Fostering National Development In Uganda Through Youth Migration

ESSAY TITLE

Fostering National Development In Uganda Through Youth Migration

AN ESSAY WRITTEN FOR THE

INTERNATIONAL ESSAY COMPETITION, 2011

OF THE

WORLD BANK

BY

BAKAMPA BRIAN BARYAGUMA

bakampasenior@gmail.com; www.huntedthinker.blogspot.ug

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Fostering National Development In Uganda Through Youth Migration

 Summary

 This essay addresses the issue of youth migration in Uganda, tackling its opportunities, challenges and implications. It is well researched, written and enriched with experiences of the author, other community members and the country at large.

In introduction, the essay notes that migration is a dimension of human freedom by which people choose the places of their choice in which to live and work.

The opportunities are namely, increased incomes and lifting livelihoods, improved health care, access to education, enhancement of empowerment, civic rights and participation, and security.

To broaden them in a manner that benefits youth migrants, it is necessary to ease regular movement channels, respect migrants’ fundamental rights, reduce costs of movement, improve outcomes for migrants and destination communities, enable benefits from internal mobility, and include migration into development strategies.

The challenges are namely, the on-going financial crisis, data limitations, high transport costs, poverty, conflicts and migration-related crimes, policy barriers, corruption, and misconception of the consequences of migration.

The implications are multi-faceted namely, improvement of household level impacts, generation of mosaic societies, community and national benefits, social and cultural implications, boosting aggregate economic growth, rapid urban growth, and fiscal impact.

In conclusion, I believe that the highly positive implications of youth migration suggest the possibility of increasing migrants’ economic and social contributions through policy measures and actions that broaden the benefits of movement.

The way forward is changing the negative nature of public debate through concerted leadership and action.

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Fostering National Development In Uganda Through Youth Migration

1. Introduction

 … At that time it was for the most part not very difficult to find work, because I had to seek work not as a skilled tradesman but as a so-called extra-hand ready to take any job that turned up by chance, just for the sake of earning my daily bread.

Thus I found myself in the same situation as all those emigrants who shake the dust of Europe from their feet, with the cast-iron determination to lay the foundations of a new existence in the New World and acquire for themselves a new home. Liberated from all the paralyzing prejudices of class and calling, environment and tradition, they enter any service that opens its doors to them, accepting any work that comes their way, filled more and more with the idea that honest work never disgraced anybody, no matter what kind it may be. And so I was resolved to set both feet in what was for me a new world and push forward on my own road.

I soon found out that there was some kind of work always to be got, but I also learned that it could just as quickly and easily be lost. The uncertainty of being able to earn a regular daily livelihood soon appeared to me as the gloomiest feature in this new life that I had entered.

………….

Among these emigrants I include not merely those who emigrate to America, but also the servant boy in the country who decides to leave his native village and migrate to the big city where he will be a stranger. He is ready to take the risk of an uncertain fate. In most cases he comes to town with a little money in his pocket and for the first few days he is not discouraged if he should not have the good fortune to find work. But if he finds a job and then loses it in a little while, the case is much worse....[1]

The Human Development Report, 2009 stated that, “A person’s opportunities to lead a long and healthy life, to have access to education, health care and material goods, to enjoy political freedoms and to be protected from violence are all strongly influenced by where they live.[2]” From the foregoing passage, this was true 72 years ago like it is now.

Societies (including Uganda) always considered migration to be a dimension of human freedom by which people choose the places of their choice in which to live and work. Unsurprisingly therefore, according to Dharam Ghai, “migration has been a constant in human history” for the last 50,000 years[3].

Box 1.1 contains definitions of key words used in this essay.

 

There are an estimated 214 million international migrants today and 740 million internal migrants, meaning that most migration occurs within national borders[4]. According to the World Youth Report, 2005, young people constitute a significant proportion of these global migrants[5].

As a place of origin, Uganda experiences different forms of youth migration, occurring for various reasons, including political instabilities and the search for better economic prospects. Currently, thousands of Karimojong are migrating to neighbouring towns[6]; several Bakiga leave the densely populated Kigezi region in South Western Uganda and settle mainly in the Bunyoro sub-region; thousands of young people (locally called nkuba’kyeyos––literally, emigrants) head for greener pastures in Europe, Asia and America; Iraq and Afghanistan are other key destination points, following the 2003 U.S. invasion.

As a destination point, the colonial period ushered in Indo-Asian immigrants who came as labourers on the railway line under British construction[7]; Uganda is home to thousands of refugees mainly from neighbouring Rwanda, Somalia, Southern Sudan and recently Kenya, who fled conflicts[8]––although some came purely for socio-economic reasons.

Therefore, migration has been part and parcel of Uganda’s national development.

2 Opportunities of youth migration.

Several motivational factors are responsible for youth migration in Uganda. Most migrants are pushed to their destination areas because of insufficient services in their home areas. It is the opportunities available in other areas that attract young people. This section considers some of these opportunities, how to broaden them and the ad hoc actions expected of Uganda and other destination countries.

2.1 Prospects of mobility.

The World Bank notes that, “many youth look for better opportunities by migrating” and that this is unavoidable and desirable[9]. This reflects the fact that mobility is not only a natural part of human history but a continuing dimension of development in which people endeavour to connect to emerging opportunities and in so doing, change their circumstances.

2.1.1 Increased incomes and lifting livelihoods.

Higher incomes boost purchasing power leading to increased consumption. This has a trickle-down effect on other sectors of the economy like enhancing trade and investment thus creating employment opportunities for more people. Along this usually comes a more pleasant working environment. Better economic opportunities result in enhanced livelihoods and quality of life.

2.1.2 Improved health care.

Moving to more developed areas improves access to better health facilities and other health-enhancing services like hygiene, better health information as well as professional attendants[10]. In Uganda, while 44% of the rural population reported illnesses, 38% of the urban areas did––meaning that there are more chances of survival in developed areas[11]. 

2.1.3 Access to education.

This is ranked among the most important reasons for youth migration[12]. Migration enhances educational attainment and standards by providing the language, technical and social skills that facilitate economic and social integration. Education has both intrinsic value and brings instrumental gains in income-earning potential and social participation. Availability of teachers and schools, good quality infrastructure, affordable transport costs and anticipated higher incomes are all attributes of better education services and facilities[13].

2.1.4 Enhancement of empowerment, civic rights and participation.

Empowerment enables youth to act freely in pursuit of their personal goals and wellbeing. Migration facilitates this by separating them from elders and leading them to take paid work outside their restrictive home environment. Moving potentially affects not only a person’s material wellbeing but also other things like bargaining power, self respect and dignity[14]. This benefits both girls and boys––the former by equipping them with skills to overcome inimical traditional roles, the latter by empowering them to challenge patriarchal structures within their families.

If any efforts to empower youth are to be complete, there should be political and civic guarantees ensuring their participation and civic engagement. The UNDP’s World Values Survey suggested that people with a migrant background are more likely to participate in a range of civic associations[15]. For a migrant, political participation increases with the ability to speak the host region or country’s language, with duration of stay, education in that area, connections to social networks and labour markets among others.

2.1.5 Security.

By the end of 2008, Uganda was home to 869,000 internally displaced persons[16]. She is also home to hundreds of thousands of refugees from volatile East African Countries, Somalia and Southern Sudan.

Paradoxically, forced migration has its own benefits. It protects people fleeing insecurity and violence from greater harm they would come to if they were to stay put. For example, young women––who together with children constitute an overwhelming majority in this category––are empowered as they adopt new social roles as protectors and providers for their families[17]. Box 2.1 recounts the testimony of a successful Ugandan emigrant who has helped rebuild his community.

Further, research indicates that education and health indicators in refugee camps are superior to those of surrounding local populations. By 2007, the gross primary school enrolment ratio of refugees was better than that of local Ugandans[18]. Similarly, the share of births attended by skilled medical personnel in camps was significantly higher than the national population[19].

2.2 Broadening opportunities for young migrants.

This sub-section recommends actions that will allow migration to contribute fully to broadening opportunities for young migrants, with the overall objective of enhancing their freedoms and development outcomes rather than controlling or restricting their movement, especially now when the world is slowly getting over the financial crisis.

2.2.1 Easing regular movement channels.

Unnecessary, overly restrictive and somewhat prohibitive legal and administrative barriers to movement should be eased off by liberalizing and simplifying the regular channels of movement. On top of often landing migrants into irregular settlement, they create uncertainty, frustration and expose them to double risks i.e. suffering unemployment, insecurity and social marginalization, yet at the same time often portraying them as the source of these problems[20].

More unskilled youth should be allowed[21] by expanding the number of their visas and promoting seasonal employment opportunities in ‘shortage occupations’ like agriculture. Topical issues like granting extension and permanence, employer portability, setting annual inflow rates in a manner responsive to local conditions and permitting migrants to leave and return to the host country should be addressed positively.

2.2.2 Respecting migrants’ fundamental rights.

Any proceedings against migrants (administrative and judicial) should be treated according to basic norms of respect, following the rule of law. All employees irrespective of origin deserve a suitable working environment, guaranteeing minimum standards like provision of basic health and safety protection. Alongside other fundamental human rights like liberty[22], security of person[23] and protection against forced labour[24] should exist basic migrant rights like the right to equal pay for equal work[25], right to join trade unions[26], protection against arbitrary detention[27] and having a fair hearing[28]. Countries of origin like Uganda can provide support to their young emigrants by establishing resource centres to offer advice about migrants’ rights and responsibilities and availing pre-departure orientation about what to expect abroad[29]. 

2.2.3 Reducing costs of movement.

Moving is a costly venture characterized by exorbitant and regressive fees whose costs are inflated by corruption, migrants’ inadequate information coupled with unequal bargaining power and middlemen charges. Costs can be reduced by:-

• Allowing free movement of labour. For example, the East African Common Market Protocol that came into force on 1^st July, 2010, allows East African citizens to move freely within the region.
• Reducing the cost of and easing access to official travel documents like passports.
• Empowering migrants through access to information and strong social networks. This does away with middlemen and bridges the information gaps between migrant workers and potential employers, thereby enhancing migrants’ bargaining power.
• Regulating private recruitment agencies to prevent abuses and frauds. Recruiters and employers should be considered to be ‘co-employers’ and so undertake joint liability.
• Governments on their own volition may have to take over the direct administration of recruitment instead of leaving all recruitment to private players.

2.2.4 Improving outcomes for migrants and destination communities.

Inclusion and integration arrangements are important for both individual migrants and host communities, making it necessary to recognize the costs of immigration at the community level and planning for the presence of migrants so that destination communities are not unduly inconvenienced. The influx of migrants could adversely affect certain people in destination areas, more so those with specific skills. Particularly, the following should be done:-

• Providing access to basic services like education and health care, to both migrants and locals equitably. In Uganda, migrants and non-migrants have access to free immunization services.
• Training migrants in local languages because it facilitates easy and quick inclusion and enhancing employability.
• Allowing people to work since ability to find work increases the chances of social inclusion and brings with it economic gains like salaries and wages. Working permits do not exist in Uganda.
• Supporting local government roles as migrants interact with local officials on a day-to-day basis. They should be supported by strengthening them and their affairs closely monitored. The actions of local officials and chiefs matter if social services are to be equitably accessible to all.
• Addressing discrimination and xenophobia, considering that engendering tolerance and protecting diversity at the community level is extremely important especially where there is a risk of violence. See Box 2.2.

 

2.2.5 Enabling benefits from internal mobility.

In terms of the number of people who move, internal migration far exceeds external migration[30]. Government programmes should facilitate internal migration processes. Accordingly, policies like removing the legal and administrative barriers to internal mobility, providing necessary support to migrants while at their destination areas in partnership with local communities, allocating more money to key local destination areas and building local government capacity to respond to people’s needs could be designed and implemented.

2.2.6 Mainstreaming migration into development strategies.

Migration issues should be integrated into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages of development strategies[31]. Migration can be helpful for households and families interested in diversifying and improving their livelihoods. Money flows especially in the form of remittances can improve well-being, stimulate economic growth and alleviate poverty.

3 Challenges of youth migration.

Several barriers hamper youth migration in Uganda, notwithstanding that migration is consistent with the idea that more often than not, people move in search of better opportunities. This is partly due to the fact that migration is a very contentious issue. This section examines some of the barriers.

3.1 The on-going financial crisis.

The financial crisis has become a jobs crisis that is synonymous with companies closing and laying off workers en masse. For example, in 2008, G TV closed its branches in Uganda forcing hundreds of youth into unemployment, especially those broadcasting the English Premier League and other European football tournaments in their local video halls. At the international level, major destination countries like the United States lost about six million jobs between December 2007 and May 2009[32]! In such scenarios, migrants are most affected because they are more vulnerable to recessions[33] and so are laid off first. In 2009, I was privileged to interact with a certain young man whose dream of obtaining a U.K. scholarship was shattered by the financial crisis: he was full of misery and sorrow. He hoped to find employment as he studied, but this dream was suddenly rendered unachievable.

3.2 Data limitations.

Severe data limitations obscure the magnitude and gravity of the migration debate. Youth migration data remains weak, patchy, non-comparable and hardly accessible[34] hence making it very difficult to viably plan for migrants’ well-being vis-a-vis the receiving community’s readiness to absorb them and to integrate migration into national development strategies as earlier advocated.

3.3 High transport costs.

Moving is very costly––the longer the distance, the higher the cost. Proximity between the source and destination region or country is a big challenge. More often than not, only the skilled, well-to-do and probably the very high risk takers are able to move. This excludes an overwhelming majority who would have also loved to migrate to other areas of opportunity. Therefore, the paradox that despite the fact that people moving out of poor countries have the most to gain from moving, yet they are the least mobile[35] is not surprising. The solution lies in reduction of the transaction costs of movement. Box 3.1 reveals my expensive travel experience.

 

3.4 Poverty.

The acute poverty levels prevailing in many households prevent many youth from moving as people are more likely to migrate only when they have the financial resources to do so. Lack of resources impairs the poor, depriving them of the means to move. Many Ugandan youth are unable to migrate from rural to urban areas like Kampala city because they cannot afford transport costs.

3.5 Conflicts and migration-related crimes.

Conflicts and criminality have a direct adverse impact on migrants especially in conditions of restricted choice by exposing movers to the worst human development outcomes including slavery and homelessness. Consequently, they tend to discourage potential migrants from moving to better areas. This is common in situations of clandestine criminal activity like human trafficking.

3.6 Policy barriers.

Since very few people migrate from developed to developing countries, policy barriers[36] operate in disfavor of youth hailing from developing countries like Uganda. This is because developed countries are not under pressure to open movement channels and admit migrants from developing countries[37]. Hence during the Doha Round, it emerged that actually the two blocks have conflicting interests regarding the issue of migration––while developing countries want to liberalize the movement of natural persons, the industrially developed ones want trade in services.

3.7 Corruption.

Corruption impedes youth migration by inflating the charges of getting the required international travel documents like passports. It causes excessive and unnecessary delays if one is unable to bribe their way out just because the concerned officers deliberately ignore applicants in order to force them into paying. This unnecessarily aggravates the costs of migrating. See Box 3.1.

3.8 Misconception of the consequences of migration.

There is a popular misconception that immigrants have a negative impact on the economy or that they compromise security. The presence of immigrants is associated with the erosion of public order and the rule of law. This is why in May, 2008 South Africans attacked foreign immigrants especially Zimbabweans, accusing them of taking their jobs.

Public information and awareness-raising campaigns to provide people with impartial information and analysis on the scale, scope and consequences of migration is important. It is only then that people can make objective opinions and attain factual understanding of the issues at hand.

4 Implications of youth migration.

The implications of youth migration in Uganda are diverse, affecting different categories of people differently. Its impacts are multi-faceted––both from the perspective of Uganda as an origin and destination state. Like UNICEF noted, migration can be both a liability and an opportunity for development[38]. It is from the overall outcomes of the “liability” and “opportunity” elements that its complex, context-specific and fluid impacts or implications are determined.

4.1 Impact on Uganda as a place of origin.

Many young Ugandans leave the country on a daily basis in search of greener pastures abroad and their departure means a lot to our country. Much as migration is perceived to be a curse to developing countries, this essay generally adopts an optimistic attitude to the matter. Nevertheless, negative perceptions are given due consideration.

4.1.1 Household level impacts.

Through financial remittances, migration improves the migrant’s prospects and that of other family members which are used to finance family investments and immediate consumption needs. Remittances have played a key role in the survival of many war-affected Ugandan communities especially Northern Uganda. See Box 2.1.

However, migration can be painful involving high emotional costs for the affected families, responsible for the collapse of the traditional safety net between sending and receiving families[39]. Unlike in the past when youth migrated to work for people with whom their families had pre-established relations, changed economic situations mean that many youth often work for total strangers nowadays[40].

4.1.2 Generation of mosaic societies.

A great diversity of ethnic groups living amidst indigenous majorities has generated a mosaic texture of societies, affecting their ethnic and cultural diversity and basically changing their composition[41]. A country like the United States has been positively impacted upon by migration and derives much of its prosperity from the cosmopolitan nature of its population of 250 million.

4.1.3 Community and national benefits.

Political transformations[42], liberalization of community norms[43] and promotion of entrepreneurial skills are in many respects positive products of migration. For instance, the nkuba’kyeyos (emigrant youth workers) not only invest in productive activities but also transfer technology, repatriate enhanced skills and exposure to better working and management practices.

The traditional fear that the departure of able-bodied youth causes labour scarcity and out-put depreciations is countered by the fact that the remittances they send back home are an important source of rural investment finance[44].

4.1.4 Social and cultural implications.

Social remittances[45] are responsible for changes in traditional, caste-like forms of hereditary inequality based on trivial considerations like kinship, skin colour and religion which impede equitable development of inferior status ethnicities. The Batwa community is a good example whose gradual access to higher incomes and education has changed their social standing. Migrants also enrich the social fabric of their adopted homes as evidenced by the impact of the Bakiga community in Bunyoro region.

But migration could be recipe for violence in the host community as discussed in Box 4.1. Further, it is likely to spark a ‘culture of migration’ in which movement is associated with personal, social and material success while staying put smacks of underdevelopment and failure.

4.2 Impact on Uganda as a destination point.

Uganda is home to thousands of refugees from volatile neighbouring East African countries as well as Somalia and Southern Sudan. Better still, Uganda hosts several students from around the region who come in search of better quality University education than is available in their home countries. Therefore, like any other destination point, Uganda is also impacted upon by youth migration.

4.2.1 Boosting aggregate economic growth.

Migration spurs aggregate economic growth because it encourages innovation and specialization, thereby stimulating local investments and employment. It is not surprising therefore, that U.S President Barack Obama, in his 2011 State of the Union Address, promised to make immigration an important issue, especially by protecting young and brilliant immigrant students from deportation.

4.2.2 Rapid urban growth.

The flow of people to cities causes the concentration of ideas, talent and capital leading to positive spillovers like increased investment and employment; this may occasion severe strain on local services and amenities though.

4.2.3 Fiscal impact.

The question is whether or not migrants take more than they receive. When migrants accept loathed work like child care, they facilitate the entry of highly skilled women into the labour force––yet both pay taxes. When migrants’ skills complement those of locals, then both stand to benefit. In such situations, it is untenable to say that migrants take more than they receive by imposing tax burdens on the local population.

5 Conclusion and the way forward.

5.1 Conclusion.

What emerged is that youth migration is a concept of human development, encompassing people’s expansion of their freedom to live their lives as they choose and that mobility is a human freedom, exercisable through movement.

If migration is to truly make youth feel that they have freedom and choice over their lives, the public policies and actions they encounter during movement should be designed to this end. Better still, although migration has the potential to enhance human development, it pays a lot to extend the provision of services and infrastructure to places of origin. This provides opportunities for people to develop productive skills and to compete for jobs locally, while at the same time preparing them for jobs elsewhere if they choose to move.

Migration largely affects young people’s desire to improve their livelihoods, yet this is constrained by policy and economic barriers. Amidst these challenges, it is not yet clear whether the financial crisis will either count in favour or against migration. The highly positive implications of youth migration for both origin and host communities suggest the possibility of increasing migrants’ economic and social contributions through policy measures and actions that enhance and broaden the benefits of movement.

5.2 The Way forward: benefits vis-à-vis risks.

The Human Development Report, 2009 found that demographic trends favour relaxing the barriers to migrants’ entry[46]; the growing labour abundance of developing countries suggests entry into a period when increased migration to developed countries will benefit individual migrants, their families and will also be increasingly advantageous for the populations of destination countries[47]; and that fears about migrants are generally exaggerated[48].

The benefits (also opportunities) of migrating outweigh the risks (also challenges) involved. Changing the negative nature of public debate through concerted leadership and action is the way forward to fostering national development in Uganda through youth migration. Only then can we win the future––as Bobby Kennedy said, “The future is not a gift. It is an achievement.” Hope and inspiration may be found in the belief that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.

Notes and References

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[1] Adolf Hitler, MEIN KAMPF, as translated by James Murphy, February, 1939, pp. 28 & 29.

[2] United Nations Development Programme, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2009––Overcoming barriers: Human mobility and development, New York, U.S.A, p. 9.

[3] Dharam Ghai, “Migration, Diaspora and Development”, a paper presented at Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala, 9^th-05-2008, at p. 1. Mr. Ghai is a former Director, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and of the World Employment Programme Research, ILO.

[4] Human Development Report, 2009, op. cit. at p. 21.

[5] World Youth Report 2005; Young people today and in 2015, p. 16.

[6] Elizabeth Stites, Dyan Mazurana and Darlington Akabwai, “Out-migration, Return, and Resettlement in Karamoja, Uganda: The case of Kobulin, Bokora County”, June 2007 at pp. 6-14.

[7] When late President Idi Amin took power in 1971, he expelled all Asians from Uganda in 1972, during his economic war accusing them of “exploiting and milking Uganda dry”. Many of them returned after 1986 when President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his National Resistance Movement/Army came to power.

[8] Many refugees have since been assimilated into Ugandan society and cultures. For example, the 3^rd Schedule of the 1995 Uganda Constitution recognizes “Banyarwanda” as being part of Uganda’s indigenous communities as at 1^st February, 1926.

[9] The World Bank, AFRICA DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS 2008/09: Youth and Employment in Africa––The Potential, the Problem, the Promise, Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A, December, 2008, at p. 1.

[10] The effect of exposure to better information is seen in the fact that emigrants tend to have fewer and more nourished children than non-migrants.

[11] Uganda Bureau of Statistics, UGANDA NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY 2009/2010, Kampala, Uganda, at p. 20.

[12] The World Bank, op. cit. at p. 18.

[13] Uganda hosts several students from around East Africa who come to get good quality university education. One university called Kampala International University has been nicknamed “Kenya In Uganda” for its dominant Kenyan students population.

[14] Human Development Report, 2009, op. cit. at p. 60.

[15] ibid, at p. 61.

[16] ibid, at p. 63. Most of these are victims of the civil war between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda.

[17] Elizabeth Stites et al, op. cit. at p. 16. This may be short lived though as men resume these roles upon return.

[18] Human Development Report 2009, op. cit. at p. 64.

[19] ibid. The probable explanation for this is that aid agencies find a lot more interest in refugees than locals.

[20] ibid, at p. 95.

[21] This is because they are the ones most affected by movement barriers. A disproportionate number of migrants moving from poor to rich areas consist of persons with professional and technical qualifications. For example, notwithstanding that Uganda’s health centres seriously need medical personnel Uganda has ‘lost’ many of its doctors and nurses to rich countries like the U.K. and U.S.A.

[22] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3.

[23] ibid.

[24] ibid., Article 23(1).

[25] International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, Art. 25(a).

[26] ibid., Article 26.

[27] ibid., Article 16(1).

[28] ibid., Article 18.

[29] See, Dharam Ghai, op. cit. at p. 4.

[30] Human Development Report 2009, op. cit. at p. 106.

[31] IOM Policy Brief, “Migration and the Millennium Development Goals”, September, 2010, p. 3.

[32] Human Development Report 2009, op. cit. at p. 41.

[33] For reasons that usually they are younger, have less formal education, are insufficiently experienced and tend to work as temporary labourers. See, Human Development Report 2009, at p. 41.

[34] The 2009 Human Development Report sarcastically notes that, “It is much easier for policy makers to count the international movements of shoes and cell phones than of nurses and construction workers.” at p. 28.

[35] Human Development Report 2009, op. cit. at p. 24.

[36] In exercise of their sovereignty and territorial integrity, many destination countries have increased policy barriers to movement. Most regimes tend to favour high-skilled youth against their low-skilled counterparts. In most cases, this is in response to public opinion which tends to favour greater restrictions on immigration, for instance India.

[37] A paltry 3% of international migrants move from developed to developing countries. See, the Human Development Report 2009, op. cit. at p. 21.

[38] UNICEF, “Children, Youth and Migration”, at p. 31.

[39] Elizabeth Stites et al, op. cit. at p. 9.

[40] ibid.

[41] Dharam Ghai, op. cit. at p. 2.

[42] The Uganda North American Association is a relevant example. It has contributed to the improvement of political institutions in Uganda by acting as agents of political and social change, banking on new values, expectations and ideas influenced by their experiences mainly in Canada and U.S.A.

[43] There is a popular belief among Ugandan women that migrant men are more loving and caring than their non-migrant counterparts.

[44] However, the 2009 Human Development Report warns that remittance-led development is not a suitable growth strategy. See p. 79.

[45] These include ideas, practices, identities and social capital that flow back to families and communities at places of origin.

[46] Human Development Report, 2009, op. cit. at p. 44.

[47] ibid.

[48] ibid., at p. 92.