The Politics of Migration
egc...@africaonline.co.zw
The Politics of Migration
Since the start of time, people have moved across the world either driven by conditions and events in their home countries or attracted to new opportunities. Today there are more Irish and Poles living outside their countries than in their home States. My great grandfather, G W Cross caught a schooner in Ireland in 1877 and travelled to the Eastern Cape where he was one of the founders of the Baptist Church in South Africa. He never left and now his descendants live in Africa and in many other parts of the world.
In my homeland Zimbabwe there are few non – migrants. The Shona people came from West Africa and settled here after 1200 AD. The Nguni linked tribal groups arrived here as migrants well after the Shona or Bantu migration, the Ndebele after 1830. The white settler community came in at a very early stage when traders from Portugal and even further afield came to the country seeking opportunities. When the colonization process was launched in the 18th Century, Africa was a major target with European countries competing to acquire land and often pursuing these goals with military force.
Behind this process, settlers of European decent arrived seeking opportunities and in some cases they occupied and dominated these new States, imposing their culture, laws, and religion on the local population. Really indigenous populations were often a tiny minority. In many instances this development meant that very quickly the migrant population often exceeded the local indigenous population. This process was often not very pretty. In the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, migrants from Europe occupied and controlled these lands and, in many cases, strove to eliminate the indigenous populations.
Where this process did not happen, indigenous populations grew rapidly post colonization because prior to that slavery had been widespread with high levels of mortality and disease and local fights for land or dominance resulted in the slaughter of whole communities. The Afrikaner trek into the highveld of South Africa when they tried to move away from English dominance was accompanied by the discovery of hundreds of villages burned out and littered with skeletons left behind by raiding Impi’s from the tribal kings of Natal.
In these countries the education of indigenous populations, and growing missionary influence, led to struggles for freedom and control. Most of these struggles are now complete and indigenous populations control these countries. Zimbabwe is no exception. That is history but migration of the human race from different parts of the world remains an issue. In one sense or another we are all migrants.
One major issue that exacerbates this situation is the fact that the new economy emerging from the industrial and commercial revolutions that characterised the 19th and the 20th Centuries, is creating even greater disparities in income and wealth. It is evident that the discovery and control of some of the instruments of this new economic revolution can lead to the creation and concentration of wealth on a scale never possible before.
So, on a national basis the wealthy countries of the world, either resources based, or technology driven, are now magnets for people living in the poorer countries. These disparities will remain and building walls to keep the poor out will simply not work. We have to agree on how to manage this process rather than to fight it. The USA policies of absorption and integration have worked in the past and many of the migrants so assimilated have been very positive additions to the country.
The scale of this process is astonishing, and I would guess that most African States have up to half their populations living abroad in what we call the Diaspora. Certainly, today the largest single source of hard currency on the continent is not aid or trade, its remittances.
What worries me is that this process of global migration involves the movement of the most productive, best educated and those with the greatest potential of economic advancement, leaving their home countries for greener pastures. This leaves behind an economic situation that is even more difficult to manage. It slows growth in poor countries and further exacerbates disparities in income and living conditions.
My granddaughter won a science prize in Southern Africa against thousands of students. She was offered scholarships to top western Universities. I know US and European Universities visit Zimbabwe annually to scout for outstanding students at our best schools. Once over there, if they turn out to be outstanding, they are often tempted to do another degree and then offered residence and a job. Difficult to resist when a good University education costs US$70 000 to US$100 000 a year and at the end of all that work you cannot find employment or have to work for a pittance in lousy conditions.
Compounding this flight of talent and skills and even experience is the fact that almost all developing countries adopt policies restricting inwards migration. It is very difficult to bring in skilled and experienced staff with skills and knowledge that is unavailable locally. It also restricts the inwards movement of Missionaries and people who virtually volunteer to work in third world countries.
We as a country have benefitted massively by both categories – before Independence here the Church and Missionary societies were responsible for the great majority of black education. So much so that when the new majority Government attempted to introduce Marxist ideologies into our state school system it was resisted by the people working in the Ministry of Education.
After Independence I was chairman of the Paraplegic Association for 5 years at the instigation of a Neurosurgeon who was world famous but chose to work for the State and to look after the needs of the poor and disadvantaged. Mr Levy was an amazing man who lived in a simple home and drove and old car. He earned peanuts and I still remember him looking after a guerilla soldier who had been shot in Botswana by the South African army and was a full quadriplegic. The young man knew he would never walk again, probably never have a family – he wanted to die but I saw this man who could have worked anywhere, fight to keep him alive and to give him hope. Today we could not get that man a work permit or residence.
Today Africa is home to a population that is two thirds under 25 years old and in this century and going forward for the next decade, we will be a source of people who will be needed to work in wealthier countries either doing jobs they cannot fill or new skills and as entrepreneurs, people who will create wealth and jobs. They will leave behind millions who will continue to wallow in poverty, the disparities that haunt us now will only grow worse. Somehow, we have to find solutions that work, fences and walls will not help.
Eddie Cross
Harare 25th May 2025