If effectively and progressively managed, increasing international migration can be harnessed as a vehicle for social and economic development rather than a source of instability and conflict, writes Malusi Gigaba.
The issue of international migration has recently gained prominence in South Africa. The 51st ANC National Conference, in December 2002, directed that the organisation should develop its own policy framework on the matter. The debate on international migration is often clouded by misinformed assumptions and stereotypes; thus many people regard international migration as negative, something to be combated.
Many countries in Europe are now turning towards conservative paradigms as they struggle to respond to migration. No country is exempt from this process. Like other countries in the world, South Africa is experiencing increased numbers of migrants, both in terms of inflows and outflows of people.
Yet international migration is as old as trade between Africa and all other land masses. It goes back many millennia. Many nation states have at one stage or another been affected by large movements of people from different points of origin. Many countries were formed and forged by migrants. In his book 'The Global Migration Crisis', Myron Weiner says that: "In short, migrants create states, and states create migrants".1 He argues that there have been five distinctive waves of migration in the modern era; firstly, the emergence of imperial powers in Europe from the seventeenth century until the end of World War One; secondly, slave trade during the same period; thirdly, the dissolution of the empires after the World War One; fourthly, the creation of newly independent states in Asia, the Middle East and Africa and the repatriation of what were considered settler communities as part of the decolonisation process; and, fifthly, labour migration during the 1950s and 1960s.
In contemporary times, migration has become more complex and takes place in more varied forms than before. Compared with the last few centuries, international migration today affects every country and person, and impacts on the economic, social, and domestic policies and international relations of more nations than at any other time. At the present rate, it is expected that it shall continue in future to become increasingly prominent in every country and region, accounting for population changes.
Every country is now either a point of origin, transit or destination for migrants; often all three at once. According to Brian Ray: "The frequency and speed with which people can move between countries and continents means that many can simultaneously maintain social, political and even economic ties in two or more societies. Transportation and communication technologies have thrown into the question the permanence of leaving a society of birth behind..."2
According to estimates, there are approximately 200 million migrants worldwide today (equal to the population of Brazil), most of whom, are concentrated in a relatively small number of advanced industrialised countries, especially Europe.3 It is estimated, according to the UN's Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM)4, that 48.6% migrants are women, 51% of whom are in developed countries.
Further, it is estimated that there are 16.3 million migrants in Africa; 35 million in the United States and 5.8 million in Australia, constituting about 18.7% of Australia's population. The Chinese diaspora is estimated at 35 million, the Indian diaspora at 20 million and the Filipino diaspora at seven million.
Migration has been caused by a myriad political, social and economic reasons. The World Economic and Social Survey 2004 says: "International migration is one of the central dimensions of globalisation. Facilitated by improved transportation and communications and stimulated by large economic and social inequalities in the world, people are increasingly moving across national borders in an effort to improve their own and their family's well being. In the past few decades, international movements of people have increased alongside, though less strongly than, the expanded international flows of goods and capital... The forces underlying these trends are unlikely to reverse so that these international movements of people will continue - and most probably increase - in the future."
Globalisation has brought about many opportunities for skilled professionals and technicians to seek jobs anywhere in the world. Companies and countries that need skilled labour recruit them anywhere in the world, offering higher salaries than locally available. Skilled people are now more ready to migrate to another country and have fewer ties that bind them to any single country.
Development, fundamental though it is, cannot be seen as a deterrent to migration precisely because those with skills and resources tend to be more mobile. Weiner argues that there is no evidence that underdevelopment will necessarily induce migration or that higher economic growth rates in many countries will, inversely, slow migration. Development can help provide the context for more effective management of migration, and may reduce irregular migration, but will not diminish international migration per se.
However, for many people in developing countries, including the poor, migration offers a way out of poverty for them and their families. This is illustrated in the rising rates of remittances being sent to the families of migrants to meet their socio-economic needs, which are triple the amount of official development assistance (ODA) received by developing countries.
These remittances were estimated to be in excess of US$150bn by 2004, representing a 50% increase in just five years.
The African experience
According to the publication World Migration 2005, there are an estimated 20 million migrant workers and family members within and outside Africa.
Further, it quotes an International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimate of 7.1 million migrants that are economically active in other African countries, some of whom migrate seasonally or permanently within their own countries. African migrants comprise approximately a fifth of the global total and it is estimated that "by 2005, one in ten Africans will live and work outside the countries of origin" and the "number of Africans living outside their country of origin has more than doubled in a generation".
Migration in Africa, although largely undocumented because of lack of capacity, follows the same general trends as globally, orchestrated by a variety of socio-economic and political factors. However, Africa has suffered a high rate of forced migration in the form of refugees and internally-displaced people.
African migration has, as globally, become increasingly feminised and in Africa, it is happening faster than at world scale, with women accounting for about 47% of migrants. World Migration 2005 says that more and more women are moving independently (not simply accompanying their husbands and family members) to meet their own economic needs and sustain families at home through remittances. This has an impact on traditional family structures and creates new challenges for public policy.
Migration in Africa has a developmental potential. Though largely undocumented, remittances are higher than the ODA. In 2002, sub-Saharan Africa received about US$4bn, about 5% of total remittances. North Africa and the Middle East together received US$14bn, with about 8% of this going to North Africa alone.
Historically, migrant labour within Africa has been high, with countries such as South Africa accounting for a number of migrant workers into its mines and farming areas. After 1994, irregular migrant labour into South Africa, especially of working class and low-skilled people from other African States, has risen sharply. This was estimated at between three and five million people by the Department of Home Affairs. However, according to a recent study done by the Centre for Development Enterprise (CDE)5, the "numbers of foreign-born people in South Africa are a matter of conjecture, debate, and controversy... There are widely varying and often highly speculative estimates of the numbers of documented and undocumented immigrants in South Africa". The CDE argues that there are far fewer immigrants in South Africa than we think.
However, labour migration is more complex than migrant labour in apartheid South Africa, which has major implications for development objectives in Africa as a whole.
There are now massive, targeted and aggressive programmes (mainly in developed countries) to recruit skilled foreign nationals, especially from developing countries, in a manner that has proven itself detrimental to these countries' development needs. Rotimi Sankore argues that "Africa is currently haemorrhaging its best brains at an alarming rate" and that the 'brain drain', "has now become a flood that threatens to cause the intellectual desertification of the continent".6 He further argues that Africa had better beware because her highly-trained and skilled human resources are being taken away faster than she can replenish them.
According to Nandi Herbert, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that since 2000, Africa has been losing an estimated 20,000 professionals annually, and another UN report estimates that there are 21,000 Nigerian doctors practicing in the US alone.7 World Migration 2005 quotes the British Medical Journal estimate that about 23,000 health-care professionals emigrate annually from Africa.
What Africa loses through this process has a direct and heavy bearing on the future development prospects of the continent and will, unless it is managed better and differently, perpetuate the socio-economic disparities between the developed and developing countries.
Cote d'Ivoire is a country that historically, and even to this day, attracts the highest number of migrants from other African countries to work in its cocoa and coffee plantations. By 1996, there were four million foreign nationals in Cote d'Ivoire, compared to 1.5 million in 1975 and three million in 1988. However, several countries, including Cote d'Ivoire, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Libya and others attract more migrants, serving as countries of destination, origin and transit at the same time.
Chidi Odinkalu, a Nigerian international human rights lawyer and specialist on African law and integration, says that "the absence of free movement of persons between Africa's sub-regions is a key factor forcing Africans to look outwards. Africans from some countries have to wait for over a month for a mere visitor's visa to other parts of Africa... In practice many are even completely excluded". Many African states seem not interested in African migrants. Even when they are accepted, because of lack of capacity in many African countries to manage international migration, there is lack of local integration for migrants and there is insufficient data and structures to deal with this urgent challenge.
Refugees
According to the Global Commission on Migration (GCIM), there were 9.2 million refugees by 2005, 75% of whom were in developing countries. War, conflict, human rights violations and political repression were the main causes of asylum in Africa, even though there were growing proportions of economic refugees. In South Africa, although official figures are still being developed, it is estimated that there are just over 100,000 refugees and asylum seekers. However, in recent years, the number of refugees and asylum seekers has begun to decline, both in Africa and in the world, owing to efforts to end conflicts, establish sustainable peace and democracy.
The end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 saw a rise in the numbers of people who sought refuge in the country. However, despite the assumption that South Africa is swamped by refugees and asylum seekers is incorrect.
The challenge facing refugees and asylum-seekers is to guarantee their safety and security while travelling and, once in the host country, to advance their human rights, welfare and other socio-economic rights. Many face the problem of xenophobia, intolerance and discrimination, especially where they are not locally integrated.
Whereas they have a positive social, cultural and economic contribution to the host countries, this is often not recognised and utilised to enhance both the local communities and economies and themselves through properly harnessing their skills, knowledge, expertise and experiences. Refugees enhance the humanity, deepen the solidarity and bolster the friendliness and tolerance of the host people.
It is increasingly acknowledged that humanitarian assistance must go together with development assistance to ensure that when peace and democracy are achieved, and the refugees return home to re-build their lives, economic growth and development will sustain the peace and democracy.
The end of the wars in Mozambique, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) saw South Africa, working together with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the governments of respective countries, assisting the nationals of these countries to return home.
Due to the problems of huge backlogs in the processing of applications for asylum in South Africa, leaving many asylum seekers without status, identification, rights and thus vulnerable, the Department of Home Affairs has launched the Refugee Backlog Project aimed at dealing with the backlog of cases of over tens of thousands of asylum seekers whose status has not yet been determined.
As a result of rising security concerns among many developed countries, especially after the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, laws, regulations and border control measures for the admission of refugees have been made more stringent. Many developed countries have sought to devise various schemes to shift the responsibility for offering refuge to asylum seekers to developing countries.
This has made the situation of refugees even more precarious and undermines international conventions, making the need for constructive and progressive international dialogue and strategic partnerships at multilateral and bilateral on this matter very urgent.
Irregular migration
The 2005 GCIM Report has made a strong argument that the concept of illegal migration be revisited and that we should rather refer to irregular or undocumented migration. Illegal migration could impact negatively on the people involved as they may be ill-treated. Migration, whether legal or illegal, involves people and, as such, there are human rights issues involved.
It is estimated that there are over 10 million irregular migrants in the US alone. When regular doors close, largely for poor and working class would-be migrants, irregular migration options are explored. Regular migration is now more difficult for most people from developing counties.
Irregular migration is inextricably linked to human security and human rights. It is difficult to quantify the numbers of irregular migrants because it is often undocumented, clandestine and can involve human trafficking and human smuggling. Human trafficking is a growing clandestine business phenomenon, involving many organised syndicates from every region of the world. Its profits are estimated at US$10bn.
There are many negative consequences associated with irregular migration, including:
Impact of international migration
International migration, like globalisation, has had an uneven impact both within and between nation-states. It has thus far benefited the developed countries far more than developing countries, and has reinforced the class and gender dimensions of this phenomenon.
International migration tends to favour the top echelons of society, those with high levels of skills and investment capital. They move easily, with better information and through safe modes of transport. They obtain genuine travel documents and permits to enter any country and are easily integrated into their new society. The same is not true for working class migrants.
They have no security, live at risk and may be repatriated any time. They are presumed to be parasitic, and confront negative attitudes and stereotypes and face the spectre of xenophobia.
There is growing recognition and appreciation of the relationship between international migration and development. However, the developmental potential of international migration has both been largely neglected and skewed in favour of developed countries. Many developing countries lack the capacity to forge this linkage between migration and development.
The globalising labour market attracts the most skilled people from developing countries. Labour migration benefits largely the migrating individuals and the receiving countries, but not the countries they leave behind.
However, several other phenomena have come into the picture, making international migration more dynamic, complex and vibrant. These include temporary migration, return migration, remittances and shared responsibility between gaining and loosing countries.
What gives rise to this is the fact that Europe faces a unique challenge of high levels of development, on the one hand, and declining and ageing populations on the other. Developing countries have young and growing populations. Temporary migration (for 5 to 10 years) has thus become an important way in many countries to develop human, social and financial capital. This is achieved through bilateral agreements between various countries and companies to take graduates and other people on temporary migration schemes.
Many countries no longer prefer permanent migration, and because of accessible means of transport, migrants no longer have to cut ties completely with their countries of origin. Countries such as Chile, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Iran, Cuba and others export hundreds of thousands of their skilled and specialised workers to Europe, US and the Middle.
Some temporary migrants receive better skills in their destination countries than they would otherwise have acquired had they stayed at home. Indian and Taiwanese returnees from Silicon Valley in the US became the driving force for the growth of the software and the service export industries in these countries. In several East African countries, returnees have contributed to the growth of small enterprises and the overall development of local communities. It is estimated that over 60% of all overseas investments in China is from Chinese living abroad, who invest both money and expertise in economic development and social progress.
There are many developed countries that are today open to the idea of skilled temporary migrant workers. Increasingly, these programmes are consciously backed by home governments who negotiate with overseas companies and other governments on behalf of their nationals, and thus ensure that they maintain permanent contact with them to ensure that, even while abroad, they nonetheless consciously invest in the country. Many governments thus devise incentives and inducements to encourage these people to return voluntarily as they may have been exposed to more enticing opportunities abroad.
Few countries would understand the political and socio-economic impact of international migration as well as South Africa given the heavy influence it has had on the national question in our country. Even today, migration continues to re-define the national question in this and other countries.
Migration brings about greater diversity and, accordingly, South Africa's diversity will itself continue to expand.
Brian Ray says: "Unlike earlier eras, migrants today come from every region of the world and represent an incredible array of linguistic and cultural heritages. Moreover, the places that receive them... quickly become kaleidoscopes of cultures, identities, and histories. These cities are the bedrock of integration".
Nation-building shall continue to be a permanent feature of South African and other societies, involving the integration of increasing numbers of immigrants, vital for growth, stability and cohesion.
Immigration has already become a major election issue in Europe. Parties of the far-right are exploiting it to win support in societies already facing socio-economic pressures of their own. Sarah Spencer of the Centre for Migration, Policy and Society at Oxford University says: "Public resentment of migrants and fear of difference leads to discrimination, community tensions, and occasional violence. In addition, it has contributed to the rise in support for far-right political parties, which successfully exploit people's fears and resentment".8
Often migrants are seen as a problem, and are accused of bringing crime, stealing jobs and undermining the basic conditions of employment. Yet, corruption and crime do not come with immigrants into any country. In the case of South Africa, both the Correctional Services statistics on the inmate population, as well as a CDE report on immigration in Witbank suggest that there are actually very few immigrants involved in crime.
Criminals have no borders and, as such, fighting crime requires cross-border solutions and cooperation between countries. Police services need to establish strong, and not corruption-based, relations with immigrant communities to assist to root out criminal elements among them. Immigrants also have the obligation willingly to offer such cooperation with the police, bearing in mind that criminals jeopardise their very welfare and security.9
Intolerance for crime and corruption must be indiscriminate; they must be combated with the same passion whether committed by locals, or legal or illegal immigrants.
From control to management
According to the CDE: "Immigration issues are hard to tackle because they spread across many areas of public policy, and affect many sensitive interests", and, accordingly, the study concludes: "Managing migration effectively, humanely and, above all, in the national interest is a public policy challenge facing many countries in both the developed and developing worlds."
Such public policy must be progressive in approach and,
The CDE says: "In South Africa, two factors help to complicate the issues and make credible, sustainable policies of migration management more difficult to achieve. The first is the widespread belief that South Africa is being swamped by (mostly illegal) immigrants largely from neighbouring states. It is extremely difficult to accurately estimate the number of foreigners in the country. As a result, the lack of authoritative figures gives currency to wildly improbable popular perceptions of the scope of immigration."
Government must take the lead to initiate public debate to raise awareness among the population, mobilise public engagement and participation, and raise important issues such as the role of immigrants in our national life, labour market and political institutions and systems.
Communities will have to contend with large influxes of immigrants in local schools, workplaces, social services and others. This will require that government establishes coherent and efficient data on immigration and refugee situations in the country and region, better and more efficiently to manage migration in a manner that involves all South Africans. This data must be shared with the public, as well as with other Southern African Development Community (SADC) states.
To manage immigration also means that the interests, needs and contribution of immigrants will be acknowledged, while acknowledging those of the majority of the population. This means that all must accept the responsibility and the outcomes of the integration process. According to Rinus Penninx: "The moment immigrants settle in a country, they have to acquire a place in that new society. This is true not only for physical needs such as housing, but also in the social and cultural sense".10 Government must not try and cannot hope to act alone in managing migration.
The private sector, labour unions and non-governmental organisations need to act together with the state in consultative multi-stakeholder forums to manage the tensions that may and would probably arise; to harness the largest possible array of social forces to manage what is inevitable and unstoppable. These forums should facilitate public debate and dialogue on international migration, including between locals and immigrants, and address the issues of national policy, coordinated implementation and capacity building.
These multi-stakeholder forums must be replicated at municipal level to ensure that they too focus on what is in all the major cities of the world an urgent and rising challenge.
These forums must be proactive and responsive; and ensure that there is effective data collection, policy analysis, research and evaluation and monitoring. Such forums would ensure that the management of migration is a shared responsibility.
Beyond national initiatives, there must be inter-state cooperation at bilateral, regional, inter-regional and global level, especially between developing and developed countries. This will ensure shared responsibility and shared benefits, especially between sending and receiving countries and countries of transit. The SADC Free Movement Protocol and many other initiatives, such as the dialogue between developed and developing countries, attempt to accomplish exactly this.
Responsibility and burden sharing must also ensure that developed and more capable developing countries support the countries that lack capacity through the provision of technical and financial resources, sharing of information, knowledge and expertise and training.
We need to develop an integrated and comprehensive border control strategy and strengthen the Border Control Coordinating Committee, a multi-stakeholder structure, to enhance coordination and cooperation. There must not be exaggerated expectations of what could be achieved through "effective border control". It must attempt to balance national security control and economic, day-to-day migration of ordinary people. Border control does not mean the same thing as immigration control.
The pursuit of peace and stability, development and democracy on the continent is vital to address the root causes of migration and forced displacement, to diminish the push factors and strive to level the pull factors. This alone will not diminish migration, but it will assist to diminish, to a great degree, irregular, undocumented and illegal migration.
As the levels of peace, stability, democracy and development rise, so will border control and human movement also ease, towards a full free movement of persons, as has been achieved with regard to goods and capital. The African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), democratisation efforts and African Peer Review Mechanism are vital to ensure that there can be better and more effective management of migration between countries with relatively common standards and levels of political democracy and economic development. International migration must be incorporated into national, regional and global economic growth and development strategies in both developing and developed countries.
It would be crucial for Africa to find ways to ensure that Africans abroad and African diaspora organisations support and galvanise support for the African Union and NEPAD, and invest in their own continent and countries. An environment conducive to this must be created to ensure a transfer of resources, information, skills, information and knowledge; as well to mobilise these African ÄmigrÄs to support African political and foreign policy objectives.
International migration is related to globalisation and cannot be stopped.
It will continue to expand and heighten, causing tensions and headaches in public policy and in the political, social, cultural and economic spheres.
The challenge has to do with managing large inflows of working class and poor migrants.
A greater challenge, however, is to ensure that everyone awakens to the developmental potential of international migration and hence to ensure that all countries integrate it into their national development strategies and social and foreign policies. It is inevitable that immigrants will impact on social services such as education, social grants, health and others and this must be factored into policy and planning.
Countries must forge partnerships and relations across borders, regions and continents. The principles of responsibility and burden sharing must eventually be accepted and more capable countries must assist the less capable to develop the capacity more comprehensively to manage inflows and outflows. Most importantly, developed countries must assist the developing countries deal with the burden of poverty and underdevelopment so that they reduce the push factors that induce emigration. This will mean that issues of trade and development must once more be elevated to high priority.
* Malusi Gigaba is a member of the ANC National Executive Committee and Deputy Minister of Home Affairs.
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