Written by ‘Sola Fagorusi, with additional report by Gcobani Qambela, South Africa, Jacob Opara SK, Germany; and Maurice Ongala, Kenya
“… when you are young … you … can … move around relatively free. I do not have children, I am not married and I do not have much responsibility …” – Nompumelelo, 28.
“There is so much happening in Zimbabwe right now that the economy cannot accommodate me with my qualifications beyond being a teacher, so I do not think I am going to go back anytime soon. But I also wouldn’t mind travelling beyond South Africa and practicing law in England as I have family there,” Precious retorts optimistically.
Precious, 25 and an Attorney at law works in South Africa migrated from Zimbabwe for admission purpose as she did not have enough credit to get into the University of Zimbabwe. The xenophobic danger nevertheless, she has been in South Africa for seven years. She’s lucky to have a grasp of the Zulu language and a fair complexion that ‘hides’ her Zimbabwean heritage and spares her the raging xenophobic headaches.
Xenophobia also still exists in Kenya but it mostly affects persons from Arabian and Asian countries most of whom are usually tagged terrorists or suspects due to previous terrorist attacks on Kenya. The 1998 United States embassy bombing, the 2002 Kikambala Hotel bombings are responsible for this wrong stereotype of all Arabs.
Biology classes are usually the first mention of migration for young people. It is usually about seasonal migration of birds. It was then a puzzle as to how these birds would travel several miles in search of comfort and return again in search of comfort. It however comes at a cost – predation and mortality. But there seems to be people who love the life more and these are the ones the dictionary calls migrants. In many instances, they leave homes and families. They leaves friends and known foes. They embrace a new culture while ditching one they have known for years. They abandon the streets and alleys they have known only to become accustomed of the new one. It is not uncommon that they meet the cold gaze of the stranger who silently questions their identity.
But one thing is known and obvious – their reason for migrating. It’s about survival. It’s about livelihood. It’s about planting their feet on the greener patch of grass they have longed heard about and seen. It’s about wanting the beautiful things life has to offer in exchange for cash and sometimes willingness to do the odds.
About 60 Kilometres from Nairobi, Kenya is a small and fast growing terminus of Maai Maihu. This is where Oliver Simiyu, a clinical officer who works with a local NGO and is in his late 20s resides. He offers bio-medical services to Long Distance Drivers, LDDs and Commercial Sex Workers, CSWs who are part of the Most at Risk Population, MARPs in his work with a local NGO.
He perceives youth migration as the movement of young people from point A to point B within or without their countries for various reasons. He thinks young people crave to move to the western societies because “people think these countries are small heavens here on earth. As youths in my home county, for example, we grew up admiring the flashy lifestyle lived by American celebrities of our time and the attractive socio-economic amenities that the country offered all who lived there.
“Little did we know that this was just media display and that despite the show, this country equally had its low ends, perhaps lower than even Kenya at that time.”
Asked if he will consider migrating to the west, Oliver unlike most young people does not. “I don’t want to develop another country at the expense of my own. I am now a trained clinician and I want to use my skills and expertise to serve my country … I also have a lot of other engagements back in my rural village including farming and taking care of my loved ones.
“Besides, I have a stable job and I believe if I were to desire better opportunities, they are right here in Kenya especially now that we have a brand new constitution that defends the plight of the youth. I don’t want to come back home someday to start everything afresh.”
Oliver however still sees the gain in migration especially given the knowledge transfer that comes with it. His example of Kenyan youths learning to assemble and repair vehicles and phones in Japan and China hints at the brain gain that happens when these Kenyan youths return home. He however also sees the other side – “… youth migration has encouraged brain drain where professionals like me are paid heavily by foreign governments so that they may serve such foreign countries, they end up benefiting countries other than their own whilst their folks are languishing in gross under-development. Youth migration has also encouraged crimes such as smuggling of illegal goods in and out of the country….”
South Africa also battles the ravaging issues of unemployment which has become a major reason for youth migration. Nompumelelo, 28, a Zimbabwean PhD student at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa laments, ‘it was not until I completed my Masters degree at the University of Cape Town in 2011 that I realised how difficult it was to get a job in this country. When I was still studying full time I thought I was guaranteed a job, but the only jobs that I could find post-graduation were internships which did not pay much. I have student debts to pay and a family to support, so I encourage youth migration if it offers better options.’
Nompumelelo who one day dreams to migrate to Canada premises such thought on the knowledge that her friend who is in Canada loves her job there and here country. The PhD student is however intentionally oblivious of others who have left South Africa for Canada and are trapped in a sad world.
Hollywood is a huge trigger for migration. Fast paced and with a main objective to share the American dreams with the rest of the world, it has fed people especially those in underdeveloped nations with images of how ‘good’ live can be. The slums are left out; the roads with bad portions are spared a shot on camera. The America where food is surplus and living is a luxury is what Vuyiswa sees.
Vuyiswa, 23 lives in the rural South African town of Peddie. He says that he has never been beyond the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa, but would move and migrate elsewhere if he found a job. “I really would like to move elsewhere, especially America,” he dreams. He says he grew up watching American movies and would like to experience life there. Vuyiswa is not alone. In Nigeria, thousands of young people throng to churches and other religious centres with a major prayer point – let my American Visa application be successful.
In January this year, YouthHub Africa Correspondent, Jacob Opara SK won a Fellowship and scholarship program to Germany. The Fellowship Program at The DO School (formally D&F Academy) is on Social Entrepreneurship and Youth Capacity Building; a matter that largely revolves around youth migration. It has since conferred a migrant status on him. According to Jacob, “there continues to be an influx of Kenyan youth going to the West and the European Union in the hope for greener pastures to be able to transform their own lives, and for the community-minded ones, those of their communities and country at large. It is a matter that can be argued on both sides depending on who you ask.”
Ummi Bukar, a female Nigerian youth who works with a Nigerian based non-profit, Media Information and Narrative Development, MIND throws the gender angle to migration asserting that “it is never as easy for a woman to make a decision regarding migration but again there are people whose major life ambition is to travel out of the country to a western society. There are now women who are less connected with the family unlike the traditional African system we use to know. They simply prefer to go out there, get married to a white person possibly and start a new family there.
Gentrix Kundu, a Public Relations degree graduate in Nairobi and Rophus Mwambire a certificate computer certificate holder in Kilifi, also shared thoughts on youth migration.
According to Gentrix, “the number of youth immigrants to the West is on the increase and this is occasioned by opportunities that these nations dangle in the eyes of ambitious youths seeking to make something out of their lives. Gentrix blames the lack of resources, opportunities, and capacity from Kenyan policy makers for the Kenyan youths especially considering the increasing international academic scholarships. Inasmuch as there is an authentic rational behind the argument for increasing immigration to the West from Kenya, Gentrix considers it a threat to national development. She asserts that “when youths go abroad for studies, not all of them come back to Kenya to practice but rather choose to work and stay abroad and in a sense this rids the country of the top brains that would rather have brought the much needed change.”
Rophus reflects that national development is the greatest casualty to this growing influx and he fears that when these youths go to the West for education and greater opportunities, they don’t come back. He foresees that “in the near future, Kenya will be forced to import the very skills that went abroad in its infant stages and in the process end up even spending more on what was originally theirs”.
Javan Okello, a young Public Health graduate from Kenyatta University, Kenya thinks migration is about the search for resources and stability. Like Oliver, he asserts that he would not leave for the West except to purse degrees and even at that he would return home. Currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Nairobi and planning to start a family soon, he isn’t disposed to quitting these plans for a migrant status.
“I have already initiated a number of investment plans that I want to implement to their fruition both in my rural home and in the city. Through these, my ultimate goal is to participate in national development. Before I forget, our new Constitution gives young people like me equal chances as other citizens to participate in all national processes and to me this is a golden opportunity to harness. These are reasons I am deeply engrossed into Kenya”, Oliver passionately elucidates.
Javan thinks migration dilutes cultural practices and values. “When people come back to Kenya, they speak differently, dress and act ‘strangely’. Very few seem to recognize the rich African culture from which they originated and often times trash it”, he reasoned. He however agrees that migration encourages technology transfer and “it has also expanded business networks thereby enhancing the local economies in a symbiotic relationship.”
Chiedu Ifekandu, 31, a Masters in Development Communication student at the Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria is concerned about the health challenges associated with migration. According to him, “… About 60-65% of illegal migrants go into sex trade. They are pressured into having sex in exchange for their travel fees or accommodation expenses. And since they are forced into this act, they cannot negotiate safer sex and as such stand the risk of having Sexually Transmitted Infections, STIs.
“Some of them are also pressured into using drugs to keep up with the sexual demands they have to meet. Even when they are sick, they also have to resort to self-medication given their migrant status”
Legal migration also has its own challenges. “The health insurance policies are of concern here. Most western nations prohibit sales of drugs over the counter without a doctor’s prescription, unlike in Nigeria where you just walk into a pharmacy to purchase any drug. The culture shock that this knowledge brings may leave a migrant stranded on health basis and self medication may not apply”, Chiedu explains.
The African Youth Charter recognizes people between the age of 15 and 35 as young people or youth. They are the world’s famous migrants. The energy that comes with being young is huge. There are dreams, there are aspirations and there are hopes for a better tomorrow. With global economic recession, there would possibly be substantial migration back to Africa especially as economic empowerment opportunities and employment gets thin in most western nations. Given that migration is majorly induced by the low standard of living in the migrant countries, African nations owe it to their youth population to provide a country where education quality is high, health care service is in tandem with best practice and other indices of development afford young people a modest shot at living with their own consent and participation.
Retrospectively, Jacob continues to ask, “could it just be that our we have allowed the song of unemployment and ‘lack of opportunities’ to derail our appreciation of what we have already such that it is the need for the policy to invest in our talents and capacities to influence our own environment which is the call for last resort?”
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