Development & Aid, Europe, Headlines, Human Rights, Migration & Refugees, Population

EUROPE: Swap Aid for Fewer Migrants, the French Way

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Dec 18 2008 (IPS) - Should the amount of aid that African countries receive from Europe be linked to their efforts to prevent their nationals moving to this continent?

France, the outgoing holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, has suggested that it should. During recent discussions involving both African and European governments, the French have advocated a two-year cooperation programme that would simultaneously try to encourage legal migration – normally that involving skilled or highly-educated professionals, whose services are desired by European firms – and curb ‘irregular’ movement.

The French government has cited seven bilateral agreements which it has already signed with Senegal, Gabon, Congo-Brazzavile, Benin, Tunisia, Mauritius and Cape-Verde as models which could be replicated for the entire EU. In each of these cases, the African countries have undertaken to hinder their nationals from migrating to Europe without permission. In return, France offers them development aid and some possibilities for ‘legal’ migration, including for students.

Migration agreements have proven controversial in Africa. In 2007, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade was accused by political opponents of “selling our youth to the Spanish” when he signed a similar accord on migration issues with Spain.

Despite being involved in talks for more than two years, Mali has refused to sign an agreement with France, objecting to clauses that would require it to resettle expelled migrants. The West African country views remittances from its migrants as a major source of revenue for the economy. The 100,000-strong Malian community in France is estimated to transmit 183 million euros (265 million dollars) to its homeland each year.

Mamadou Diop, a representative of the Senegalese anti-poverty network Congad, argued that the accords sought by France are fundamentally flawed. “We cannot be Europe’s policemen,” Diop added. “The application of these agreements will create more problems than it solves. Nothing is foreseen to help those sent home reintegrate into our societies.”

The subject of migration was discussed earlier this month at a Brussels seminar hosted by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), an EU-financed organisation dealing with relations between Europe and nearly 80 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Tamara Keating from the International Organisation for Migration noted that the number of migrants in the world has doubled since 1965. Totalling 200 million, migrants now make up about 3 percent of the global population.

Nonetheless, she offered a rebuttal to claims by some politicians that Europe is ‘swamped’ by migrants. About half of all migration in Africa involves its people moving from one country in that continent to another, she said. Just 9 percent of African migrants settle in Europe.

Remittances from migrants to sub-Saharan Africa are known to have been worth at least 12 billion dollars last year. But the true figure is likely to be much higher, when remittances that bypass formal channels such as banks are taken into consideration. In the case of Lesotho, remittances are worth about one-quarter of the country’s gross domestic product, with other major beneficiaries including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Senegal.

Rising unemployment in Europe and other implications of the economic downturn are widely expected to have adverse consequences for the flow of remittances.

The experience of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean indicates, however, that the volume of money involved will remain significant. Robert Meins, a spokesman for the Inter-American Development Bank, said that “despite mounting challenges, remittance senders have proven resilient, managing to send home about 1.5 percent more in 2008 than in the previous year.”

Peter Hansen from the Danish Institute of International Studies pointed out that remittances are not as crucial a source of cash for sub-Saharan Africa as they are for other developing countries. Development aid – at 22 billion dollars – and foreign direct investment – at 25 billion dollars – were each worth around twice as much as officially recorded flows from remittances last year.

“The positive effects of remittances – reduction of poverty, improved food security, increased access to basic social services, increased investments – are not well-documented for rural Africa,” he said. “A major challenge for Africa is that large parts of the continent are cut off from remittances sent from relatively rich countries, as migration mostly takes place within African countries and regions. Another major challenge is the existence of a poorly developed financial system that often leaves rural populations cut off from official banks and financial services.”

Meanwhile, the International Federation of Human Rights (known by its French acronym FIDH) has protested at how none of the EU’s 27 countries have yet ratified an 18-year-old United Nations agreement on protecting migrants. The international convention on the protecting of the rights of all migrant workers is designed to promote humane conditions of labour and living.

“It is an unacceptable paradox that all those states which have historically been countries of emigration have not yet ratified this convention,” said Souhayr Belhassen, the FIDH president. “The persistence of human rights violations against migrant workers, who remain particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, demonstrates the urgent need for ratification.”