26.3.08

Move to the Diaspora is beneficial



Brain drain, which results from the international migration of highly educated manpower to rich countries, should have ceased to worry Kenyans over 30 years.

At this time Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand established fully-fledged institutions catering for the interests of non-resident citizens.

These institutions were tasked with tapping the $150 billion that their non-resident citizens remitted from abroad.

Kenyans living or working abroad, regardless of their skills, qualifications and sporting talents are not a total loss to the country as implicated by some.

They remit an excess of $560 million to their families annually. This is only 0.4 per cent of the global remittances. It is no longer advisable to remind students going abroad to come back at the end of their studies. Globalisation has rendered such advice obsolete with the emerging ‘world without borders.

It is up to the individual to find a niche in this competitive world. Africa, after all, is a net consumer of world intellectual output.

Instead of the present small number of two million Kenyans living and working abroad, we should be targeting higher figures.

Since we have invested heavily in education, let the world be our fodder. It is the only way of using the surplus manpower besides creating mobility of labour.

There is need to urgently create structures that help Kenyan communities in the Diaspora.
If these ambitions are pursued as soon as possible, as President Kibaki reassured the nation on Jamhuri Day, "things will even be much better."

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