Millions of Africans going to Europe is a myth – UNCTAD official

By

James Karuhanga

Claudia Roethlisberger, Economic Affairs Officer with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Courtesy.

Claudia Roethlisberger, Economic Affairs Officer with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was in Kigali last week to launch the UN body’s 2018 Economic Development in Africa Report which argues, among others, that well-managed migration provides an important means for helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, in Africa and beyond. Roethlisberger, who co-authored the report talked to Sunday Times’ James Karuhanga about how African migration can actually play a key role in the structural transformation of the continent’s economies, and also shed light on key myths about migration.

 

Excerpts:

The first myth you dispel is that Africans are leaving the continent in their millions and going to Europe. Please shed more light.

Yes, there is a myth that millions of Africans are leaving the continent to go to Europe. The fact is; international migration in Africa is primarily intra-continental.
As of 2017, there were 41 million people counted as international migrants from, to or within Africa. This includes 19 million that resided in Africa, 17 million that were resident outside Africa and 5.5 million that were immigrants from the rest of the world to Africa.
So, more than a half of the migrants, or about three quarters of international African migrants, remain or move within their own regions with the exception of Southern and Northern Africa. And most likely, this number is underestimated because of the migrants that are not captured in the data.
What about the idea that migration causes unemployment in destination countries?
That is another myth that migration contributes to unemployment in destination countries. However, we found that the socio-economic indicators in destination countries actually did not worsen. What we know as a fact is that intra-African migration is a catalyst for economic growth, through the income and revenue it generates and the taxes that migrants pay. We actually found that migrants contribute to increased GDP per capita from about $2,000 in 2016 to about [projections] $3,250 in 2030 and this is an important increase, thanks to migration.
How about the myth that immigrants bring wages down?
That’s another often cited concern. But in our analysis, we found that the overall impact is actually insignificant. It is true that for low-skilled sectors, migration contributes to pressure on wages but not for semi-skilled and highly-skilled sectors. The fact is that migrants boost economic transformation in destination countries on the continent. And that sets the conditions that wages, in the long-term, can actually increase.
I think that we can’t ignore. Can we really afford to ignore that portion that you say has insignificant impact, however small it might be?
You are right. Insignificant does not mean that it is not important. Migration in Africa is often associated with low-skill migration but again, that is not true. Semi-skilled and highly-skilled migration is important because it contributes to the economic development of destination countries and allows generating resources for sending countries.
Another myth is that migration is detrimental to sending countries. The fact is that migration boosts much needed transfers to sending countries. In 2016, remittances accounted for 51 percent of private capital flows to Africa, up from 42 percent in 2010. Remittance inflows to Africa rose to $64.9 billion between 2014 and 2016,up from $38.4 billion from 2005 to 2007.
Despite the positives of remittances I know there are concerns about brain drain and the outflow of workers in sending countries or countries of origin but what we want to show is that the picture is actually more diverse. There are challenges but there are also opportunities.
What challenges exactly?
One challenge is the outflow of labour. It is a reality. We found that the African migrant, on average, is the youngest in the world. So, there is an outflow of a lot of young African men and women and that, clearly, is a challenge. But they are very productive in the destination countries and are very generous in their communities back home as they are sending remittances but also there is knowledge transfer that is stimulating education at home.
Does the recent case of a young Malian man, Gassama, in France who rescued a child fit in the scenario you’ve just painted? What do you make of his story?
I think this example also helps to sensitize the public of the human face of migration. We are talking about human beings. I am sure this gentleman just saw another human being up there and wanted to save the baby’s life. And I guess it helps to foster the human and positive attitude also towards migrants.
So, is it really a myth that immigrants put pressure on public spending?
Yes, it is. And the fact is that migration actually boosts trade and stimulates the economy in destination and in sending countries.
After your research findings, what policy recommendations do you offer policy makers?
One key area we see is to make migration policies more gender sensitive. A lot of migration policies are based on an assumption that a migrant is a man. But what we have seen is that half of the migrants are actually women and they face different constraints and that has to be better reflected so that their journeys become safer and they also can contribute more fully to development.
Women migrants have riskier journeys, are more vulnerable to exploitation and assaults, face greater labour market discrimination, are more likely to work in informal sector (domestic services and informal cross border trade) and have greater family and care responsibilities at home.
What else can be done?
The next is to ease migrants’ mobility. Very often, migration frameworks have provisions for the highly-skilled. But not for semi or low-skilled. It is important to ease migration mobility and this also has much to do with recognition of qualifications by one state to the other.
Then, align migration, trade and investment policy. We have heard that the labour migration framework of Rwanda supported Kenyan business or investments in banking, construction, education, ICT, insurance, retail sectors, in Rwanda. They generated job opportunities for more than 250,000 Rwandans and more than 2,000 Kenyans by 2014. That is an important number but this is alignment within migration policies and investment policies.
It is also about a better or enabling environment for leveraging remittances and harnessing the Diaspora through reducing the cost of money transfer in Africa where it is still above average, and for instance, establish Diaspora bonds or enable the Diaspora to open a bank account in foreign currencies in their home country.
And it is also about improving the flow of information on the labour market opportunities. For many migrants it is challenging to know where to go. It is not clear which exact opportunities they can pursue unless they go to a recruitment agency. It is also about improving the integration of migrants in the labour markets. I think morocco has an interesting example on that front.
How have they done it?
Morocco has a lot of immigrants. So, it aligned immigration policies to actually ease mobility into morocco. They want to provide better access to vocational training but they are also engaging the civil society in assessing qualifications and skills of emigrants to facilitate a process of labour integration. The pool of great ideas is actually enlarging.
Any other priority policy areas?
We also wish to highlight that you need to allocate resources to address structural determinants of economic development in home countries. Migration should be a choice. The main driver of migration in Africa is economic motivation; looking for better investment and trade opportunities. If you have better opportunities at home, you can choose. And that is why it is important to invest in socio-economic development in home countries; rural development, infrastructure, better access to electricity and so on.
What is your take then, given all this?
That migration is an important opportunity for Africa and the rest of the world. That is, I think, the key message of the report.
Do you think this is something that African policy makers did not know before your research was done?
I think the migration discourse is very much in connection with negative and sad stories, and that it’s often forgotten that migration can be a source of prosperity and has offered millions of people the chance for a better life. With this report, we want to make a contribution to this thinking; that it becomes more balanced. There are challenges of course. And these challenges need to be addressed, but migration offers many opportunities. And if policy frameworks tackle issues the potential of migration can be better harnessed in both destination and sending countries and in Africa and outside.
Are you then telling Europe, the Americas, and others to open their doors for African migrants?
What we want to contribute to is that in the negotiations that are currently going on for the global compact on migration; we want to support the African Union’s position for a stronger development pillar in this compact. At the moment, there is a very strong emphasis on security and humanitarian issues, which are important, but there isn’t a strong development pillar.
But doesn’t development actually encompass security and all those other variables?
Exactly! But the migration discourse should not be only focused on security matters as we often see in the media.
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