02/12/2005
stampa
invia
It’s officially called the Green Card Lottery, but in Africa it’s starting to be referred to as hidden neo-colonialism. Every
year around 70,000 highly-qualified Africans abandon the continent, attracted
by new “selective immigration” programmes launched by western countries. This
new phenomenon deprives Africa of its best brains and forces it into a viscous
circle of poverty and social backwardness.
Aggressive programmes. Programmes such as the Green Card Lottery and the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme in Britain were set up to deal with the decrease in the birth rate in western
countries, the effects of which is beginning to be felt in the high levels of
the economic chain. These programmes are based on a complex points system that
make it possible to recruit young graduates from all over the world who have a
high enough level of education to allow them to complete their specialist studies
and gain work experience: take the best and leave the rest, as they have tellingly
been renamed. The problem is that it’s very rare for the specialists to return
to their original countries once they are qualified, partly because their adopted
countries can guarantee a better standard of living for their children. As a result
of this, Africa is deprived of entire generations of educated, dynamic people,
and while the phenomenon affects all poor countries it is particularly widespread
in Africa. According to data supplied by the American immigration authorities,
six of the ten countries that “supply” the most number of specialist immigrants
are African.
Viscous circle. It’s not difficult to explain the reason for this inequality since African countries
are the poorest and have very low salary levels and rampant corruption, particularly
at the higher levels, that makes it virtually impossible for a meritocratic system
to flourish. Many of the specialists are therefore forced to emigrate if they
want to see their ability recognised, and in western countries they are given
the opportunity of seeing exactly how much they are worth. The western recruitment
programmes also attract people because they allow new arrivals to obtain visas
without already having a job or if they want to set up their own business activities,
something which is impossible in Africa where it’s even difficult to obtain a
simple tourist visa for another African country. The United Nations has been studying
the problem for some time in an attempt to put a brake on the phenomenon by creating
an incentive system, but up to now this system has not produced any appreciable
results. However, some countries such as Eritrea have introduced coercive methods,
demanding a $15,000 guarantee from students who go abroad or refusing to issue
education certificates until the students return to the country, but these measures
only affect the symptoms and don’t really deal with the true problem.
Education alarm. The African Union has also decided to tackle the problem, introducing a programme
for improving education and promoting greater integration between all African
countries. The gravity of the situation has also increased now that Botswana and
South Africa, which ten years ago attracted many African specialists, have recently
begun to experience the same problem, and this can be seen in the fact that in
recent months the crowds of desperate people who laid siege to the “fortresses”
of Ceuta and Melilla were mainly graduates. The aggressive immigration programmes
of western countries are, however, only one side of the coin, and if Africa isn’t
able to improve the overall conditions of life it will be impossible to stop the
haemorrhage.
stampainvia
Every year 70,000 African graduates leave the continent, for good
It’s officially called the Green Card Lottery, but in Africa it’s starting to be referred to as hidden neo-colonialism. Every
year around 70,000 highly-qualified Africans abandon the continent, attracted
by new “selective immigration” programmes launched by western countries. This
new phenomenon deprives Africa of its best brains and forces it into a viscous
circle of poverty and social backwardness.
A new phenomenon. In itself immigration to western countries is nothing new, but in recent years
it has begun to assume proportions that were previously unthinkable. According
to data from the United Nations the “brain drain” has more than tripled in the
last 40 years, producing paradoxical situations that see more Nigerian doctors
working in the United States than in their own country. This drain is particularly
worrying in the scientific and technological sectors, where African countries
are forced to compensate for the effects of mass emigration by importing expertise
from western countries for a total cost of $14 billion every year.
Aggressive programmes. Programmes such as the Green Card Lottery and the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme in Britain were set up to deal with the decrease in the birth rate in western
countries, the effects of which is beginning to be felt in the high levels of
the economic chain. These programmes are based on a complex points system that
make it possible to recruit young graduates from all over the world who have a
high enough level of education to allow them to complete their specialist studies
and gain work experience: take the best and leave the rest, as they have tellingly
been renamed. The problem is that it’s very rare for the specialists to return
to their original countries once they are qualified, partly because their adopted
countries can guarantee a better standard of living for their children. As a result
of this, Africa is deprived of entire generations of educated, dynamic people,
and while the phenomenon affects all poor countries it is particularly widespread
in Africa. According to data supplied by the American immigration authorities,
six of the ten countries that “supply” the most number of specialist immigrants
are African. Viscous circle. It’s not difficult to explain the reason for this inequality since African countries
are the poorest and have very low salary levels and rampant corruption, particularly
at the higher levels, that makes it virtually impossible for a meritocratic system
to flourish. Many of the specialists are therefore forced to emigrate if they
want to see their ability recognised, and in western countries they are given
the opportunity of seeing exactly how much they are worth. The western recruitment
programmes also attract people because they allow new arrivals to obtain visas
without already having a job or if they want to set up their own business activities,
something which is impossible in Africa where it’s even difficult to obtain a
simple tourist visa for another African country. The United Nations has been studying
the problem for some time in an attempt to put a brake on the phenomenon by creating
an incentive system, but up to now this system has not produced any appreciable
results. However, some countries such as Eritrea have introduced coercive methods,
demanding a $15,000 guarantee from students who go abroad or refusing to issue
education certificates until the students return to the country, but these measures
only affect the symptoms and don’t really deal with the true problem. Education alarm. The African Union has also decided to tackle the problem, introducing a programme
for improving education and promoting greater integration between all African
countries. The gravity of the situation has also increased now that Botswana and
South Africa, which ten years ago attracted many African specialists, have recently
begun to experience the same problem, and this can be seen in the fact that in
recent months the crowds of desperate people who laid siege to the “fortresses”
of Ceuta and Melilla were mainly graduates. The aggressive immigration programmes
of western countries are, however, only one side of the coin, and if Africa isn’t
able to improve the overall conditions of life it will be impossible to stop the
haemorrhage. Matteo Fagotto
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