ECONOMIC MIGRATION IN SOUTH WEST INDIAN OCEAN

THE REPUBLIC OF SEYCHELLES EXPERIENCE

 

 

The Seychelles archipelago, made up of 115 granitic and coral islands with a population of 87,000 is situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean 40 below the equator and approximately 1800 kilometres east of Africa.  It is nearly 1500 kilometres north of the island of Mauritius and just a little over 1600 kilometres from Madagascar and Reunion Island and nearly five hours by plane from India, remained uninhabited until 1770 when the first inhabitants started to arrive.

 

Those first inhabitants who came from Mauritius and La Reunion were French families and their African servants and also some servants of Indian origin.

 

It is also worth noting that until the mid 19th century, a number of African slaves settled in Seychelles after they were freed from Arab traders by the British navy.

 

In 1810, the Seychelles became a British colony administered from Mauritius and in 1903 became a colony with its own administration.

 

From 1903 outwards, Seychelles experienced an influx of migrants from India and China who came with their families to set up small commercial activities.

 

As a result of the European, African and Asian migrants, a multi-ethnic society with its people called  the” Seychellois” was born as an independent nation in 1976.

 

 

Unfortunately, the country experienced a “coup” which toppled the elected coalition Government in June 1977 and a one-party state was established as a result.  Shortly after the coup, many families who were perceived as anti-government were forced into political exile mainly to Britain and Canada with a few seeking exile in France and elsewhere.  This was the first significant exodus of citizens of Seychelles which also sadly resulted in a brain drain.

 

THE ECONOMIC MIGRANTS – WHO ARE THEY?

During the mid 1980s, the Government of Seychelles embarked on a socialist experiment to turn the country into a welfare state.  A policy of providing free education, free health care, social security and the provision of low rent houses to the population was adopted.

 

At the same time, the Government also embarked in a nationalisation programme of several important economic activities and enterprises such as hotels, petroleum products import and distribution, production of local produce, export of cash crops, public transport, importation of essential goods and also some non-essential goods.  Government trading companies called parastatals were set-up to manage these activities and this resulted in Government becoming the biggest employer.

 

To help finance imports of essential goods and other goods by these parastatals, commercial banks were forced to deposit over half their foreign currencies at the Central Bank of Seychelles thus starving the private sector businesses of much needed foreign currency for letters of credit for importation of goods after import permits had been approved by the Seychelles Marketing Board’s Import Division.  This unit was set up to control import and export.  During that period several Seychellois-owned businesses collapsed or closed down.

 

 

For the Government to be able to finance all the activities that were under its control, it further resorted to extensive borrowing from both local and foreign banks and in some cases from the citizens (population) through the issue of Government bonds and treasury bills and other monetary schemes which paid better rates of interest than commercial banks – in fact at times even commercial banks found it attractive and convenient to invest in these bonds and bills due to the reduced activities of the private sector.

 

During that time, Government had embarked in several extensive housing projects but due to shortage of skilled labour, the country was forced to allow construction companies to import foreign labour mainly from India and China. Our own skilled labour had been  forced to leave the country to go into political and economic exile following the coup of June 1977 and the rest were working in the parastatal companies which I have mentioned before,

 

However in 1991, under pressure mainly from the western European countries following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and possibly in response to pressure from foreign creditors and aid donors, the then  President restored the multi-party system of democracy and this led to a renewed interest by foreign investors in our tourism, fisheries and off-shore sectors.  But  despite the country’s economy being heavily dependent on the fishing industry and upmarket tourism, the latter is vulnerable to downturns in the global travel market.

 

Thus the Government decided to engage the private sector in the development process by promoting private sector and foreign direct investment from abroad.

 

 

Among the new direct investment project were the following:-

 

(i)                  Fish canning factory – a joint venture between Heinz and Seychelles Government.  Heinz sold its shares to Lehman Brothers about three years ago.

(ii)                Sales of Government owned hotels to private investors (mainly foreigners) and construction of new five start hotels with the financial participation of a few local citizens as investors.

(iii)               Registration of off-shore companies.

(iv)              European fishing companies setting up tuna fishing operations in the country through the acquisition of fishing licenses and fish transhipment activities.

 

At the same time, Government has accelerated its house building and other social development projects such as schools, clinics and community or district facilities for local Govt administration.

 

With all the above projects being implemented, it is obvious that the country’s population of 87,000 people from which we have a workforce of approximately 46,000 could not satisfy the labour market.

 

Consequently, the Seychelles has had to resort to the importation of additional skilled foreign labour from such countries like India, China, Madagascar, Mauritius, Kenya, the Philippines, Sir Lanka and even the Maldives.

 

 

RELIGION AND FOREIGH LABOUR

With Seychelles’ population being 90% Christians with a catholic majority, we are now also witnessing the emergence of new religions with the arrival of the foreign workers – a Tamil temple has been built in the capital city Victoria.  A few Muslim mosques have also been erected.  Currently there are 34 foreign religions or religious sects registered and operating in the archipelago.

 

As at 2008, it is estimated that 8000 work permits have been issued to foreign workers to work in the country.  This represents nearly 10% of the local population and 15% of the total workforce of the country.

 

CULTURE AND MARRIAGE

However, a new phenomenon is also beginning to in that some of the foreign workers are trying to become citizens by applying for naturalization.

 

This move is strongly opposed by the local population, as it is seen as a potential threat to the existing multi-ethnic social cohesion as some of the nationalities could promote communalism through their religious or cultural association.

 

Moreover, sometimes the reasons given in the official publication by those applying for naturalization are statements such as “I Love the country” or “I would like to retire here” or “I have worked for five years as a work or construction site supervisor,” etc.,

 

 

 

During this year’s review exercise of the country’s constitution the subject is being carefully debated and the general feeling is not to grant citizenship to foreigners but rather resident permits with permission to work, as this approach would address our skilled manpower shortage without having to grant political rights to the foreigners.  Such a policy has been introduced in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is working well.

 

Due to the policy of granting citizenship to foreigners, the country’s judiciary has for a number of years been run practically by foreign judges who after spending some time in the country, apply to become citizens so that they can be re-appointed judges for life until they retire.  This has stifled the chances for local lawyers to become judges.  Furthermore, during the period that the judges are working under a non-renewable contract as foreign judges; those judges are perceived to be delivering justice more in favour of Government in trirval and political cases including other cases by the public.

 

Another phenomenon which is slowly developing with foreign workers, is that sometime they try to marry local citizens as a way of staying in the country after their work permit expires and later on try to apply for direct citizenship – it is like a “marriage of convenience”.

 

As the granting of citizenship has been perceived by the locals to be closely linked to official corruption, it is imperative that this perception is addressed through the country’s constitution by reviewing the reasons for the granting of citizenship.

 

According to the Washington’s based Population Reference Bureau, the number of international migrants is at an all-time high.  There were 191 million migrants in 2005 which means that 3 percent of the world’s people left their country of birth or citizenship for a year or more.  However, most of the world’s 6.6 billion people never cross a national border.

 

The international community believes that international migration should be voluntary and has tried to minimize “forced migration,” whether motivated by persecution or economic deprivation at home.

 

However, the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that “everyone has the right to leave any country, including his/her own, and to return to his/her country.

 

But the right to emigrate does not give migrants a right to immigrate, and most migrants are welcomed unconditionally into the countries to which they move.

 

Migration is the movement of people from one place to another and for different reasons.

 

As long as humans have wondered in search of food they have migrated from place to place.

But international migration is a relatively recent development.  Only in the early 20th century was the system of nation-states, passports and visas was developed to regulate the flow of people across borders.

 

Most nations discourage immigration – they do not welcome the arrival of foreigners who wish to settle and become naturalized citizens.

 

Some also discourage emigration.  There are still countries that prevent their citizens from leaving their countries (N. Korea).

 

 

Perspectives on the rising number of migrants can be framed by two extremes.  At one extreme, organizations ranging from the Catholic Church to the World Bank have called for more migration, arguing that people should not be confined to their respective countries of birth by national borders and that more migration would speed up economic growth and development in both sending and receiving countries.

 

Migration is usually a carefully considered individual or family decision.  The major reasons to migrate to another country can be grouped into two categories: economic and non-economic.  The factors that encourage a migrant to actually move fall into three categories: demand-pull, supply-push and networks.  An economic migrant maybe encouraged to move by employer recruitment of guest workers or demand-pull reasons.

 

Globalization has made people everywhere aware of conditions and opportunities abroad.

Globalization has also increased links between countries, as evidenced by sharply rising flows of goods and capital over national borders and the growth of international and regional bodies that regulate such movements.

 

However controlling the entry and stay of people remains a core element of national sovereignty worldwide and the Seychelles is no exception.

 

Bernard R Elizabeth

PRESIDENT – ACI SEYCHELLES

 

 

Dated: 15th October, 2008