Bridging The Gap
Strengthening the Connection Between Africa and its Diaspora
Migration has existed since the dawn of mankind. People who have lived in any place for long enough seek to explore new opportunities and make new discoveries outside of their sphere of existence, typically with the promise of better things. After all, the grass is always greener. This has made the world a “smaller place” and contributed to progress.
Current estimates are that there are over 272 million international migrants globally (or 3.5% of the world’s population). Work is the major reason that people migrate internationally, and migrant workers constitute a large majority of the world’s international migrants, with most living in high-income countries. (Source: World Migration Report 2020)
Diasporas play an important role in the development of their countries of origin by promoting foreign investment, trade, innovation, access to technology and financial inclusion. Remittances sent by migrants improve the livelihoods of families and communities in countries of origin through investments (Source: International Migration 2020 Highlights).
Remittances also provide a connection between migrants and their home as they often either support family members financially or they seek to invest a portion of their earnings back in their home countries with the intention of one day returning permanently. Though the biggest impact is recognized through their monetary contributions, there’s an emotional and nationalistic connection that always remains when an individual leaves home. With developments in technology in recent decades, migrants now don’t feel so far from home as they can easily stay in touch and up to date with people and events in their homes, but there’s room for improvement.
What About Brain Drain?
Africa continues to see a large number of individuals travelling abroad for two main reasons: to get high quality education and to secure higher paying work opportunities. This debatable double whammy has arguably led to a drain on the talent pool available to the continent. However, this isn’t to say that there isn’t any value in having Africa’s talent be a part of global change in more developed countries abroad. As much as there is ongoing discussion on this subject, we see promise in the fact that Africa is able to generate globally appealing talent, and we are also encouraged by the fact that a lot of this talent remains within the continent (but that seems to be ignored in these debates).
Is brain drain such a problem? Looking at it differently, it may be argued that the migration of talented individuals poses an opportunity for their countries of origin as they only move to tap better opportunities abroad; in doing so, they’re able to generate better incomes and repatriate a portion of this back home. This wouldn’t be the case if these individuals remained in their countries of origin and were unable to find similar opportunities. We believe that different perspectives are required to better appreciate the motivations and benefits from this type of migration.
Migrants can also contribute to the workforce back home either through transfer of knowledge and experience gained in more developed countries or by being intentional about moving back — the latter would be dependent on availability of attractive opportunities or an environment that is conducive for entrepreneurship and doing business. All this can only happen if efforts are taken to strengthen the connection between the diaspora and their homes.
Strengthening the Connection
Given the substantial contribution and the significant role that the diaspora community has in developing Africa in particular, a lot can be done to improve the connection between the continent and its nationals living abroad. We see the following as areas worth exploring:
- Access to reliable, verified and streamlined information sources for actionable opportunities & required services;
- Government engagement and involvement of the diaspora in policy formulation;
- Embracing & enhancing modern technology to improve service delivery & other processes back home for government and private institutions;
- Tailored investment opportunities that are sensitive to the needs & risk appetite of the diaspora;
- Creating robust trustworthy frameworks for channeling funds from the diaspora.
Technology’s Role in Bridging the Gap
Solutions can and must be built to cater to the needs of the diaspora community and their investments (cash or kind) in their home countries. The diaspora can be a substantial source of innovation, capital and talent if adequately recognized and incentivized to do so. Channels need to be created to encourage a two way flow of information regarding the opportunities where the diaspora can contribute. This communication needs to clearly demonstrate benefit both for the country and the individuals abroad.
The impact that these repatriated resources shall have on our continent is dependent on how this capital is secured, deployed and utilized.
