Paper long abstract:

Recent statistics indicates that there has been a phenomenal rise in the world’s migrant population, with a disproportionate exodus of people from the developing to developed nations. Africa, a continent in dire need of skilled human resources, in particular, has experienced a massive migration of its skilled work force to the developed nations and a corresponding reluctance of those abroad to return to the continent. This paper seeks to interrogate three conventional wisdoms associated with the skewed patterns of migration. The first is that endemic crises, a repressive political environment and worsening socio-economic conditions that have become the defining features of the continent are to be held responsible for this pattern of migration. The second is that contemporary migration of Africans to the developed world, unlike the first wave of migration during the slave trade, is essentially voluntary. The third is that migration is mutually beneficial to the countries involved. I argue that such assumptions conceal, more than they reveal. By interpreting contemporary migration as “voluntary”, we are not helped to understand how impossibly hard it is to live in Africa. It also does not help us to understand why some Africans adopt desperate strategies in their bid to “escape” from the continent. More fundamentally, by imputing migration of Africans to essentially, internally predisposing factors, we fall into the trap of taking manifestations for explanations. Thus, our understanding of how conflicts, repressive political environment and chronic underdevelopment became permanent features of Africa cannot be enhanced. This paper contests these notions, arguing instead that whereas contemporary Africans are not forced out of the continent through slave ships by slave merchants, they are nonetheless forced out of Africa by the prevailing life-threatening socio-economic conditions which are rooted in an unfavourable international political economy.