DV and Migrations

By Fitsum Getachew

In the current two months, November and December, Ethiopians all over the country are busy, filling the ‘DV lottery 2005' forms through the Internet service, as the new US regulations prescribe. Applicants all cherish the hope of winning USA! Following the migration of thousands of families on this same program, people are now increasingly conscious about the DV potential. In fact, there hardly is any one in Ethiopia who does not have either a kin or a neighbour who has not benefited from a DV. Hence, DV lotteries are now very popular and are anxiously/impatiently awaited by millions. You see people queuing at Internet cafés or photo studios with the relative facilities trying to apply. In a way, these businesses have found a way of thriving! Even the Ethiopian Telecommunications Agency is advertising on this service, trying to grab its share of the pie.

Many who migrated to the US as a result of this opportunity are now gradually taking in their families there, and this has further swollen the number of people affected by the Diversity Visa program. Be that as it may, there are varied reactions about the phenomenon of migration, depending on the economic status, standard of education, prospects, age and general exposure in life one may have. As a rule, all young people, even from well-off families, would go for it. Many would not even refrain from resorting to paying thousands of birr to have the chance, whereas the older and middle-aged ones, would consider migrating only on account of the prospects of their children. Being well-placed here, they would live peacefully, gratified in the more or less traditional manner. But the plight of their children would convince them to pay the sacrifice of having to live in an alien land, at least until they secure certain rights. Some people manage to live in both localities once they have their ‘Green Card’.

Whatever nasty things may be said about it and its government, America has the reputation of being prospected as ‘the land of infinite opportunities’. And even if one is understood to pay a lot of unpleasant sacrifices in the first years, in the long run, many are convinced it is worth the trial. But still it would be naive to expect a bed of roses in a society where cut-throat competition is the rule rather than the exception in almost every field of endeavour! Hard work is therefore the minimum requirement for success. Determination and perseverance, aiming at lofty ambitions should be taken as further qualities. A dynamic society such as the US, presupposes a lot of mobility, and change and adaptability are indispensable qualities.

In the meantime however, the DV program itself has been subjected to various sorts of criticism. It has raised issues of economic, moral and psychological character. The fact that countries such as Ethiopia are losing many of their educated elite to such exodus, in the form of DV is creating a huge gap in the capacity building programs of our country. If we consider certain figures, we find out that many of the most qualified people are leaving the country, either under DV or other forms of departure. It is not easy to estimate the kind of damage such phenomenon is inflicting on our long term development programs. Professionalism and experience are not readily substitutable in an Ethiopian context. We can agree that these people may find a better life in the US, or Europe, but can any country afford to lose the best of its educated folks without preparing substitutes? By choosing the better educated, the DV program is creating a working force with immense potential for the US. What is disturbing is that the majority of these do not have the chance of readily practising their professions.

The majority get employed in the cheap and monotonous manual labour market. It is only after strenuous efforts that their dreams could come true. The truth of the matter is that US establishments and organizations are prone to engaging, first and foremost, their original national ones, trained in their own institutions. Foreigners or those who acquire fresh citizenship can wait! Such reluctance is particularly rife in the highly esteemed professions such as medicine and law. An emigrant doctor’s chance of being engaged in some US hospital would begin perhaps at the simple dresser stage and then proceed upwards, if lucky and perseverant. It could take years to satisfy one’s professional ambition!

What are then the driving forces of such mass migration? How are we to face the future, if we continue to lose the best of our educated people? What are the long term effects of such phenomenon? An extensive research on the subject is imperative. Surely, there may be positive sides to it: better prospects, better opportunities, money earned in hard currency to be sent here, invested in some activity, albeit modest, a freer society at certain standards etc .... But the negative facet involves dangerous implications. At a moment when many youths are being victims of the scourge of HIV/AIDS, coupled with such mass departure, how will we cope with the needs of our society in terms of filling our ‘capacity building programs’ within our human resources? It is naive to dismiss the number of qualified people as negligible as some may be inclined to. Our country is at a stage where it cannot afford to do away with any of its degree graduates or people with professional qualification and experience. We need more than what we manage to produce let alone give away to the Western market. A recent study has shown that Ethiopia is the African country most negatively affected by the migration of professionals to the West, followed by Nigeria and Ghana. And yet, if we gauge the desire/mood of the population, I don’t know how many would not forge documents in order to be able to migrate.

Perhaps, we should hope that there will be a new phase in which those who migrated years ago might contribute to reversing the current tendency. By returning and establishing their own activities here, by contributing to the development of our nation. In the recent government policy discussions, the role of these potential returnees, not excluding those who still preferred to stay behind, (and yet volunteered to collaborate with nationals), was outlined as one of the means to which the development of our country could be referred. They were figured as one of the rich potentials of the nation. And to a certain extent, this is true. But will people, who in many cases migrated ‘despising’ or condemning the current system/establishment, in the first place, accept to be back and commit their resources and knowhow? I think it would take a lot for the government to convince them to do so. Many things would have to improve before such tendencies are adopted.

In the recent discussion forum organized by the Ministries of Trade and Industry, and Capacity Building to our ministers and commissioners, Tefera Walwa, the Capacity Minister was heard saying that the current leadership could be easily labelled as ‘criminal’ for erecting such a huge and cumbersome bureaucracy that has resulted to be a major obstacle towards the expansion of trade and investment and thus development! Finding out that what took 58 days could be done in one hour, what it took 225 days could be done in two days, was a shock to everyone. He said, we thought, knowingly or not, to have done our best, but alas, it is now discovered that so was not the case! If some one found this country just the way Emperor Menelik left it a hundred years ago, one should not be surprised, he witted. But the questions remain: ‘who should take the blame for this?’ and ‘does it not entail measures, accountability?’ What are the guarantees against the repeat of the same phenomenon!?

A life of decency and peace would not encourage any one to any sort of migration, DV or not. People are tempted to abandon their original homes only if they cannot cope with their lives there. Either because they are caught amid cross fires of contending parties/factions (as it often happens in Africa), or trapped in the tunnel of dire poverty and hopelessness. Otherwise, why should they take the pains of being second class citizens in a distant land?! Solutions? Good governance, in general, full respect of human rights, justice, equal opportunities for all, such as equal share of the country’s resources, education to all, employment with income, access to health and housing facilities etc. All these are the right directions. All the talk about the Millennium Development Goals, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and other programs, they are not talks about anything fantastic but this.

The bottom line is, our leadership (and along with it, the whole population) will have to work hard in order to attract all those who are convinced that living in foreign land eternally is not sustainable, both psychologically and physically, but they are compelled to do it. This is even truer for the Ethiopian psyche where the long, rich history and tradition of the country has left deep-rooted traces of dignity and pride. They are difficult to do away with. But this by itself cannot take us anywhere! Ethiopians are notoriously resistant to being shoved aside easily. And their sense of belonging to their motherland is so firmly built, that I don’t think they care much to be a US, Canadian or British nationality for its own sake. This attitude should be taken as asset, value on which to capitalize, to mobilize every one.

Hence, DV, or any sort of migration for that matter, can remain the alternative of the disillusioned, the angry, the ones with bleak future, the pessimist. They are not necessarily the only key to success! In the wake of the September 11 attacks, one friend of mine was once joking, ‘if things continued at the current pace, (terrorism and absence of security and peace in the US), why shouldn’t Ethiopia, as a relatively safe place from terrorism, soon begin to award DVs to US citizens! Who says things would not overturn, some day?! Remember the verse in the Bible which foretells that the last would be in the forefront?