Its purpose is to assess the development potential of Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora. This is the first in a series covering the most important aspects of the paper.
A countrys human capital is an essential component of development, both contributing to growth and benefiting from that growth. As the authors of this UNDP Working Paper, Professor Daniel Makina and Dr. Godfrey Kanyenze, point out, in the case of Zimbabwe this human capital base has been eroded over time due to a complex mix of variables, with large numbers of both skilled and unskilled labour having migrated to other countries in search of better opportunities. Of particular concern has been the regression in the countrys educational and training institutions as a result of this exodus.
The concept of diasporas encompasses political refugees, alien residents, guest workers, immigrants, expellees and ethnic and racial minorities in countries other than their original homeland (Shuval, 2000). What distinguishes diaspora migration from other types of migration is that it is based on claims to a natural right to return to an historic homeland. Crucially therefore, a key characteristic of diasporas is the strong sense of connection to a homeland maintained through cultural practices and ways of life practised in host countries, as well as numerous forms of interaction between diasporas and their home countries.
XHEAD Goods moving freely
Free trade economics treats labour, goods and capital as factors of production that should be allowed to move freely in order to maximize welfare gains on both a personal and global level, though there is ambiguity in regards to the welfare effects for the sending country as a whole.
International borders and constraints on migration tend to be treated as market failures. Under a free trade scenario, countries with relatively cheaper labour can export labour-intensive goods or workers so that over time differences in the prices of goods and wages of workers among countries would converge. This process would
reduce emigration pressures over time. In other words, economically motivated migration should decrease in a free trade world due to factor price equalization. Trading in goods would then become a substitute for economically motivated migration.
Empirical evidence has shown that trade and economic integration had the effect of slowing emigration from Europe to the Americas when in the 1950s and 1960s growth rates in Europe surpassed US growth rates and thus narrowed wage and income differentials. However, it has been observed that the process of moving towards freer trade and economic integration can increase migration in the short term and hence the need for cooperation between emigration and immigration countries to mitigate these effects (Widgren & Martin, 2002).
Widgren and Martin suggest the linking of Official Development Assistance (ODA)
to economic policy reforms in emigration countries, and the relaxation by developed countries of barriers to imports of labour-intensive goods such as farm commodities, garments and shoes produced by emigration countries.
Following this line of reasoning, if the SADC region succeeds in making progress in the area of regional integration, the migration pressure on South Africa, the major destination of Zimbabwean migrants as well as those from other member countries, could decrease over time because the resultant convergence of income levels emanating from integration would remove the incentive for such migration.
Post published in: Politics