BOOK REVIEW: INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION WITHIN, TO …



REVIEW OF THE BOOK “INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION WITHIN, TO AND FROM AFRICA IN A GLOBALISED WORLD”

EDITED BY PROFESSOR ADERANTI ADEPOJU

(Presented at its Launch at the British Council Hall on 2nd June 2010)

BY

DR. STEPHEN O. KWANKYE (RIPS, UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON)

Introduction

International migration within countries in Africa either as sending or receiving states is of historical importance within the context of on-going globalisation process. Before, during and after periods of colonisation, African people have been known to be migratory. Indeed, the migratory nature of African people has continued until today and is expected to continue to increase in scope. In spite of this development, we did not have one comprehensive book that details migration within, to and from Africa until today. On the other hand, there are publications on individual countries in Africa that focus mainly on migration from Africa to Europe and North America.

It is against this background that the book titled “International Migration within, to and from Africa” is considered not only relevant but very timely. It is timely because it comes at a time when many African countries are considering the formulation of national migration policies to regulate not only international migration but migration within their national boundaries. The book is, therefore, a valuable resource material for researchers, students of migration and policy makers within Africa and destination countries of African migrants especially in the North.

Overview of the Book

The book is organised into nine chapters with contributions from seven authors all from Africa. The Introductory chapter titled “Rethinking the dynamics of migration within, from and to Africa” provides a broad overview of existing conditions in Africa that provide fertile grounds for intra-national and intra-regional migration and migration out of the continent. It shows that migration to and from Africa should be understood within an environment that is witnessing rapidly growing populations, general poverty and widespread unemployment, ethno-religious conflicts, refugee movements and rapid urbanisation that is incapable of providing jobs for large armies of jobless youth.

The chapter among other things draws attention to the complex and dynamic nature of migration in Africa. It shows that female migration is rapidly increasing, migration destinations are being diversified, labour flows are being transformed into commercial migration while emigration of skilled professionals continues to be a disturbing feature of migration from Africa. There is also trafficking in human beings and changing refugee flows on the continent. Unfortunately, the urgent need for innovative research on these important migration dynamics is hampered by data constraints and the absence of comprehensive migration policies that are synchronised with migration related programmes.

The introduction further highlights the contradiction of the continent in terms of being rich in resources but with people increasingly afflicted by widespread poverty. Efforts towards reducing poverty and its related socio-economic problems are reported to have failed due to the continent’s huge debt burden whose servicing continues to be a constraint to most of Africa’s development efforts. The good news, however, as reported in the Introduction to the Book is the wind of democratisation that is fast blowing across the continent which is likely to provide avenues for political and economic stability which will, in turn affect the volume, pattern and trend in migration in Africa. Yet, increased ethno-religious instability, coupled with rapidly expanding youth population in relation to the continent’s inability to meet the needs of the jobless are fast becoming counter-productive.

Consequently, faced with deteriorating economies at home, African youth have resorted to migration outside their home countries as a survival strategy out of poverty. Disintegration in families in the face of poverty has produced street youth and children. Many of these jobless youth are prepared to use any available means to emigrate without pausing to consider the risks they subject themselves to. This has driven researchers to pay special attention to why people migrate rather than why people do not migrate and yet the latter group is in the majority. Perhaps this is because the few that migrate are increasingly becoming desperate and have attracted concern due to the risks they subject themselves to in their attempt to emigrate out of poverty.

The Introduction further points out the increasing availability of data through national censuses and surveys that are likely to permit hitherto difficult migration analysis that is targeted at influencing policy formulation and implementation. It also discusses the emigration of skilled professionals and presents some gloomy statistics on the out-flow of skilled manpower from Africa to the developed North, noting that to retain these skilled professionals in Africa would depend on the guarantee of higher remuneration, improved working environments and facilities, equipment and respect for workers’ rights.

Other areas the Introduction touches include the Diaspora and its relevance for Africa’s development, policies and programmes that are required to address Africa’s migration challenges, xenophobic problems and the need for policy framework to make migration beneficial for migrants as well as the sending and receiving countries.

The Introduction, thus, puts Africa’s migration in its proper perspective and highlights the migration phenomenon from diverse angles. It is as such a snapshot of all aspects of migration in Africa and prepares the reader’s mind as to what to expect in the other chapters that follow.

The second chapter highlights migration as an important feature of the socio-cultural, economic and political lives of Africa’s people with migration, complex as it is, having multifaceted consequences for not only the migrants but most importantly, the sending and receiving countries. It examines what has so far been achieved by regional organisations notably the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU). The chapter further provides an overview of intra-regional migration in Africa, its implications for development and the role of some regional economic communities in the migration-development nexus management process.

It underscores that some progress has been made but it varies between regional communities. In spite of the progress made, there are still challenges including political mistrust among governments of member states, financial inadequacies, sincerity in the translation of regional goals into national development plans, lack of enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance among member states, etc. The chapter, however, points to the hope that democratisation is catching up with many African countries and more and more accountability is being demanded from governments in addition to a louder voice being gained by people to speak on national issues through the expanded frontiers of the media. It should be noted, however, that the success of the regional organisations in the management of migration would depend on the commitment of African governments to the tenets of the regional communities which currently is difficult to vouch for.

Chapter 3A enumerates the benefits of migration for sending countries in relieving the labour market, contributing to balance of payments, skills enhancement for returnees, establishment of small-scale enterprises, housing construction, remittances and agricultural modernisation. While this may true, conscious efforts by governments would be required to promote and sustain them. It further endorses the recruitment of Africans in the Diaspora to work with multi-lateral corporations in Africa which, according to the author, has already begun. The question though is what about the African professionals who remain on the African soil where these multi-lateral corporations operate? Does one become useful to multi-laterals only when he/she becomes part of the African Diaspora?

What is required is perhaps a strong network between Africans in the Diaspora and those at home to support Africa’s reconstruction efforts with or without the relocation of the Diaspora community. This calls for an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust between the two parties. Again, it is the case, as the author cites, that the Ghanaian Diaspora have succeeded in pressing for a law to be passed to guarantee their participation in national elections. However, it appears the author places too much weight on this initiative because the law, although has been passed, remains inactive since the timing of its operation is still undetermined. It must be acknowledged though that the passage of the law is the first step towards the recognition of the voting rights of the Ghanaian Diaspora in national elections. The positive development is that the involvement of the Ghanaian Diaspora in national politics is still very much pronounced with almost all political parties having overseas branches across the globe.

In chapter 3B, it is argued that the dependence on state capitalism after independence, primary agriculture and mining production, unfavourable terms of trade, non-expansion of the economy, underdeveloped private sector have largely accounted for emigration from African countries. Expansion of education and production of graduates from within and outside the continent have also been reported to have undermined the capacity of the local job market to absorb the unemployed. In other words, over-specialisation abroad has made many of the persons trained in the Diaspora to become economic misfits due to poor technology application at home. The result is that many of them choose to remain in destination countries outside Africa where they were trained. The chapter further points out that the era of military adventurism in national politics of African countries prior to democratisation acted as a major push factor for emigration from Africa. This was reinforced by IMF and World Bank’s Structural Adjustment programmes at a time when the continent suffered from increased education decay, deteriorating infrastructure, poor wages, retrenchment of professionals in the civil service, etc. At the same time, the collapse of the economies of some African countries, notably Nigeria and Zimbabwe that were safe havens for African emigrants is underscored to have fuelled the emigration of African professionals to Metropolitan Europe and North America. Quite clearly, the causes for the emigration of African professionals away from the continent are known. The important question, however, is how do African countries address them to reduce the costs of emigration while maximising its benefits?

In chapter 4, the role of the African Diaspora and their remittances in the context of Africa’s development are examined. The focus is whether the Diaspora and remittances do actually impact on poverty reduction in Africa. It cautions that remittances should not be seen only in monetary terms but also in other ways such as social remittances. Using the case studies of Morocco, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Somalia (described as refugee Diaspora), it notes quite correctly that the return of the Diaspora depends on the nature of the environment they are to return to, relations between the Diaspora and the nationals back home and the reliability of the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure at origin. The chapter concludes by rightly calling for the involvement of the Diaspora in policy formulation on migration and on the investment environment. The recommendation on the need for the organisation of African Migration surveys just like the demographic and health surveys is well-thought out when considered against the backdrop of the dearth of migration data on Africa for research.

Chapter 5 of the book discusses irregular migration from within Africa to South Africa and from West Africa and the Maghreb to the European Union (EU). It defines irregular migration to include crossing international borders without valid travel documents and overstaying the time period permitted by the immigrant’s entry visa. It goes on to list economic factors as well as corruption and poverty as the strong factors fuelling irregular migration in Africa. The irregular immigrants are noted to largely work in poorly paid jobs which nationals of the receiving countries do not find attractive and rewarding to engage in. They, however, become exploited and vulnerable. It appears that once there is demand for their labour in the receiving countries, irregular migrants would respond, the risks they go through notwithstanding.

The need for an institutional framework for the management of migration, data and information is discussed in chapter 6 of the book. The chapter shows that the overall objective is to formulate an effective migration policy. Meanwhile, in many African countries, development plans are yet to reflect migration factors including its dynamics. It adds that data sharing among government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), is also not a common practice in Africa. The state’s responsibility should be to promote migration and not to restrict it. It further points out areas the state has to play a coordinating role in terms of the management of migration and development, migration facilitation, regulation and forced migration. It is quite clear that regional bodies are comfortable in assigning to themselves migration regulatory rather than migration facilitating roles. This is because emigration from Africa is largely considered by the state as a brain drain instead as a development tool.

The Book further undertakes an analysis of promoting migration management through multilateral agreements between European destinations and African sending countries in chapter 7. It contains a review of the objectives of the bilateral agreements, their implementation and lessons learnt. It points out that attitudes and actions of the EU have been to initially round up irregular migrants and victims of trafficking for deportation often without consulting the origin countries and with no recourse to the human rights of the deportees. This was followed by series of policies all of which were aimed at restricting emigration into EU countries. In all these, the chapter demonstrates that sending countries in Africa have had no inputs in the formulation and implementation of these agreements especially as regards the safeguard of the rights of the immigrants. In the light of this, it calls for African Missions abroad to take up the responsibility of providing their nationals at home with accurate and reliable information on the rules relating to entry, residence and work, the rights and obligations of immigrants in the countries of destination.

The conclusion in chapter 8 sums up the key factors that have jointly fuelled the exodus of the young and old, male and female, professional and non-professional Africans to seek greener pastures outside the African continent. These are listed to include stressful economic conditions, absence of sustainable livelihood opportunities, poverty and unemployment, endemic conflicts and a perceived sense of hopelessness. It also observes that the global economic crunch that has hit the developed north which is home to the main receiving countries of African migrants, is already affecting countries in Africa, a situation that would lead to the restriction of entry for immigrants. It predicts that this would force many young Africans to choose irregular migration with all its unpleasant and at times life-threatening consequences. The resultant job cuts in the receiving countries would also affect remittance flows to Africa and many African immigrants are likely to return home or seek new destinations in the emerging economies (including China) which are having their fair share of the economic crunch, when they are unable to cope with the global economic stress. To forestall the effects of these developments, the conclusion among other things calls on African governments to evolve policies that ensure the optimum operation capacity of industrial establishments, strengthening of the private sector, promotion of good democratic governance to create the enabling environment for the smooth re-integration of African professionals abroad should they choose to return. It also calls for a more active role to be played by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in the management of intra-regional labour migration based on regional dialogues and consultations that would address the interests of migrants as well as those of sending and receiving countries.

Comments

Overall, the Book addresses very key and relevant aspects of migration with reference to the African continent. The authors and editor are very much commended for the insights they provide on African migration as a subject matter. There are, however, some few areas that could be looked at as gaps that demand to be filled through future research endeavours.

i) In the migration literature, it is quite clear that south-south migration is more dominant than south-north migration. Yet, it appears that although the authors throw light on intra-African migration by providing some statistics to show the magnitude of inter-state and regional migration, there appears to be an undue attention to migration from Africa to Europe and North America. This must have arisen due to the often stringent migration policies that exist in the countries of the north vis-à-vis others in the south. This calls for more attention to migration within Africa by way of emphasis.

ii) Youth migration is discussed particularly with respect to irregular migration. Yet, increasingly, independent child migration is becoming an important emerging aspect of migration not only in Africa but worldwide. Perhaps, a greater focus could have been given to this development as an emerging phenomenon of African migration.

iii) As the developed North continues to experience declining birth rates below replacement levels, coupled with its expanding ageing population and its accompanying labour shortages, both skilled and unskilled migrant labour would, for a long time to come, be of high demand in Europe and North America. Quite clearly, neither policies in the South nor in the North aimed at restricting migration to northern countries can succeed in the face of such a demand. Researchers need not trumpet the urgent need for migration managing policies but should address the specific issue of how to facilitate migration as an important route out of poverty by reducing its costs while maximising its benefits.

iv) Future research should re-examine the relationship between the Diaspora and nationals at the origin with a view to finding ways to eliminating the suspicion that the book has identified to exist between them to build a strong partnership for Africa’s development. While the Diaspora have the skills, knowledge, money and technology to their advantage, non-migrant nationals are more familiar with the local business environment and have built much resilience against economic shocks from both within and outside the continent.

v) Although the book primarily is on international migration and, therefore, rightly concentrated on discussing it exhaustively, it overlooks the linkage between internal and international migration. Most international migrants in Africa become first internal migrants before graduating into international migrants. Perhaps, this is an important question that the book on “International migration within, to and from Africa” has left unanswered and future researchers are hereby called upon to develop an interest in providing the relevant answers.

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