform,including guest-worker programmes, to provide legal ways for those who have entered thecountry illegally to continue working.

Because of the need to fill jobs in many developed countries, there has been a trend towardrelaxing entry conditions for certain categories of workers, particularly in agriculture on aseasonal basis. The agricultural sector of the European Union employs almost 500,000 seasonalworkers from outside the 15 long-time EU members each year, notes the World Economic and

Social Survey 2004, a report produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Migration on the rise

Despite attempts to limit the number of people moving across borders, especially between richand poor countries, experts forecast that international migration is going to rise. One reason is

demographic. While populations in developing countries are growing rapidly, those in high-income nations are not. To keep their economies running, developed countries need manpower.Europe’s largest employer, the UK’s National Health Service, is highly dependent on migrants towork as nurses and doctors, while the high technology sector in the US uses thousands of youngmigrants to fill many vacant posts.

Also, migration is good for economic growth. The World Bank estimates that if the labour forcein high-income countries were to grow by 3 per cent, even if the additional workers were allmigrants, there would be $356 bn in annual global economic gains. “That would be larger thangains from trade, for example,” says Mr. Dilip Ratha, senior economist at the World Bank.

The benefits of migration go not only to industrial nations, he says, but also to developingcountries, which now receive more than $165 bn annually in remittances, money sent home byworkers abroad. “Remittances reduce poverty because they generate direct income transfers tothe households,” says Mr. Ratha. Household surveys in Uganda show that remittances to thatcountry may have reduced poverty by 11 per cent.

The question is whether it is better to promote or restrict the mobility of people seeking tomigrate. Simply closing the door could have deeply troubling implications for the human rightsof the people involved, might not be effective and would limit the benefits migration delivers for both receiving and sending countries, says Mr. Sriskandarajah of the US-based Institute for Public Policy Research.

A better response, he suggests, is to start by recognizing that migration can be positive for thosewho move, for the societies they move to and for the societies they leave behind.

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