Africa, although often absent from our television screens, home to the largest number of bloody conflicts now taking place in the world. The African continent is plagued by many wounds, some legacy of colonialism and slavery, more modern, all still lethal.
Among the many problems that the sub-Saharan is faced with, one in particular is critical for the development of the continent, though not so striking as to appear in a major illnesses and tribal conflicts. This is the best brain drain in Africa and abroad.
An increasing number of young African graduates migrate to the major industrialized countries in search of economic stability and a decent standard of living. The West, United States and Great Britain in the lead, this phenomenon promotes relentlessly making its mark on immigration and reception programs extremely "attractive" for the new African intellectuals and scientists. Rotimi Sankore
writes in his article "Africa killing us softly, "appeared in the New African November 2005, the most serious problem is that Africa can not replace the number (and growing ever more dizzying) of young graduates who leave the continent after it was heavily and with such difficulty invested in their education. The statistics are alarming: between 20% and 50% of scientists, intellectuals and typically graduates Africans living in other continents. It is therefore a real mass migration.
In Ethiopia, for example, in the last 10-15 years, 50% of young people who left the country to complete their academic studies, she has not returned home. According to the IOM (International Organization for Migration), Ethiopia has lost between 1980 and 1991 about 75% of the experts. For any economics professor living in Ethiopia, there are 100 economists Ethiopians residing in the United States.
According to a survey conducted by the Central Statistical Office in 1996, the sectors most affected by the scourge of mass emigration are: education 34%, engineering 29%, commerce 24%, 13% medical and dental schools.
The area in which the phenomenon is certainly the greatest impact in the immediate health.
The lack of medical personnel is one of the biggest obstacles to defeat and control of major diseases, first of all the AIDS, which affect the continent.
Kenya has lost 20 of its doctors a month, while Ghana has already lost 60% of its doctors.
The concern is not limited to physicians, but all personnel involved in health services. Africa, it also suffers from acute lack of nurses, pharmacists and social service personnel. The loss of nurses is increasing because of the great need for these professionals in Western countries.
In the United States today there is a gap of 126,000 nurses and the U.S. government expected for 2020 may be lacking even 800,000. Given these data, the search for qualified personnel is particularly aggressive. To attract nurses and sector from other countries-mostly African-United States offer a salary 20 times higher than that obtainable in the countries of origin.
doing so, the West can grab qualified personnel, avoiding large investments in education and training locally.
Consider, however, that Kenya, whose economic reality is abysmally different from any Western industrialized country, Americans spend $ 40.000 to educate individual doctors and between 10.000 and $ 15.000 to the U.S. four years of study of every student .
All these investments are completely lost when these young, finished the specialization, migrate, depriving the country of their own life skills.
The loss turned out to double. To cope with these huge losses, in fact, Africa is forced to spend $ 4 million Americans a year (35% of the total development of the continent) to employ some 100,000 Western experts in those areas where emigration, but also the training room, is higher.
The emigration of qualified young people from Africa is, as we have seen, greatly facilitated if not cynically provoked by the major industrialized countries.
policy of the latter is very clear: take the Africa best and leave the rest.
(inevitable result of the comparison with the slave trade, still open wound on the African continent)
Special expedited procedures for immigration and visas are granted by the high education qualification achieved. Further qualifications achieved and the possibility of entering higher in countries like the United States, Canada, Great Britain and throughout Europe.
Table 1 lists the 10 countries that have had the most number of wins a Green Card for the United States from 2000 to 2005.
As we can see, the presence of African countries in recent years has increased significantly.
In 2000 there were only three among the top 10 African states, Ghana, Nigeria and Egypt. From 2002 onwards, enter and remain in the ranks between 5 and 6 African countries, constantly occupying the top positions. The states most affected by the scourge of emigration were as follows: Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, Togo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan and Algeria to follow.
in England is on a points system for the graduate program of welcoming immigrants (Highly Skilled Migrant Programme), equal to the now famous U.S. Green Card Lottery.
are assigned different scores depending on qualifications, skills, work experience, and qualifications obtained by the core components family. Of course, the more points you get, the higher the chance of getting a visa. In other words, he goes in search of highly competent and qualified.
Spontaneously the question of why so much interest from Western countries, industrialized and have excellent universities, the acceptance of so many people from poor countries.
The reasons are manifold, but in common is a long-term vision of social and economic development of host countries.
In Europe, for example one of the most powerful engine of immigration according to Professor Philip Martin and Jonas Widgreen (experts in employment, economic development and immigration) quoted by the New African Sankore appeared in the November 2005 collapse of fertility and population curve, especially the four largest countries: France, Germany, Italy, and Britain.
If these countries want to keep the same workforce recorded in 1995 in the near future, immigration is expected to increase from 237,000,000,000 to 1.1000000 per year. A second reason
second Sankore always, lies in the global economic challenge posed by China and India.
Developed countries are facing rapid economic growth of the two countries. To be able to fight, it takes a lot of skilled and professional, yet cheaper and motivated, especially coming from Africa and other developing countries.
But if the reasons why the Western countries to the stimulus of migration are clear, what are the reasons that lead so many young people to leave their homes, their families, their state, to travel to foreign countries, and different from the cultural point of view?
The answers are many and often intuitive. Many African countries are not democratic enough to accept the ideas and innovations of the intellectuals and do not provide any economic and social justice, not to mention the civil and political rights. Other motor
immigration is certainly the constant exploitation of Africa by industrialized countries, which has depleted the economy and social infrastructure and standardized poverty, leading many Africans seeking a fulfilling job and a decent standard of living abroad.
In summary, the main reasons that lead young people to leave Africa are:
• Low wages and purchasing power steadily decreased
• Standard of living unsatisfactory, unsatisfied basic needs, lack of transportation and housing.
• Qualified personnel performing sottomansioni, dissatisfaction on the job, no prospects for professional growth.
• Lack of research, lack of staff adequate funding and professional equipment.
• Political conflicts and wars. •
continued decline in the education system. •
political discrimination in promotions.
• Lack of freedom.
These are the following reasons, which help to attract young Africans in industrialized countries:
• Salaries and high income
• High standard of living
• better work conditions: work, career opportunities and professional development
• Funds for research, advanced technologies, services and modern facilities, specialized personnel.
• Political stability
modern educational systems • • • Meritocracy and transparency
intellectual freedom. According
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigerian lawyer who deals with human rights law and specialist in African, cited by Sankore in his article in The New African November 2005, the main key to understanding the phenomenon of emigration is the lack of free movement of persons in the regions sub-Saharan Africa.
Africans living in the same region but in different countries, are forced to wait more than a month to get a visa that allows them to enter other parts of Africa. In practice, many Africans are completely blocks.
If the facts in light of the mass emigration of African brains shoreless appears, it is also true that some short-and long-term solutions may help to limit and channel the phenomenon.
Rotimi Sankore proposes mainly two:
On the one hand, accelerate and enrich democracy, investing in education, health and other socio-economic infrastructure, thereby creating more jobs.
other, more viable and retain qualified people, providing them with everything possible and investing in economically increasing their presence through an action designed to get more outside help. Robin
Cohen, a professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, he also proposes in his article "Brain Drain Migration" presented in South African Commission on International Migration 1996-1997, short-and long-term solutions to contain and correct the problem.
First you need to delay the migration according to the professor: at the end of education should require graduates to stay in the country of origin for two further years during which to exercise the profession and "pay back" the state economic investment. The two-year detention could even be included as an integral part in the educational context.
is also a priority try to create a profitable business and academic environment that entice graduates to stay. At the same time, compared with emigration flows present, it is necessary to try to replace many young people leave Africa with other local youths who must be educated and trained with the utmost care. To do is critical, do the following: all staff who are "imported" to promote research and education should be publicly certified to meet local needs and to induce confidence in imported skills. You should also try to make the most of short visits to doctors and scientists (Foreign and returnees) who come to Africa for various reasons setting up collaborations with various colleagues residents: direct instruction, occasional or professional collaboration through joint research and international networks.
In this regard, you will notice that the brain drain from Africa not only has negative consequences for the country. Fact, there are also some positive aspects that should definitely be considered. Schematically below a list of both:
Negative factors
• Reduction of qualified staff with dire consequences for Africa's Development
• Reduction of dynamic and innovative people, academics and entrepreneurs.
• Transfer of technologies resulting in too slow increase in the gap (already present) between Africa and industrialized countries.
• Negative effects on scientific production of several African countries.
• Loss of money from taxes on income and potential contributions are proportional to gross domestic product. Positive factors
• Large contribution of persons trained them when they return to their native country
• Income business days for families still living in the country of origin.
• Balance of income improved by income from abroad (the Africans who work outside the continent send an estimated 45 million U.S. dollars a year to their families).
• Ability to create international networks of reference for African scientists living abroad and African scientists in Africa.
• Ability to import knowledge from a distance through exchange programs with Africans abroad.
The creation of the interrelations between African immigrants and residents seem to be one possible way to capitalize on the immediate migration flows involving the African continent.
Gumisai Mutual proposes in his article Reversing Africa's "brain drain" appeared in the magazine Africa Recovery July 2003, a collaboration between the Internet and their fellow Africans living abroad resident in Africa. The
SANSA (South African Network of Skills Abroad), for example, involving 22.000 graduates of the 5 major universities in South Africa who live outside the African continent thanks to the network and remains in touch with their universities. Once registered
South Africans residing abroad can offer their help and their support to their African colleagues, in the conduct of research that are carried out. In addition, members of SANSA trying to transfer high technology into their country by providing computers and software from abroad. Like South Africa, Nigeria has also founded a similar organization. The Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo was one of the founders NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) which deals in close collaboration with professionals and intellectuals residing abroad for the development of Nigeria.
If working with people living outside the African continent is certainly a brilliant idea, what good is a lot to the mainland, still remains the desire of the African countries most affected by migration to repatriate their resources most prestigious. But this operation has a very high cost.
Some migrants indeed need to be repatriated with their families, others expect a salary equal to that achieved in the host country, together with the technological resources to them. Finally, it should be pointed out that if you can return the qualified person, it is unfortunately not possible to do so with the knowledge network to which it belongs in the state guest. Returning
also not easy for former migrants and there are many questions that arise from those who value the idea of \u200b\u200ba possible return. IOM
Chernor Jalloh, cited by Gumisai mortgage in his article published in the magazine Africa Recovery July 2003, proposes a collaboration via the Internet between Africans living abroad to persons residing outside of Africa are afraid to return to Africa several reasons. Are not always confident that once you leave the host country, you can to return, because some countries force immigrants to remain for a minimum period within itself to not lose residency status. Several African countries also do not allow dual citizenship, forcing Africans forced to choose one of two nationalities.
For these and other reasons, the IOM has developed special programs that allow you to serve in the native country, while maintaining their status in the host country. One of these projects, which now enjoys some success, for example, has as its objective the care of patients located in the most remote part of Sierra Leone. According
Kwaku Asante Darko, a professor at the National University of Lesotho (Ghana), quoted article "Reversing Africa's Brain Drain" of Mutual Gumisai many Africans are reluctant to return home simply because they feel that those who govern the country now neglected and therefore considers it unnecessary to their efforts and accept the risks implicit in the decision to return. To make matters worse
contributes to the very high rate of unemployment in this whole sub-Saharan Africa.
Until a few years ago, the Gambia had no university and its spending big bucks to educate and train their young people abroad. All African governments still spend infinitely little to develop the scientific and technological research and the overall area education is deeply underdeveloped. The continent's average spend only 0.5% of its total investment in research and education and those chronically underused resources it already has. Hence the enormous difficulties in finding employment by young specialists and skilled returnees. Finally as a note
Gumisai Mutual quoting Rohey Wadd office for coordination and strategy for the alleviation of poverty in Gambia, "African countries should simply be made more attractive politically, economically and socially in the eyes of its own Citizens
BY Imanuel Baharier 
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