Reconceptualising the migration – development nexus: diasporas, globalisation and the politics of exclusion

Abstract

The presence of a sizeable expatriate African population constitutes a potentially exploitable, if undeveloped, resource that represents a significant developmental challenge for the continent. Problematically the global division of labour and power, as well as differences of region, class, generation, ethnicity and race, are not properly recognised within the existing scholarship or development policy. What is clear is that diasporas do have a substantial role to play in development on the African continent. Further theoretical and empirical investigation is necessary to investigate the practical significance, nature and content of diasporic identifications and activities. By setting these against the structural backdrop of the global economy and the closely associated ideology of globalisation, this paper seeks to provide a new basis for understanding the role of the diaspora in development. This has considerable policy implications as to which diasporic populations should be targeted for developmental purposes.

Notes

1 For example, the Regional Conference on Brain Drain and Capacity Building in Africa, Addis Ababa, 22 – 24 February 2000; the Dakar Declaration released at the West African Regional Ministerial Meeting on the Participation of Migrants in the Development of their Country of Origin, Dakar, 13 October 2000; the Forum of the Global Coalition for Africa, Addis Ababa, 25 – 26 January 2005; the Ministerial Conference of the Least Developed Countries on Migrants' Remittances, Cotonou, 9 – 10 February 2006; and the EU – Africa Ministerial Conference on Migration and Development, Tripoli, 22 – 23 November 2006.

2 World Bank (2002). India and Mexico are the largest recipients of remittances from migrant workers—receiving US$10 billion each—followed by the Philippines, with $6.4 billion. India's earnings from this source are nearly double the $5.8 billion it earns from its much vaunted software industry. During 2003 sub-Saharan Africa's net total of official development assistance or official aid was some $24 billion (World Bank, 2005).

3 World Bank (2004). This total is roughly twice the level of worldwide official development assistance, and second only to foreign direct investment (fdi) in terms of financial flows to the developing world. During 2005 fdi inflows to developing countries surged to the highest levels recorded, totalling $334 billion. Africa's fdi inflows increased to $31 billion in 2005, although the region's share of fdi remains low, at 3% of the global total. It is also unevenly distributed throughout the continent, with South Africa the major recipient (21% of the total) and the six oil-producing countries Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Sudan attracting $15 billion (48% of the total) (unctad, 2006).

4 The African Union (2006) estimates that, of the 150 million migrants in the world, more than 50 million are Africans.

5 www.un.org/esa/population/hldmigration/.

6 Since the early 1980s the exports of developing countries have grown faster than the world average, although these exports ‘are still concentrated on products essentially from the exploitation of natural resources and the use of unskilled labour which have limited prospects for productivity growth and lack dynamism in world markets’. In short, developing countries are trading more but they are earning less (unctad, 2002). In fact, while Africa has enjoyed an increase in trade relative to its gross domestic product, the continent's share in world exports fell from about 6% in 1980 to 2% in 2002. In particular, sub-Saharan Africa has suffered from a declining market share for its major exports, which, in turn, were of declining interest in world trade (unctad, 2003).

7 Massey et al (1998: 3) argue that: ‘The theoretical concepts now employed by social scientists to analyse and explain international migration were forged primarily in the industrial era and reflect its particular economic arrangements, social institutions, technology, demography and politics … Although fluid and creative when first derived, [these industrial-era theories] grew rigid over time and now appear ill-suited to the dramatically different conditions of the late twentieth century. With the passage of time, reality changed but scientific thinking about international migration remained mired in the past.’

8 Sub-Saharan Africa has produced the greatest numbers of displaced people in recent decades. With 3.2 million refugees, Africa's 12% of the world's population has produced around 28% of the world's 11.5 million refugees, and about 50% (9.5 million) of its 20 million internally displaced persons (Crisp, 2000).