Refugees and Migrants Migrants face explusion and hardships Refugees can contribute labor and help economically as consumers

Definition of refugee (UNHCR)  Fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion  Outside his/her country  Unable, unwilling (fear but not personal convenience) to return

UNHCR  Protection not for internally displaced persons  But cross-mandate approach: assistance to all needy people in an area to minimize competition and jealousy

Africa: movement of people through time  Bantu migration  Colonial regulations caused men to work in mines--often in another area or other country  Ethnic groups separated during colonial period and then by new nation-states

Current estimates of refugees  Africa 6.7 million refugees ( million displaced persons)  World 18.5 million refugees ( million displaced persons)

Numbers: politically manipulated  Get more aid for larger numbers  Can change quickly--both increase and decrease

Demographics  Many are women and children (often left out)  Many are poor and elderly  Some groups mainly male

Positive effects of refugees  Greater market for local goods and foods  Can provide labor  Aid agencies build infrastructure (roads, water supplies, health clinics)

Negative effects of refugees  Environmental degradation: large influxes cause damage to forests, animals overgraze lands  Reduce water volume and quality (silt the rivers), soil fertility affected  Tensions between refugees and local host populations

Reasons for Refugees in Africa  Flagrant violation of human rights  Wars of national liberation –Algeria,, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau –Zimbabwe--750,000 refugees inside and outside the country (Movie: Flame) –Namibia, Eritrea –Western Sahara--in process

Internal Repression  South Africa--3.5 million internally displaced--homelands policy  40,000 to 100,000 refugees and political exiles

Repatriation  Land mines make it difficult to return to the land  Land has been sold or confiscated  War-torn economies

Ethnic persecution  Burundi  Rwanda

Religious persecution  Jehovah’s witnesses in Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique  Christians and traditional religionists in Sudan

Ideological differences  “Cold-war” politics--Ethiopia, Eritrea  Lack of multiparties and dictatorships-- political refugees --Malawi

Migration in Africa  35 million  Plantation and farms-Burundi, Rwanda, DRC, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania  Sudanese migrated to the Middle East

South Africa-- mines  To South Africa from: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe  78% in 1978 to 40% foreigners mid-1980s  176,000 (1989) to 153,000 (1992) foreign contract workers  Also illegal workers, mostly from Mozambique

West Africa  Sierra Leone, Liberian civil war, ethnic conflicts in Togo  Flow goes from the poorer inland Sahelian countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger) to richer coastal states (Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria)  Spontaneous seasonal and long-term

Numbers  Cote d’Ivoire--3 million workers  Thousands of Ghanaian professionals in Nigeria  Brain drain from Uganda and Nigeria, to South Africa; from South Africa to Europe and North America, etc.

Migration  Usually of males from the rural areas  Question of whether agricultural production is affected  Comparisons with other countries need to look at who does the farming, as well as if male returns to do heavy agricultural work

Agricultural production  Can decline if mostly women are left without capital and improved technologies  Can improve if remittances are used to hire labor and pay for agricultural investments (e.g., equipment)

Health Problems  Migrants are a source of STDs (e.g., AIDS)