Balancing the migrant flow

Source: Business Day EDITORIAL, 04/07/2016

ONE in every 113 of the global population is on the move, says the UN.
Levels of migration due to war and the quest for economic
opportunities have reached new heights as the war in Syria rages on
and the business of people smuggling thrives. While many of those
fleeing face persecution or death, just as many are economic migrants
desperate to escape poverty and make new lives for themselves.


SA knows this story well. Since 1994, when the country opened up to
the world and the continent, it has been a destination of choice for
hundreds of thousands of migrants, both genuine refugees and those
seeking economic opportunity. According to international agencies, SA
is the fifth-largest recipient country of migrants.


But immigration policy is a mess. While people whose skills are
considered desirable find it inordinately difficult to get
documentation, low-skill migrants have flooded in, contributing to
increased social instability and tension. As SA has a non-encampment
policy for asylum seekers and refugees, hundreds of thousands of
economic migrants clog the system under the cover of seeking refugee
status. While they wait, the courts have determined that they may work
and study.


Last week Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba quietly unveiled
dramatic proposals that will reshape the immigration regime. Asylum
seekers will no longer have the right to work or study while they wait
for their status to be determined. Refugee processing centres will
cater for all their needs with the assistance of international aid
agencies.


There is a suggestion that by-laws regulate the activities of refugees
— read Somali business people — who settle in communities.


Permanent residence and citizenship will be harder to get. While in
the past, five years in the country qualified a person for permanent
residence, this will no longer be the case. Permanent residents will
also not easily be able to get citizenship, which the proposals say
should be "exceptional".


A pragmatic view is taken on economic migration from our Southern
African Development Community (Sadc) neighbours. It`s neither
realistic to close the borders to those seeking to work in SA nor to
open the borders to all. A work permit system that will operate on
quotas for each of the neighbouring countries is tentatively
suggested.


The proposals promise that some things will get easier. It will be
easier for the families of skilled migrants to get documentation and
to work and study; qualification for skilled visas will be based on a
points system; and foreign graduates who study here will be encouraged
to stay and work.


There is no doubt that attempts to confine asylum seekers to
processing centres in border areas will be roundly condemned by
humanitarian agencies. Human rights advocates have fought hard to
extend the rights of asylum seekers. But equally, it can also be
anticipated that SA`s poor and unemployed won`t welcome the idea that
work visas be granted to quotas of foreigners from the Sadc, who will
compete with them for scarce job opportunities.


But those who react with emotion from either perspective should be
encouraged to engage more honestly with the debate.


SA needs a migration policy that balances the rights of its own
citizens with its responsibilities to refugees, and also takes into
account the reality of generations of economic migration.


Finding this balance will be difficult and is part of the reason the
discussion has been avoided for so long.


But further avoidance will mean we muddle along with a dysfunctional
policy regime that breeds corruption, violence, xenophobia and social
instability. Put to work in a positive way, inward migration can build
a country and bring skills, brain-gain and diversity.


ONE in every 113 of the global population is on the move, says the UN.
Levels of migration due to war and the quest for economic
opportunities have reached new heights as the war in Syria rages on
and the business of people smuggling thrives. While many of those
fleeing face persecution or death, just as many are economic migrants
desperate to escape poverty and make new lives for themselves.


SA knows this story well. Since 1994, when the country opened up to
the world and the continent, it has been a destination of choice for
hundreds of thousands of migrants, both genuine refugees and those
seeking economic opportunity. According to international agencies, SA
is the fifth-largest recipient country of migrants.


But immigration policy is a mess. While people whose skills are
considered desirable find it inordinately difficult to get
documentation, low-skill migrants have flooded in, contributing to
increased social instability and tension. As SA has a non-encampment
policy for asylum seekers and refugees, hundreds of thousands of
economic migrants clog the system under the cover of seeking refugee
status. While they wait, the courts have determined that they may work
and study.


Last week Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba quietly unveiled
dramatic proposals that will reshape the immigration regime. Asylum
seekers will no longer have the right to work or study while they wait
for their status to be determined. Refugee processing centres will
cater for all their needs with the assistance of international aid
agencies.


There is a suggestion that by-laws regulate the activities of refugees
— read Somali business people — who settle in communities.


Permanent residence and citizenship will be harder to get.


While in the past, five years in the country qualified a person for
permanent residence, this will no longer be the case. Permanent
residents will also not easily be able to get citizenship, which the
proposals say should be "exceptional".


A pragmatic view is taken on economic migration from our Southern
African Development Community (Sadc) neighbours. It`s neither
realistic to close the borders to those seeking to work in SA nor to
open the borders to all. A work permit system that will operate on
quotas for each of the neighbouring countries is tentatively
suggested.


The proposals promise that some things will get easier. It will be
easier for the families of skilled migrants to get documentation and
to work and study; qualification for skilled visas will be based on a
points system; and foreign graduates who study here will be encouraged
to stay and work.


There is no doubt that attempts to confine asylum seekers to
processing centres in border areas will be roundly condemned by
humanitarian agencies. Human rights advocates have fought hard to
extend the rights of asylum seekers. But equally, it can also be
anticipated that SA`s poor and unemployed won`t welcome the idea that
work visas be granted to quotas of foreigners from the Sadc, who will
compete with them for scarce job opportunities.


But those who react with emotion from either perspective should be
encouraged to engage more honestly with the debate.


SA needs a migration policy that balances the rights of its own
citizens with its responsibilities to refugees, and also takes into
account the reality of generations of economic migration.


Finding this balance will be difficult and is part of the reason the
discussion has been avoided for so long.


But further avoidance will mean we muddle along with a dysfunctional
policy regime that breeds corruption, violence, xenophobia and social
instability. Put to work in a positive way, inward migration can build
a country and bring skills, brain-gain and diversity.