Refugees and Migrants Migrants face expulsion 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--had 3.5 million internally displaced--homelands policy under apartheid  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  Sudan

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

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

Migration in Africa  some est. 35 million  Plantation and farms-Burundi, Rwanda, Zaire to 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  1990s/2000s mostly from Mozambique and Lesotho

West Africa  Liberian civil war, ethnic conflicts in Sierra Leone  Cote d’Ivoire current coup  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

Brain Drain: Professionals  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, inputs)

Health Problems  Migrants are a source of STIs/ STDs (e.g., HIV/AIDS)  Strain already under-funded health systems

Causes of the refugee situation in Africa  The weak state  Colonialism bolstered state societies  Creation of tribes and ethnic groups pitted against each other for resources

Why is the state weak?  Composed of a political elite  Not a large enough national middle or upper category of those with resources and education  Clientelism-networks of kinspeople, allied ethnics, party officials, civil servants, soldiers, traders  Patrimonial systems of rule

States are composed of culturally diverse social groups (tribes)  Response to rivalries in 19th century  State does not control the means of production and distribution  Charismatic leaders sway populations  Political entrepreneurs cast their appeal in ethnic terms

African political life consists of clientelist factions.. [ethnicity]  Conflict send waves of refugees to neighboring countries  Massive exit from the state  Cheap weapons = warrior bands

Countries both produce refugees and grant asylum  Ethiopia  Eritrea  Sudan  Mozambique (previously)  Zimbabwe

Sudan  Independence exacerbated interregional tensions  North: Muslim, Arabized, Arabic Language –in power (helped by colonial past--British and state societies) –looks to North Africa and Middle East (Libya, Iran, Iraq, Yemen)  South:Christian or animists, English language, pastoral people

Sudan (produces and receives refugees)  Some refugee groups all young males  About 200,000 in Ethiopia, but millions suffering in south, 1/4 million around Khartoum  Old refugee camps of Ethiopians

Idi Amin  Brutal: 300,000 killed  Asian Exodus  Tanzanians restored order (1977--first time external country had done that)

Uganda had 5 conflicts  Banyrwanda--mostly settled in the country, but no rights –(Origins: a new issue for Africa)  West Nile refugees (350,000): but were treated harshly  Karamoja: armed  Luwero triangle:750,000 around Kampala (massacres)

Southern Africa  White Settler colonies prevented negotiated decolonlization –mass appropriation of lands  mobilization along lines of ethnicity  African protests were weak  South Africa assisted white regimes (Zimbabwe) and then tried to de- stabilize black regimes (Angola and Mozambique)

Angola  Large white settler population after WW II  Harsh treatment of Africans

Liberation Movements  MPLA: urban, Luanda, mestico and assimilado, Augustino Neto: Cuba and Soviet Union  UPA/FNLA--Holden Roberto: wanted to reconstitue the Kongo--in with Mobuto/US  UNITA: Jonas Savimbi: rural, Ovimbundu--South Africa/US –1/2 million refugees

Mozambique  Harshness of colonial regime produced refugees to Tanzania and Zambia  FRELIMO: moderate at first (Edwardo Mondlane), then leftist-Marxist (Samora Machel)  Multiracial

Millions of refugees, esp. to Malawi  S. Africa financed RENAMO  Brutal

After independence, 1975  most refugees returned home