African Migrants Play Key Role in Development Cooperation

More news stories on Europe

Faith Thomas, Deutsche Welle, September 3, 2009

Migration is a significant factor in European population statistics, especially in Germany, which hosts the third-highest percentage of international migrants worldwide. One out of four German citizens in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia alone have a migrant background, and 30 percent of them are children. From the 1980s to the present day, Germany has experienced an influx of large numbers of immigrants from African nations and that trend is increasing as more and more people migrate to the West largely due to economic hardships in their home countries.

Initially, historical precedents determined where Africans migrated to—usually the nation’s former colonial power, for instance the large influx of Nigerians into Britain. However, since the 1980s the determining factor in African migration has evolved, as Africans migrate to countries with which they share no historical or linguistic link. In fact, African migration is no longer necessarily cross-continental, as statistics show that over 30 percent of Africans immigrate to European nations while over 65 percent immigrate to another African nation that is politically more stable and industrialized.

Viewpoints on African migration have evolved over the decades from being seen as an issue of national security and concern to a phenomenon of great potential. African diasporas in Europe are increasingly recognized now as central in the area of development cooperation.

Circular migration—a mutually beneficial solution

European migrants with an African background have always played a role in African development cooperation albeit unintentionally through remittances of skilled and well-paid professionals who frequently send money to their home countries to aid their families and communities. In addition, they often invest in their home countries and set up businesses which have then contributed economically to the area.

“The migrants have helped the Millennium Development Goals,” said Leila Rispens-Noel, of the International Alternative Financial Institutions (INAFI), “more than any government I can think of.”

Policy-makers and experts agree that migrants with an African background have a larger role to play in development cooperation in Africa. In this context the concept of circular migration is considered the key to promoting development and is mutually beneficial to African and European nations.

Circular migration encompasses the full circle of migration: migrants would be able to come into host countries, go home, and then come back again with few restrictions. It would alleviate the shortage of labor in EU member nations, cut down on illegal immigration and allow the countries of origin to benefit from the positive impacts of emigration.

Circular migration would thus foster development and address the problems in African nations which contribute to emigration in the first place.

“People wouldn’t move so much in the first place if the factors making them move to other nations would be fixed,” Mariama Awumbila, the head of the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana, told Deutsche Welle.

Enabling factors for circular migration

The director of AfricaRecruit, Titilola Banjoko, told Deutsche Welle that, “full integration into the society is compulsory so migrants can feel secure and productive and be willing to give back to their home countries. Circular migration is possible only with migrants having secure papers and full integration into the society.”

Europe’s migrants of African background would be willing to go to their home countries for a while and work there; lending their expertise in various professions to the economy, if doing so would not jeopardize their chances to return.

“I for instance have a brother who would have been willing to return home for some time and contribute to the economy but he couldn’t because he didn’t have all the secure papers. If he’d done so, he couldn’t have returned due to his insecure papers,” said Banjoko.

“The re-organization of visa systems,” said Armin Laschet, the minister for intergenerational affairs in North-Rhine Westphalia, “would make circular migration work better. People wouldn’t have to emigrate definitely, they could go back and forth and therefore choose to work in their home countries for a while aiding development cooperation.”

The creation of an enabling environment in the migrants’ home countries is also central to making circular migration work.

“Costs for developing businesses in the diasporas home countries should be made reasonable. Hometown Associations should make efforts to mobilize diasporas for development, including those who have immigrated to other African countries,” said Mariama Awumbila.

Circular migration may be the triple win concept that ensures gain for the host countries, home countries and the migrants themselves. Nevertheless modified visa policies that are conducive for all the various nations involved are crucial to its success.

“Policy for migration is very context-specific. It’s not one size fits all. The visa policy must be suitable for every country involved,” said Awumbila.

Unanswered questions and underdeveloped theory

“The boom in debates on circular migration is because many countries are aware they need a comprehensive migration policy. A 2007 survey conducted by the UN to monitor migration policies revealed 13 percent of industrialized nations wanted to raise their number of temporary immigrants and 44 percent of them planned to increase high-skilled migration. Some countries are starting to revise visa policies because of the growing demand for skilled migrants,” Dr. Steffen Angenendt, an analyst for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs told Deutsche Welle.

The most important issue on the table in circular migration is whether it would work with both high-skilled and low-skilled migrants.

“If you want to attract high-skilled migrants it makes no sense to do a temporary stay because companies and organizations they work for in Europe may want to keep them and offer permanent residency. High-skilled migrants have the lowest migration barriers anyway. Thus it makes no sense to introduce circular migration to them. And it’s difficult to predict demand for low-skilled workers and public political support for circular migration programs would be hard to get hold of unless you can identify that demand,” said Dr. Angenendt.

Circular migration has made it on to the political agenda but experts say the factors involved need further fine-tuning to ensure its tenability and success.

“If these things are thought out properly, circular migration could be a very good triple win policy that could really bolster African development. On-the-job training, earning money in higher currency, getting new ideas through being in a new environment always mean progress. The precondition is it must be implemented in a way that is non-discriminatory and mutually beneficial,” said Dr. Angenendt.

Original article

(Posted on October 6, 2009)

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Comments

1 — A Swain wrote at 7:19 PM on October 6:

Behold the open racism at work here.

European migrants of African origin only are sought.

Displays of nonwhite double-standards are becoming more and more blatant and hate-filled by the day simply because they’re being let get away with it.

2 — BK wrote at 11:18 PM on October 6:

“Circular migration encompasses the full circle of migration: migrants would be able to come into host countries, go home, and then come back again with few restrictions. It would alleviate the shortage of labor in EU member nations, cut down on illegal immigration and allow the countries of origin to benefit from the positive impacts of emigration.”

The lack of human biodiversity awareness displayed here is breathtaking. Don’t they realise that the low skill labor isn’t sustainable as technology progresses? Do they really have no knowledge of the higher crime rates, and lower academic achievement these groups have? They will end up being overrepresented in the criminal underclass. There are plenty of examples.

What will it take for them to wake up?

3 — BK wrote at 11:33 PM on October 6:

At the end of the article you can email Deutsche Welle about whether the scheme will help African globalisation or simply assist Europe.

I would urge people to email them to explain that it will most certainly not assist Europe. How blind are these people?

4 — D. Andrews wrote at 2:03 AM on October 7:

this one-way migration from africa into a highly developed white - or formally white - country like germany will spell its demise just as sure as the sun sets in the west.
years ago when this first began i.e. african migration into europe, i used to wonder what manner of lunacy or strange drug would cause europeans to commit such a sure-fatal error as allow black africans into their lilly-white, low crime countries.
now i still don’t know for certain, but i’m sure plenty of it is the result of some sort of white guilt and liberalism on the host country’s part. similar to the liberlism of those whites in this country who promote open borders with mexico and back ”amnesty” for illegals. they are under the strange delusion that mexican migration is good for our economy. this type of warped thinking is always accompanied by a disregard for the long term ramifications of unbridled illegal immigration and the price that future generations will have to pay for whatever short-term gain that may be appreciated.

5 — A Swain wrote at 6:55 AM on October 7:

When we compare the inherent nationalistic group trait of Africans and Europeans, the difference is alarming.

The lesson is thus blindingly clear as follows:

White European nations should each be setting about getting rid of their own self-serving and self-loathing white Marxist Liberal elites and replacing them with ethnontionalist white parliamentarians and leaders.

The white European ethnontionalist movement is reestablishing itself again at long last and is making steady inroads into the politics and legislature of Europe, and not just within the European Union. This is an entirely natural and healthy flow of events, but it needs to push harder and more aggressively.

We have truth and righteousness on our side. Marxists and Trotskyites masquerading as Conservatives, Liberals and Socialists don’t. They are already guilty of illegally declaring wars and of subsequent invasions, Genocide, Treason, Sedition and Subversion not just against indigenous White Europeans, but against Afghanis and Iraqis too.

We collectively ought to be preparing the ground for their arrest and prosecution.

I believe they should be stripped of their titles, livelihoods, properties and personal fortunes, and that their incarcerations should be spent in Muslim lands in order that they be made to suffer as severely as possible for their crimes against humanity.

6 — Anonymous wrote at 10:41 AM on October 7:

Circular migration would thus foster development and address the problems in African nations which contribute to emigration in the first place.
“The re-organization of visa systems,” said Armin Laschet, “would make circular migration work better. People could go back and forth and therefore choose to work in their home countries for a while aiding development cooperation.”
The creation of an enabling environment in the migrants’ home countries is also central to making circular migration work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reorganization of visa systems? Why?

Reading between the lines, what we see here — and in other similar articles such as this — is an attempt, a new strategy, not to end or curtail African immigration into Europe, but to establish new procedures to facilitate it, to legitimize it, and to make it become a normal and accepted (and permanent) situation in European countries.

7 — Jasper wrote at 10:56 AM on October 7:

Why do they not come out in the open and say the truth, they want Europe mullatised so that no pure White lands and posibbly no pure White people survive in the future? Why waste time and come up with stupid terms like ‘visible minorities”circular migrats’ etc..

8 — Kenelm Digby wrote at 11:15 AM on October 7:

Never mind ‘circular immigration’. If we wish to pontificate on the subject of geometry or even topology, might I not recommend the so-called ‘point immigration’.You see under ‘point immigration’ the wasteful process of tracing a path back to point of origin is elimanted in favor of the status quo - no fuss, no travel, the most ‘economical (in the truest sense of the word), operation possible.

9 — Anonymous wrote at 11:17 AM on October 7:

My major is German, I have been involved with the culture for seven years, I am of German-American heritage and am studying in Germany now. Somebody please explain to me WHY Germany needs workers when the fact of the matter is that Germany has strict laws against unregistered labor because the unemployment rate is notoriously high?

10 — Science Fiction Wannabe wrote at 12:58 PM on October 7:

This stuff is starting to border on the fantastic. Maybe all of Europe’s whites should move to Africa, with the African populations moving to Europe. Within two decades, without interference from the Marxists, the white areas of Africa would be fantastic realms. Meanwhile, black Europe would look like Dresden after the Allied bombing run at the end of WWII.

11 — Anonymous wrote at 5:50 PM on October 7:

If Europe doesn’t make the same mistakes as the US they will become the most powerful economic, political and military force in the world. Your sitting in the catbird seat. Don’t squander away your genetic line the way America did. Keep the nonwhites out.

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