SA Migration International

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EDITORIAL: Shift the paradigm on immigration

Source: Business Day, 10/12/2015

WERE it not for municipal by-laws, the area outside the Marabastad
refugee reception centre run by the Department of Home Affairs could
easily become a tent city akin to a makeshift refugee camp.
Marabastad is one of the centres where refugees have to go to secure
the necessary documentation to remain legally in SA. It has been
identified in a report by Lawyers for Human Rights and the African
Centre for Migration and Society as a hotbed of corruption,
specifically bribe solicitation by officials.
The situation, according to the report, is "an outcome of a deliberate
government choice" to avoid addressing fundamental issues in the
system.
We couldn`t agree more.
Corruption generally grows from inefficiencies that make a system
unresponsive to the needs it is supposed to address.
This produces two destructive and correlated outcomes.
The first is that those who seek positive outcomes to address their
desperation have to produce incentives, often illegal, to ensure that
someone inside the system negates its inherent obstacles, justified or
not. These incentives manifest themselves as bribery and other forms
of corrupt activities.
In the second instance, those who run the system may seek to profit
from its inefficiencies by demanding incentives to navigate its
obstacles.
It is worse when the system is inherently ineffective.
The report shows how the two come together in a deadly cocktail of
desperation and corruption, which appears to have grown worse despite
several attempts to clean up the Department of Home Affairs.
Regardless of the tough actions that may have been taken against
corrupt officials, there is likely to be continuing graft until the
South African government accepts that its immigration policy is
woefully dishonest and inadequate.
At the heart of the gridlock is the government`s unwillingness to
recognise and be honest about what type of immigrant we need. Given
the scarcity of critical skills in different sectors of the economy,
and even critical professions such as teaching or boilermaking, the
country should be able to tell how many more people it needs in the
short term to fill the gap.
But it does not.
For instance, applying for a work permit is like navigating a maze
full of deep trenches and booby traps. As a consequence, economic
migrants are forced to apply for refugee status when they could be
gainfully employed elsewhere, or start enterprises.
It is of no help that the government often refuses to acknowledge that
several African governments are autocratic and abusive towards their
citizens.
Despite the hazards of being in a foreign country in which there is
the distinct possibility of becoming a victim of gratuitous xenophobic
violence, people still come to SA.
Our human rights-based political system will always be a magnet for
the abused from elsewhere.
Immigration policy is often unpleasant business.
SA`s policy has to provide clarity on who is welcome in the country
and who will have difficulty securing residence. Until this is done,
and systems are put in place to process the different types of
immigrant, the problem of corruption will persist.
Many immigrants have to endure hardship just to get to SA and it is an
indictment that we cannot afford them the basic dignity of knowing
where they stand so that they may find suitable ways of rebuilding
their lives.

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