INTRODUCTION
Zimbabwe has
been prone to a number of challenges over the past years which have catalyzed
the immense emigration of its population .Zimbabweans can now be found all over
the globe in a plethora of capacities regionally and internationally to the
extent that the term Diaspora trips the tongues of politicians, academics and
the media alike. This research focuses on assessing how the Diaspora has impacted
on the general populace in Zimbabwe and particularly Kwekwe`s Mbizo suburbs.
In line with the
above focus, the study analyzed the factors leading to the rise of the Diaspora,
assessed the dynamics and patterns of the diaspora as well as evaluated the
impact it has had on the populace’s livelihoods .The diaspora has become a key
industry that has sustained Zimbabwe in the dire times it has been facing,[1]therefore
it cannot go unnoticed as to its
contribution in developing households and the nation at large whether it
has brought more good than harm.
The term
Diaspora has subsequently come to be used interchangeably but exclusively to
refer to the migration of people; therefore diaspora and migration have become synonymous.
The Zimbabwean crisis was regionalized and internationalized by economic,
political and social push factors that have led to the exodus of an estimated
3-4 million Zimbabweans.[2]
Zimbabwe has
been characterized by high rates of inflation, unemployment, underpayment,
droughts and political instability which have contributed to the emigration of
its people. Though migration has been described as movement of people from
regions of deficit to areas of surplus, the fact that the Zimbabwean diaspora
has a 95% literacy rate and a highly educated population, leaves a lot to be desired
in terms of the impact it has on the mother country.[3]
Throughout Southern
Africa people know their history as a history as that of migration, of
interaction with nature and with other people, therefore there is nothing
fragile about migration.[4]Migration
has become more than a temporary coping strategy, it is an old age phenomenon
of dealing with needs and wants as well as vital aspects such as poverty, food
security and unemployment .This can be traced back to the labour migrations to
South Africa which had been a feature of Zimbabwean society during the pre-independence
era
Globalisation coupled
with economic hardships can be said to have exacerbated the migration that has become eminent in the
country creating the Zimbabwean Diaspora
in countries such as South
Africa, Botswana, Mozambique ,Australia, Canada ,United Kingdom to mention but
a few The diasporans` main contribution is through remittances which they send
back home, therefore it is the thrust of this research to analyse how this has
impacted on addressing the factors that led to the migration of that person who is in the
diaspora. The diaspora from this context has been used to describe the migrant
and sometimes the country to which the migrant fled to.
Statement of the problem
The diaspora as
much as it is a survival strategy
has had
some repercussions which can be
coined as positive and negative like any other concept,
in line with development this poses a question on its viability noting its impact on the family
unit and the nation as a whole this
observation was the basis upon which
this research was based on .
Research Aims and Objectives
This study seeks
to:
1
ascertain the
contributory factors leading to the rise
of the diaspora
2
analyse the
migration and diaspora dynamics through
using categories like gender, class ,
age and migration patterns
3
assess the impact of the diaspora socially and
economically at household level.
Justification of the Study
The researcher
chose Kwekwe and Mbizo to be particular due to a number of reasons, however the fact that Kwekwe is in the
Midlands Province of Zimbabwe was a major contributory factor. This is true in
the sense the sense that being in the Midlands allows free
flow or migration to a diverse number of
countries as going to South Africa is
almost equidistant to going to Zambia therefore Kwekwe provides a diversified
diaspora as compared to other cities which are in
the peripheries of the country which would favour movement to one particular country for
example those in Mutare would favour
going to Mozambique while those in
Beitbridge would prefer South
Africa. Hence due to its location the researcher chose Kwekwe
Moreover the
fact that Kwekwe is a mining town
whereby most households depend
on mining prompted the researcher as Kwekwe
provided room for a comparative analysis
between the impact of migration or the diaspora in relation to gold mining.
Furthermore the research was carried out in Kwekwe because it was
cheaper due to that it was the researcher `s home area.
The research
covers the period from 2004 to 2008 because that is the period in which the diaspora
became more fashionable due to the heightening of the problems in the country though
a background study would be relevant. This time frame allowed the researcher to
note the different impact s in relation to the period under the study and
therefore a holistic conclusion can be deduced
Furthermore this
research was carried out due to that most literature on the diaspora focuses either
on the political impact or the living conditions of the diasporans in the country
of migration or refuge leaving out the demographic, social and economic impact
it has on the country of origin.
Definition of Terms
Diaspora has been defined by Sanjek to mean the process whereby people leave their home area from distant regions within or beyond the state in which they reside and continue to remain
in contact with their point of
origin in various ways .[5]In
the contemporary diaspora has been used to refer to the country of migration
therefore diaspora in this context refers to both the migrant and at times the
county of migration to. Diasporans therefore become global citizens
Populace refers to the
population that includes men, women and children .This research focuses on the
livelihoods of the family unit
Remittances refers
to money or goods that are
transmitted to the households back
home by people working away from their communities of origin
and they can be formal or
informal .Formal through legal means
such as bank transfers and informal through
unofficial channels like private
couriers , friends , relatives or delivered
home by diasporans themselves.
Literature Review
History is
littered with literature about the Diaspora, however it must be noted that its impact varies due to time and
context. Diaspora is derived from the Greek word diaspeirein which means to
scatter, for example that of seeds and movement of any population sharing
common ethnic identity that were either forced to leave or voluntarily left
their settled territory to one that is often far from the former[6].
Although this statement provides a standing it falls short in that it notes
that migrants have the same identity
and ethnic base
of which the Zimbabwean diaspora has
mixed ethnic feelings as
it comprises of both the
Shona and the Ndebele .
The first
mention of the term is in
Deuteronomy 28 verse 25 and
it referred to the first
population of Jews
exiled from Israel in 607 BC by
Babylonians and Judeans under the
Roman Empire.[7]The
term alluded to the Jewish Diaspora. It must be pointed out that these
diasporans were largely political migrants and hence in relation with this
study the impact is different.
The European Diaspora
which migrated from
between 300 - 500 AD included the
relocation of Goths (Ostrogoths),
Visigoths , Vandals , Britons, Isles and numerous
Slavic tribes, [8]in
the 19th century there was the
Irish Diaspora which was brought by An
Gorta Mor Or
‘ The Great Hunger “
or Irish Famine .[9]About 45 %
to 85% of the Irish
population emigrated to countries
like Canada , Britain and the United
States of America . The total
population numbered about between 80
-100 million people. [10]
In Asia the largest is the Indian diaspora in China and it migrated between 1900 and 1949, it was mainly caused war , starvation and
political corruption .[11]
Most emigrants were illiterate , poorly educated
peasants and coolies in need for
labour in countries
like Malaysia , Australia or the
Americas. The Indian diaspora tolled
about 25 million
people of diverse heterogeneous , eclectic global
community representing different
regions , language culture and
faith only bound by coming from
India .[12] this
type of diaspora is distinct from the Zimbabwean in that
most of the Zimbabweans
in the diaspora are literate 95 % of which
represent skilled labour and there
was no protracted war to talk of but political as well as economic instability
coupled by drought . Due to these
differences the impact is bound to be different.
The largest diaspora
is that from Africa
which has been noted to have
started with African
Slave Trade and its effects were
more subtle , this true in that
millions of Africans died during this period and the demographic impact
has been open to debate up until now . in
relation to this research
the African diaspora can be said to have been largely
racial whereas the
Zimbabwean one is mainly
as a result of globalisation and
economic pursuit which is voluntary therefore it differs .
Safran believes that
diasporans are people dispersed
from an original centre to at least two peripheral places that maintain a
memory vision or myth about their
original homeland , furthermore
the people cannot be fully accepted by
their host countries.[13] Cohen further asserts
that diaspora is characterized
by dispersal , scattering,
collective trauma cultural
flowering , troubled relationship with the destination therefore
there is victims diaspora , labour diaspora , imperial
diaspora , trade diaspora and cultural diaspora .[14]
Unlike refugees diaspora involves
no domination over or dispossession and
enforced transportation of others , unlike expansion
diasporans are spatially discontinuous
with distance and other
people separating their
population clusters.[15]
Diaspora thus suffers from different circumstances, contexts and time therefore
their impact is different.
Sifelani
Tsiko has also contributed
on the migration discourse however her focus
was on the impact it has on food security in Chiredzi .[16]
Her study in as much as it is essential in bringing out the
gender dimension falls short in that it does not provide a holistic approach as to the impact of
the diaspora on the livelihoods of
the populace. Her emphasis was on the push factors
which she noted to be poverty ,
economic hardships, natural calamities
like drought and political
factors .Furthermore her
focus mainly on women
labour mobility left
out other aspects as her research was confined to Chiredzi`s rural
areas .
Globalisation
has largely been the contributory factor towards the creation of the diaspora therefore
with it comes the free flow of factors of production like the contentious issue
of brain drain which is a negative impact. Based on this view it holds water to
note that the diaspora in as much as it has negative impacts it also has
positive ones.
Dick Ranga has
also contributed some literature on the impact of migration , however his research is limited to
ESAP (Economic Structural Adjustment
Programme) as the only cause
of migration .[17]
This poses some difficulty in analysing
its impact as a multidimensional approach
would produce a much
more holistic result . This is
also true for Maphosa`s contribution where he mainly looks at remittances as the only impact of the diaspora.[18]
In as much as remittances are
concerned his contribution is
vital however remittances
cannot be seen as the only
contribution that the diaspora
has had on the livelihoods of the Zimbabwean populace . Due to
these shortfalls the researcher was prompted to conduct this research bearing
the socio-economic impact of
the diaspora as an avenue
that suffers from negligence
by scholars and researchers alike
Methodology
The study was
conducted using mainly qualitative methods of data collection and the following
strategies were uitilised:
The descriptive
survey was used for this study. The method was appropriate because it gave the researcher
a general idea about the present problem.
Surveys are conducted to establish the nature of an existing condition,
provide an insight into the situation and have a higher degree of representativeness.
Surveys are objective, specific, practical, accurate and factual. A descriptive
survey tells us how many members of a population have a certain characteristic.
The descriptive survey method allows data to be collected through the use of
research instruments such as questionnaires and interviews which were used in
this research.
The researcher
used sampling and the sample used consisted of households from Mbizo sections 4
extensions, section 2, 6, 13 and 8. All
these sections have households with different classes
as section 4 is a low density
sections, 13 and 8 are medium density whereas 6 and 2 are high density sections,
the researcher employed random sampling
technique with a sampling interval of ten households per section .
A focus group discussion
(FGD) is an interview with a small group of people on a specific topic and
these were held with selected households some of whom had relatives in the
diaspora, others were once in the diaspora, whilst others did not have their
relatives in the diaspora .The method has been observed to be advantageous in
that the process is of low cost and rich in data. It also stimulates the
answers and supports them in remembering events
Interviews were
also used as they allow interviewees to respond in their own words and are
flexible that one can probe for more specific answers however they have a
drawback in that the more the researcher gets control of the interview the more
the respondent may feel threatened or intimidated by the interviewer especially
if the respondent is sensitive to a topic or some of the questions. Interviews
were conducted with the different members from the selected households.
Questionnaires
were used in the study due to their anonymity
which allows respondents the freedom to give responses without
prejudice. 50 questionnaires were distributed to people from Mbizo suburb. The
method however required skill in that questions had to be straight forward
enough to be comprehended solely on the basis of printed instructions and
definitions.
In carrying out
this research both primary and secondary sources that were pertinent to the
study were consulted.
Chapter one
Factors
leading to the rise of the diaspora
There are various factors that have led to the rise
of the diaspora, however these can be categorised mainly into push and pull
factors respectively. Push factors are those that result from internal
challenges that the migrant encounters and hence migration is sought as a
panacea .Pull factors on the other hand are those factors that attract the migrant
to the country where he/she migrates to therefore they are externally oriented,
this is based on the view that migration is sought as a means to move from a
resource deficit area to a resource surplus area which becomes the Diaspora.
The push factors can be categorised as
economic ,social, political as well as
environmental , however it must be
quickly mentioned that the causes
are largely intertwined and the situation represents a microcosm of the macrocosm as it applies to
Zimbabwe and Kwekwe in the same manner.
Economic Factors
The Zimbabwean economy poorly transitioned in
recent years, deteriorating from one of Africa's strongest economies to one of
the world's worst. It has partly been characterised by printing money, which
has led to hyperinflation. Which in turn has exacerbated poverty among the
natives .Notably between 2000 and
December 2007, the national economy contracted by as much as 40%, inflation
vaulted to over 66,000%, and there were persistent shortages of hard currency,
fiat currency, fuel, medicine, and food, GDP per capita dropped by 40%,
agricultural output dropped by 51% and industrial production dropped by 47%, direct
foreign investment has all but evaporated.[19]
As of February 2004 Zimbabwe's foreign debt repayments ceased, resulting in
compulsory suspension from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mainly due to
the imposed sanctions.[20]
To the lay man in the street this has
led to harsh and squalid standard living conditions characterised by immense
poverty which has its dimensions and has been manifested through unemployment,
retrenchment , basic commodity shortages which caused food insecurity that favoured migration as
a survival strategy leading the
rise of the Diaspora .
It is true to note that poverty is a central issue that has led to the rise of the Diaspora in that it has been defined as a multidimensional concept characterised by chronic deprivation of
resources and the situation in Zimbabwe
for the past years has favoured this .According to one nurse identified as Tatenda the situation in
Zimbabwe worsened during the end of the year
2007 and 2008,[21]
she adds that she once got underpaid so much that her pay could
only buy her a crate of soft drinks which explains that she was living far below
the poverty datum line and beyond the expected $1 USD per day .Faced with such
a predicament she notes that her aunt
who was a senior nurse migrated to Australia and now leaves there because of the better wages
and standard of living there This situation explains why most skilled personnel left the country in search for
greener pastures .
This was
also a true reflection of almost all the workers especially the civil servants
of which teachers migrated the
most as the education sector suffered due to underpayment caused mainly
by inflation which was ever rising with
commodity prices following suit against a stagnant salary .Minister of Education, Sport ,Art and Culture , David Coltart has reiterated that his Ministry lost
about 20 000 teachers in 2007 and 2008 respectively who fled economic problems in the country and settled for menial jobs in neighbouring countries as they were
more rewarding than the former financially.[22]
Poverty
and unemployment were both endemic in Zimbabwe, driven by the shrinking economy
and hyper-inflation, both unemployment and poverty rates ran near 80%.in 2005 and
about 94% in 2008.[23]
The economic decay leading to poverty
and unemployment can be traced as far back as early 2000 were about 32 440
formal sector jobs retrenched and cuts in public transport subsidies and
decontrolling of these prices saw fewer households being able to pay for
transport to work as men and women were trekking to work and this mainly affected
those in low paid jobs.[24]
This scenario was followed by closure of companies and or lowering of production. In Kwekwe
for instance one man identified as
Moyana reiterated that he once
worked at Dyno - Nobel but the company
largely retrenched in 2004 that is why he migrated to the diaspora in South Africa at the end
of that year and managed to get a
job as a security guard where he worked
until he was deported late last year (2008).[25] Although it was a demeanor to his once
foremanship post in Zimbabwe it paid far much better and
South Africa presented better job opportunities
Still on that one man named Baba Anesu an employee at (ZIMASCO) Lamented that
their company was embarking on giving its employees forced leave since early
2008 as there was less production.[26]
He cited that each employee only worked for a month and the following would be
spent on forced leave which means one could be getting half of his salary and
foodstuffs. Due to this many artisans have migrated to South Africa and
Botswana which offer better opportunities and foodstuffs are readily available.
In
addition the early 2004 period was
characterised by fuel shortages which further exacerbated commodity price increases
.In July 2008 the government introduced price controls which were aimed at
preventing price increases however this led to artificial shortages.[27]
One woman identified as amai Sydnee
stated that it was because of the
economic situation that her
sister went to Botswana so as
to send remittances to
counter food shortages , commodity prices through sending boxes of soap and cooking oil
well as to be able to supplement her
husbands income which could not even suffice to pay for transport for him
to get to work just for three
consecutive weeks.[28]
Thomas Gweme posited that his elder brother went to the
diaspora in the quest to raise study fees as he had got a place at college but
because the tuition he was supposed to pay was
expensive he decided to migrate to the diaspora as the situation in Zimbabwe worsened.[29]Although
initially he was destined to come back he ended up staying there. This is
supported by the view that education has
of late become unaffordable citing that there
are no longer Pay Outs and
college students have to finance their own education resulting in them opting to be diasporans.
In line with the afore mentioned point
it is also true to add that between 2007
and 2008 education was considered
valueless hence many youths dropped out
of school largely because the teachers
spent the better part of the year on strike
demanding salary increments , whereas the diaspora offered better economic
rewards in times of economic decay in
the country. Moreover in this regard
it is viable to suggest that
deaths of bread winners due to
the HIV and AIDS pandemic acted as a factor leading the rise
of the diaspora in that coupled with the harsh
economic situation of
inflation some orphans migrated
to the diaspora as a survival strategy.
Political
factors
Considering the
political instability that has ravaged
Zimbabwe over the past years it suffices to note the political causes leading to the rise of
the Diaspora though it must be quickly mentioned that as noted by Richmond , that efforts to divide
migration causes into two exclusive categories
of political and economic have been discredited by evidence that both elements can be present in migration flows or even combined
in a single individual when
political conditions cause deteriorating economic problems that lead to migration. In
reality there is a continuum between those decisions to move, made after due consideration
of all relevant information and those decisions made when in crisis. This is
equally true for the Zimbabwean context in that though the political climate has been marred by
instability most Zimbabweans exaggerate the implications as shown by the influx
number of Zimbabweans seeking political asylum as a guise of getting the
protection of the country to which they would have migrated to especially South
Africa. A young man named Thompson
who was once in South Africa
noted that once one had political asylum he could obtain a temporary residence permit which secured him/her from arrest therefore they
could seek gainful employment.[30]
Many Zimbabweans have uitilised this measure to pursue their own economic
interest however as noted by Maphosa
only about 3% of the Zimbabweans in
South Africa can be noted to have migrated due to genuine primary
political factors this would also be true for
Mbizo as most of those interviewed cited
economic factors save for two people
who mentioned political factors as a direct cause resulting in their
relatives migrating to the diaspora.[31]
Kubat believes that
political migration can be drawn from migrant’s rejection based on different
aspects of powers , values and practices
, it may be the power’s inefficacy namely failure to protect migrants personally(or their culture groups of their
community) from violence or threat from
it and from environmental
hazards.[32]Inefficacy
can extend to failure to provide the means or opportunity for economic
sustenance or the rejection may concern
the powers , policy and practice
where migration is brought about
by the authorities acting directly against the migrants their interests ,
persons and . He further laments that it can be the powers ideology that is the
cause of rejection, basing on this analysis political migration can be said to
be based on discontent and therefore cannot be out rightly divorced from economic
factors.
Given such a framework it becomes evident that
the electoral violence that has been present in Zimbabwe caused some
people to migrate to the Diaspora as a human security concern emanating from
the 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2008 elections. This is also supported by Mbiba who
notes that diaspora is also as a result of political crisis produced by warring
parties which in this case are the MDC and ZANU PF.[33]
Government policies such as Operation Murambatsvina of 2005 can be said to have
influenced migration into the diaspora
in that tuck shops and illegal shacks were destroyed of which
some people depended on them for their
sustenance as entrepreneurs and
homes .Faced with this dilemma there is
no general consensus as to the specific number of the affected people as statistics vary
from an estimated 300 000 to 2.4 million
people but there is agreement that this policy coupled with other economic
challenges led to people migrating to
the diaspora.[34]
Social factors
Abel
posited that most youths besides economic reasons go to the diaspora
mainly because of peer pressure. He stated that once your peer went to the
diaspora you felt left out and
day by day pressure would be mounting on you to follow suit because of
the fact that if so and so of my age
went there then why can’t I?
[35]
This peer pressure is further exacerbated
by the fact that once one was in the diaspora he could come back rich and
wearing fashionable clothes and in possession of the latest phones which took a
long time to happen had one stayed in the country. To add to he stated that the
food that is eaten in the diaspora as compared to that eaten here makes people
lighter in complexion and stouter therefore you can tell whether one was in the
diaspora or not resulting in envy to go there as well.[36]
The diaspora has over the years been seen
as a career rather than a passing phase in people’s lives. This is true in that
most people answered that it was their aspiration to have passports or to
migrate to the diaspora, after that their destiny would then unfold .From this
statement most people especially the unemployed see the diaspora as a panacea to
their lives .Migration to the diaspora occurs because migrants believe that
they will be more satisfied in their needs and desires in the place that they
move to than in the place from which they come. Emphasis must be placed on the
word believe because migration
occurred as a result of decisions made by individuals in the light
of what they perceived the objective
world to be like and at times it
did not matter if the migrant held an erroneous
view. It is that erroneous view that is acted upon rather than the
objective real world situation. Probably this situation has further been
heightened by diasporans who would have returned who exaggerate their way of
life in the diaspora.
Consequently the diaspora can be said to
have risen due to envy. This is true in that once a diasporan especially from
the United Kingdom lives in the neighborhood he becomes a source of envy and
people speak highly of him shunning other locals. It is mainly due this reason that
once a family member goes to the diaspora then members of that family are
likely to emulate the former.
Environmental factors
Zimbabwe as over the past few years
succumbed to droughts which has led to the decline in yields and crop productivity and therefore
food insecurity which if added to the woes that the country has
been facing resulted in migration
to the diaspora .According to FAO
food insecurity means
availability of food and the
ability to access it through household production on farms , stock market transactions (cash or kind) or transfers (private or government for the consumption year).[37]
Based on this definition it becomes true to assert that faced with drought and
economic decay which the country once faced some people migrated in mid 2007
whom one Stanley identifies as “12.5” Diasporans as they mostly went to the
diaspora as a measure to be able to access maize meal and cooking oil which was
as expensive as 150 Rand for a tin of about 20kg of maize.[38]
Collen a gold panner noted that Operation Chikorokoza
Chapera of 2008 saw the arresting of most illegal gold miners in
Kwekwe as it was based on notions of environmental security
influenced migration to the diaspora to
a certain extent in that after the Operation Carslone
Enterprises was established which is
an RBZ run enterprise that mainly targeted putting an end to illegal gold mining by employing most of the miners[39].
This became problematic in that the company offered low wages therefore due to
the health hazards associated with mining some gold panners fled to the
diaspora as it was less risky and
almost as equally rewarding.
Pull
factors
Movement of people in unprecedented
numbers is also fuelled by the receiving state for example the
nature of soundness of economy as compared to that from which the migrant comes
from. This is the reason why Zimbabweans
have been migrating regionally and internationally as other currencies have
proven to be stable for example the British
Pound, Pula of Botswana , South
African Rand and the US$. The political
climate there which is characterized by stability is another
factor that led to people going to the diaspora as it contrasted with the
situation in Zimbabwe. The job market
for example coupled with South Africa’s skills shortage and comparatively
robust job market in regional perspective
favours emigration to it. This is further heightened by the view that since South
Africa is going to host the world cup its construction
industry has increased thereby increasing job opportunities
Maphosa has noted that crisis or no crisis
the differentials between South Africa and its regional neighbours in economic
opportunity, service provision and even social welfare are not going away and neither is the
migration attracted by these differentials.[40]
South Africa `s provision of
asylum and temporary residence permits floated by the Department of Home
Affairs as well as its assumed demanding obligations towards refugees and asylum seekers has led to failure to
discharge diasporans effectively. The
fact that those deported are given some foodstuffs in the form of beans,
cooking oil and some meal-meal was noted by one lady identified as Audrey to be
a contributory factor leading to the temptation to go the diaspora.[41]
This supports the observation by Wolpert
that place utility
is vital in providing for
potential migrants to migrate and where to migrate to as it provides a person with
a range of competing places and
it is divergences between
the information flow and
objective reality that will in large measure provide the differences between
the individual’s perception of
that reality and actual facts of other
places .[42]From
this observation place utility provides room for choice of diaspora to be pursued.
Bayart
believes that the causes of migration which can be said are the factors
leading to the rise of the Diaspora as;
‘’
The search for a little bit of money enough to enable one to stand up straight
and
particularly to take a wife, the attraction of the town and all its riches, drought,
or if one is to believe the theoreticians of the articulation of the
modes of production
the structural necessity of a capitalist economy, the
domination of elders and fear
of their witchcraft t, the under payment
of wage labour.’[43]
Some of the
factors highlighted by Bayart also conform to this research as has been previously
pointed out.
CHAPTER TWO
DYNAMICS OF
THE ZIMBABWEAN DIASPORA
There has been a
rapid escalation in the number of those emigrating into the Diaspora with figures ranging between a total of 3-4 million up to present day,[44] however these estimates have been hindered
by the illegal status of migrants as most remain outside official
attention and the fact that there is no
documentation of returning
migrants is of equal attention. This chapter focuses on analyzing
the diaspora dynamics through
noting the nature of the migrants
and composition of the diasporans considering age , gender, education levels , ethnicity
and class it also takes into account
the migration patterns from
Zimbabwe and Mbizo suburb particularly .
These categories of analysis are essential as they have
an influence on the impact of the diaspora on the Zimbabwean populace left in the
country.
Nature of diasporans
Most diasporans
proved to be illegal migrants
due to lack of proper documentation
to justify their stay in the
chosen diaspora this arises from the fact that most diasporans would be fleeing economic
challenges therefore they were unable to meet the proper
demands for one to become a legal
diasporan more to it is the fact that the situation
that led to the diasporans moving to the desired diaspora culminated
whilst they were not prepared adequately
therefore the diaspora was sought as an alternative survival strategy .The majority of diasporans coming from Kwekwe and Zimbabwe at large used fake emergency traveling documents ,
passports that weren’t theirs
and some used illegal entry points to enter into
the desired country, this point arises from the rise in
fake documents and corruption associated with acquiring proper travel
documents .
In 2002 up to 400 000 Zimbabweans were living in the
United Kingdom (half of them were illegal ) while at the end of 2003 more than
479 348 had gone there , this number was increasing more steadily because by then there was no visa requirement as it was
adopted in November 2002 making migration to UK expensive and an exercise afforded only by
those from the middle and upper class
families who happen to be better educated .[45]
This is further reflected by that section 4 of Mbizo suburb which is a low density compared to the other sections had the
influx of diasporans in the UK as
evidenced by the survey which
culminated in Figure 1 .
Diasporans in
the United Kingdom became illegal migrants mainly through overstaying. The illegal emigrants either in Botswana, South Africa , the United Kingdom and the Diaspora at large
mostly used illegal informal remittance avenues such as bus
or the transporter modes rather
than formal banking channels as reflected through the
focus group discussions pursued during this research, however it is the
crux of the last chapter to emphasise this point as here analysis of the
nature of diasporans is the limiting factor
.
Out of a total sample most diasporans from
Kwekwe were illegal immigrants either by overstaying as opposed to the number
of days reflected in one’s passport. Rosemary Ndlovu an interviewee highlighted that if
one had invalid documentation you
could place either 20 Rand
or 10 Pula as bribe to the migration officials at road blocks at the border however, more
money was needed.[46]
One woman identified as amai Sean posited that there was also another alternative for one’s going to the diaspora which she noted to result from a ‘madzibaba’(religious
prophet) in Kwekwe popular for making
people without proper documentation pass
through borders without being detected , she gave an example of her brother whom she
said got to Botswana successfully by employing this tactic and
there was no payment made to the prophet
whatsoever, this goes on to show the level and nature of diasporans as being illegal
migrants.[47]
.
Another form of illegal migrants as observed
by one young man named Kundiso was the ‘omalayitsha ‘which when translated
means the transporters. This form was conducted in a way that one had to pay
transport operators from point A in
Zimbabwe to point B mainly in South Africa as the prime destination.[48]
The fare was
initially 1500 Rand for small vehicles
and 1200Rand for buses from
the year 2000 , after having sealed the deal the transporter would take you across the border without any
documents in other circumstances he would even provide employment depending on the initial deal .[49] Payment could be done before or after arrival
this form of transportation was mainly
conducted in line with emigrants desiring to go to South Africa and was common before the removal of the
visa early this year which cost
2000 Rand and a valid passport
was essential in order to access the visa .
Coupled with the time involved and transport cost involved this (malaitsha mode) proved to be
a viable option for most immigrants to
be .Sometimes the fare was paid in
cattle form as this
mode was rife particularly in the rural areas surrounding Kwekwe
and the payment was done after the diasporan had confirmed that he had
been transported to the
desired destination safely. According to
International Organization for Migration
, South African Authorities
deported a total of 102
413 to Zimbabwe between
January and June
in 2007 , a monthly average of 17
000 and
the figures increased in 2008 compared to a much lower (but still high )
monthly average of 4000 in 2004.[50]
On the other
hand there are some diasporans
who are residing in the diaspora legally for instance in Botswana in
2008 Zimbabweans recorded the
highest number of employee
work permit holders which
was about 5470 that is 58.8% of
total migrants in Botswana .[51] In
South Africa Zimbabwean applications
for asylum were the largest component in backlog which
had reached 144 000 by 2007
despite the Department of Home
Affairs concerted effort to
reduce it .[52]
Out of a sample of 100 people more than 70 people noted that their relatives
had migrated between 2000-2008 but of this figure the
influx was from 2004-2008 citing unemployment as the main driver towards their
migration to the diaspora as noted in Figure 1.
Fig 1 below represents
the number of people who stated having
one or more of their immediate family members in the Diaspora and the country
which they are in. The sample consisted of a total of 50 people with 10 people
representing the various sections in Mbizo that is sections
4 extension, 6 ,8,13 and 2, the horizontal line ( y-axis)
represents the number of people with their family members in the
diaspora while the vertical line ( x-axis)
represents the country in which they are in .
Fig 1
Sample findings
All in all 91 people
out of a 100 stated that they had their family members in the diaspora meaning to say only 9 did not have any immediate
relatives in the diaspora. Figure 1 is the basis upon which the various
categories explaining diaspora dynamics will be discussed, with specific
reference being made to it in every respect so as to further explain the sample
findings.
Age
Speares believes
that there is a correlation but not a direct one between migration and age, it
may be suggested that the direct association is between migration and life cycle stages of which the
term life cycle refers to successive
stages between birth and death
with which particular forms of
mobility may be associated .[53]
Each stage in the life cycle stage is associated with a particular age group
and this gives the link between age and migration. The use of life cycle stages
in this
research was adopted due to the notion that most family
members showed failure to state
the exact age of their family members in the diaspora but
were more easily able identify
which life cycle stage their relatives belonged to
Life cycle
stages
1
young without completing O`Level
2
young
unmarried completed O`Level
3
just married without children
4
married with children below school
going age
5
married with school going children
6
divorcees
and widowers
Out of the
total populace sampled in Figure
1 only 11 people
noted that they had their family
members under the age of 18 who had not completed their O` Level however these were stated to be with their parents in the diaspora therefore they are not bread winners themselves but are
dependents.
The sample (Fig
1) revealed that a considerable number
of the people had finished
their O` Level and were
unmarried , of this figure almost
all of them had gone
due to economic reasons solely due to
unemployment and underpayment these diasporans` prime destination was either South Africa
or Botswana. In 2004 Botswana was getting about 50 illegal Zimbabweans
everyday meaning 125 000 per month while South Africa is said to have harbored
about 800 000 to one million Zimbabweans during the same period.[54]
Those in the
life cycle stage of having just been married but without children were less
than those with children who were yet to go to school and the majority of these went to South
Africa and Botswana as well. Diasporans who had
school going children were a
significant number and could be found all
over with the majority of those
in the UK being family men and
women with grown up children ,widowers and
divorcees were also a sizeable
lot .
Under normal
circumstances as noted by Raveinstein Laws
of migration married
migrants were less likely to migrate over longer distances than unmarried migrants
and those whose marriages were
disrupted that is the divorced
,separated or widowed.[55] In Mbizo however this factor wasn’t confirmed
probably due to financial hardships
associated with going to the
diaspora which needed strong financial backing especially
with regard to migration overseas.
Considering
age and the life cycle stages it can
be deduced that the propensity to
migrate was greatest in
young adults particularly
between leaving school ( O`Level) and the age
of 40 these diasporans were mainly seeking employment
in greener pastures , this is supported by the fact that out of a sample of
4654 Zimbabweans in South
Africa the majority
had migrated between 2000-2007
, 92% were aged between 21-40 years .[56] In addition
the diasporans are generally adult
individuals as families as a unit
rarely migrate to the diaspora . From the sample in Figure
1 it can be said that the volume of migrants fell with increase in distance as
overseas diasporas had less
Zimbabwean migrants due to financial
constraints , notable is the notion that migration over long distances
decreased as age increased.
Gender
Traditionally migration
to the diaspora was a male led
and male dominated process
whatever phase one may look at it
from , be it migration to the
South African gold
mines under ( WNLA) Witwatersrand Native Labour Association or rural to urban
migration mainly due to the
dominance of patriarchy in the
Zimbabwean social set up. The change in
socio-political as well as the economic hardships that have not spared
women but has adversely affected them,
coupled with the move towards gender mainstreaming has led to the increase in
women migrating to the diaspora to seek wage labour. It must however be quickly
pointed out that the majority of women
are cross border traders due to the family ties associated
with them of being responsible for
family upkeep and rearing of children and hence these fall
beyond the scope of this research
as they aren’t diasporans as they continuously come back to the country
.
According to a South
African Migration Policy (SAMP) Survey in 2006, 44% of the migrants in South Africa
were female household heads from Zimbabwe seeking mainly domestic work.[57] This arises from the fact that there has been
an increase in female headed households due to deaths linked to the HIV and
AIDS pandemic and also due to divorce.
It must be
understood that as noted through a focus group discussion women migration
patterns differ from those of men in that women ages and life cycle stages vary
where as for men it is mainly the unmarried who pry the diaspora .Women who
have been going to the diaspora of late come from almost all life cycle
stages unlike the situation that
prevailed a few decades ago whereby women were relegated to domestic household
chores while men dominated wage labour in general and migrant wage labour in particular.
Hilary Anderson
has observed that women are changing the nature of migration to the diaspora as
there has been an increase in school leaving girls opting for the diaspora
compared to previous decades.[58] This
can be attributed apart from the economic hardships our country has been facing
to the notion that gender issues have
become topical and the diaspora offers more readily domestic jobs for example
the majority of Zimbabwean women from Kwekwe
who are in Botswana are working as housemaids due to that it is financially rewarding
and is a characteristic common in
nations with developed economies , as the people there can pay handsomely for such services .As for
those in UK it has been emphasised
that Zimbabwean women there work in
domestic spheres such as catering for the old age. It must also be noted that
there are some women who migrate to the diaspora solely to engage in the oldest
profession of prostitution.
Education
Of the total
sample in Fig 1 , 95% of
the diasporans can be said to be
literate after having completed their O`Level
studies , this supports the claim by Raveinstein that likelihood to
migrate over long distance
increases as level of education attended increased.[59]
From the people purported to be in Australia
in Fig 1 two are nurses
while the third is the husband of
one of the nurses who was once a teacher at a local
school hence he also is
a learned someone .
This supported
by the view that out of
the total number of people in the UK basing
from the sample all of them are highly educated
with the least having a
Diploma in Secretarial Studies and the
majority possessing University
Degrees and other College qualifications , goes on to show that the likelihood to migrate over long distances is also affected by the level of education that
one has . This can be clarified through simply saying going overseas requires
a strong financial background therefore classes in society come into play with
those from disadvantaged backgrounds failing to afford air tickets.
Those who went
overseas were from upper classes
in society as they came from the low
density suburbs of Mbizo that is sections 4 extension and 13 respectively and were once employed in prestigious jobs in Zimbabwe
save for only two according to the survey, unlike
the majority that went to
South Africa respectively. It can further be stated that
those who went international were seeking greener pastures not employment per
se unlike those who went regional who were seeking employment generally.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity is defined
as a collective group of people who share the same ancestry, language and
culture. [60] In this
regard the major ethnic groups chosen were Ndebele and Shona. This is another
category of analysis which is significant in analyzing the diaspora dynamics in that
it was believed that the Ndebele were the ones who frequented going to South Africa as their main
diaspora more than the Shona due to the language factor as it was believed
that the
Ndebele can learn Zulu or any other native South African language quicker than the Shona.
Faced with
the economic situation in Zimbabwe out of the sample chosen from
Mbizo one can say that a fifty-fifty
situation is now prevalent where both
the Shona and the Ndebele sought
South Africa as their intended
diaspora with disregard to language barriers but perhaps due to the treatment the Zimbabweans
were exposed to in that particular
country (South Africa) , as there was a
possibility to get political asylum and a
temporary work permit as opposed to Botswana
where the Tswana have been known
for gross hostility towards Zimbabweans .
This has been noted through the findings of the focus group discussion
that the Tswana are hostile towards Zimbabweans and that as cited by a young
man Bekezela that the Tswana chief cainned
male border jumpers who made up the majority of the Zimbabwean diaspora in
Botswana and besides, the job market in Botswana is smaller than that of South Africa.[61]
For the
Zimbabwean diaspora in Botswana according to the sample (Fig 1), it was the
Ndebele who were more while those with their relatives in the United Kingdom
revealed that most of them were Shona. Perhaps the issue of overall ethnic population
in Kwekwe and Zimbabwe respectively came into play considering that the Shona
in Zimbabwe outnumber the Ndebele which might also be true for Kwekwe`s Mbizo suburbs
of which the sample reflected that 62 of the total number of people sampled
were Shona while 38 were Ndebele
In addition
migration has been viewed as micro-macro process rather than a single event which
recognizes both national, international
as well as community and individual linkages. At the macro level economic and historical structures
such as colonial influence , institutional harmony ,languages , communication links
and regulatory regimes are significant factors affecting migrant
dynamics .[62]
Thus for Zimbabwe its history as a former
British colony partly explains why the UK has been a primary destination for Zimbabwean immigrants.
Households
and families are seen as dynamic
multi-located institutions that make short term
decisions in order to survive
now and in the future .[63] Decisions
made in one place influence and are
affected by processes in
distant and diverse places therefore diasporans are
influenced by their families and
their background thus shaping the diaspora dynamics which would
further influence how they relate
with the populace left in the country at large .
CHAPTER THREE
SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT
OF DIASPORA
Given the factors that have led
to the rise of the diaspora and the dynamics it is associated with as described
in the previous chapters it is imperative to understand how and what the impact of the diaspora has been on the
general populace left in the country. The impact has been experienced at individual,
household and family levels and gradually has had spillover effects more at the
community at large. Though it has primarily sustained the livelihoods
of recipients of remittances for
those with their immediate relatives in the diaspora, it has had adverse effects such as widening the gap between the rich and the poor, the rich in
this context being those with their relatives in the diaspora sending back
remittances whilst the poor being
those without . It can thus be noted
that the diaspora has had both positive and negative effects which this chapter
seeks to unveil.
It can be said that the Zimbabwean Diaspora’s major impact
was in the form of remittances which accounted for about 7% of Zimbabwe’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 2008 , according to UN Report
foreign currency remittances from
Zimbabweans in the diaspora amounted
to about US$361 million in 2008
which excluded hand to hand foreign
currency transfers or remittances
sent through illegal channels.[64]
Remittances as has been previously described can be money or goods
transmitted to households back home by people working away from their
communities of origin, therefore they can either be in cash or kind .In terms
of impact their impact as revealed through a focus group discussion is that
they elevated the standard of living of those families receiving them and
increased their incomes which are positive steps towards poverty alleviation.
Out of a survey of ten households seven of them cited that they had diasporans
who remitted occasionally in cash or kind.
One woman named Settie posited the view that the diaspora through
remittances has impacted on her positively in that if it was not for her son in
the diaspora her children would not be going to school by now and her rental
bills would be unsettled as she relies on remittances for her family’s
sustenance. [65]A
focus group discussion revealed that remittances were mostly used towards
specific immediate needs such as buying food, school fees, and rental bills,
among other family expenses, therefore most remittances were channeled towards
consumption rather than investment.
Another positive impact of the diaspora has been that it has
provided food security and ensured that basic commodities such as soap,
meal-meal, sugar, flour, rice .cooking oil among others are readily available
to their receiving families. As of the drought of 2008 and food shortages in
the country those families who had their relatives in the diaspora did not feel
the impact in the same manner that those without diasporans did as they depended
on remittances from the diaspora and to testify that they were food secure is
the notion that of the seven families receiving remittances they added that it
was possible for them to have at least three meals a day during the time of
drought and food shortages. This is also supported by the view that in 2008
there was an influx of 12.5 meal-meal food packs from Botswana and South Africa
which initially cost R100 and later was reduced to about R60 as the harvest
season came closer, faced with the fact that households receiving remittances
could either get these physically or could afford to purchase them from the
stores as they had a larger disposable income.
However the effect of remittances has been double edged as it is sought as a poverty alleviation means through increasing income
and attaining food security
meaning to say that those without diasporans
are deeply plunged into abyss of
poverty as compared to upward shift by
those with diasporas . From this line of
argument it can be deduced that the diaspora has led to a love and hate
relationship between local Zimbabweans
and those in the diaspora , locals receiving remittances are happy to receive the support
at individual level while
those without also blame
the diaspora for fuelling the
parallel market and for price increases from commodity , foreign currency and even real estate prices. The
diasporans on the contrary complain of the burden
that they shoulder at home in relation to the tough lives
they lead in host
countries.
Remittances have also led to the creation of a dependency syndrome
whereby those receiving them mainly used them for consumption and have shunned
other avenues of securing income thereby increasing the propensity to migrate
amongst the natives in the country. This situation is probably the causal
factor leading to the influx number of people going to the diaspora coming from
the families that have diasporans.
The diaspora also fuelled
the rise of black market as noted
by that long before the official
dollarisation people who sold their goods and services quoted
them in foreign currency
from as early as late
2007 . Mrs Mapholisa explained that
“People in the diaspora worsened our situation back home in that
everyone
selling anything would charge prices in foreign currency
on the assumption that everyone had a remitting diaspora
in one way
or
the other. My land lord started demanding rent in foreign currency
sometime
in 2008 way before the official
dollarisation , of which where
would I get such money from as I entirely
depended on my late husband’s
pension for survival and the small
musika that I have to sustain
myself and my
three
children .”[66]
Considering that
it was illegal to purchase foreign currency from its only source in the streets
it is justified to note that life was made more difficult for those without
diasporans
In Zimbabwe’s harsh economic environment
that prevailed, many claim that if it were not of the family members and
relatives in the Diaspora, they would have suffered more than they did and even
up to right now. Diasporans are now the new buyers and owners of property, and
they are doing it at unprecedented levels. A survey revealed
that in terms of real estate those people
who were building houses
for example the section 15 which is now referred to as kuma diaspora from
the diasporan ownership of the
stands also notable is the fact
that the majority of people moving around in clad 4x4 fuel guzzling
vehicles which have become
fashionable had strong diasporans with
most of them being in the UK or being overseas furthering the divide between
the rich and the poor in terms of access
and ownership of assets.
In addition the UK diaspora has been labeled as the causal factor
leading to the emergence of Costas, while South African diasporans have
popularized Quantums and those from Botswana have led to the increase in number
of small trucks. in Kwekwe these trucks
and costas have aided the transportation of people
and goods as they charge what is commonly referred
to as “bacossi” due to
affordability. Even up to now while commuter omnibuses charge R5 for a
trip from Mbizo to the city centre the trucks charge only R3, meaning that even
the financially humble can now afford them.
Still on the transport sector
it can be stated that due to the diaspora Tombs Motorways,
particularly the bus department has been a force to reckon with.
Tombs Motorways is
stationed and has its headquarters
in Kwekwe and has been influential
in relation to the diaspora in that in 2006 they began operating to South Africa ,
by then only one of their
buses plighted the route and
charged an equivalent of R50 in
Zimbabwean dollars however this price was increased as there was an increase in
demand in customers to R150 in 2007, during that same year the number of buses
was also increased to three.[67]
These buses are said to have aided in that as noted by T Moyo that
her daughter and son in South Africa send remittances via these buses as they themselves
were transported there by these buses hence the staff is reliable.[68] The fact that the
number of buses increased
in 2007 reminisces the observation that the number of people in Kwekwe going to South
Africa increased during this period , however
it must be mentioned that some were
cross border traders while some
were going to collect remittances therefore in relation to the impact of the diaspora it must not go
without notice.
Bradley Bhebhe the secretary for Tombs highlighted that the introduction of buses to South Africa
saw the increase in employment opportunities in the community
resulting from their company as
one bus going to South Africa needed two drivers and a conductor .[69] As of now three buses ply
that route and during public holidays the buses can be five in number.
The diaspora has also impacted positively on those in the country in that the majority of entrepreneurs
in Kwekwe i.e. 3 out of 5 have diasporans as owners of which these have
provided employment at community
level for example one man identified as Gonondo reiterated that the livelihoods of some of the people from Mbizo had
improved to a certain extent due
to that Sambayi who is a local
businessman in the diaspora
increased his businesses to
include a construction company and metal
working department apart for the
nightclub that he owns courtesy to the diaspora.[70]
Asked on how the diaspora has impacted on them two boys identified as Talent and
Thanduxolo noted that it has led to the influx of satellite dishes , DVDs and home
theaters which is a positive
development at household level .[71] From this assertion it can
be noted that the diaspora has acted as a source of assets thus spiraling the flow of technology into the country. This
comes in light of the fact that most diasporans have exported
these gadgets as revealed through
a survey that from section 4 extension 7
out of 10 houses has a satellite dish
which is also true for DVDs as they are
imported mainly from Botswana and South Africa respectively and have been popularized
by diasporans.
Economically the diaspora
can be said to have contributed to a certain
extent towards dollarisation ,
this comes from the notion that before
23 February 2009 which was the day
when dollarisation of the economy
was officialised , the powers that be assumed that
foreign currency was circulating
between individuals in the country but was not going to the government or banks coming
mainly from remittances .Further assessed
this seems to have impacted in
stabilizing the economy which had become
unmanageable through inflation.
A focus group discussion revealed that the diaspora contributed to the rise of “cash burning’
which was highly illegal but for some time rescued some individuals from
financial woes. One man cited that at one time
his son remitted some money
which he burned US$1 and was able to
settle his rental and telephone bills
and was able to let his unemployed son
go to town on a daily basis to withdraw some money.[72] It must be emphasised
however that this was short lived and due to the rising inflation the money
lost value while in the
banks and that long queues became
a common phenomenon coupled by cash shortages , which were rife
during this period (late 2008 to early
2009). While it benefited those with
access to foreign currency either
through remittances or through other means , those without suffered
drastically as it took them long to access their money from the banks .
In relation to illegal gold mining as a survival mechanism the
diaspora has led to a considerable decline in illegal gold mining as it posed
as an alternative. According to officer
Bumbate a police officer in Kwekwe , there has been a decline in
illegal gold mining due to the diaspora
and diamond craze as illegal gold mining
has after effects such as deaths as
mines collapse on people .[73] He further lamented that though it
has led to a decrease in illegal gold mining the diaspora has become a place
of refuge for criminals leading
to tracking them becoming a mountainous
task , he also attributed the
sporadic increase in armed
robberies as being caused by exposure to the diaspora taking
Into consideration the violent nature associated with life in
South Africa hence criminals of this nature now pry not only Kwekwe but
Zimbabwe at large.
Emigration into the diaspora
has drastically led to either female headed households or in some instances child
headed families, where upon both parents would be in the diaspora. such a
scenario would among other things result
in an increase in child indiscipline .A focus group discussion revealed
that due to the diaspora there were some
children who were engaging
in immoral activities as they
had too much freedom
and disposable income being
remitted to them an example cited was a house which was
habited by two boys with the
older being close to twenty years of age
which is located in section
4 extension .This house had become a popular brothel as young school boys and girls
would indulge in
what the community suspected
to be related to sexual and drug abusive
behavior .Apart for that the notion of
no parents being nearby leads to
lack of parental love which parents in the diaspora would want to
compensate by remittances thereby spoiling
their children through giving them
a larger than necessary
disposable income .
In instances where the male
(father ) of the household is in the
diaspora and the household
becomes female headed
the negative impact is that responsibility over the family including that
which the father was to perform is shifted
towards the mother of the
household , thereby gender roles
in the family are disturbed .
The diaspora has been influential
in upsetting family ties which emanate from the distance between spouses and
usually results in mistrust which is followed by divorce. In Mbizo as revealed
by a focus group discussion there are a sizeable number
of cases where one family member
in the diaspora would hear that the other member had had a child in the spouse’s absence
whilst others were divorced
in absentia especially those that were not remitting occasionally.
Migration to the diaspora is associated with economic stress and the
search for work is also
associated with the spread of HIV
and AIDS ,more to that there is a close two way nexus between
poverty and HIV and AIDS .HIV and AIDS is brought
about by diasporans
in that at times they
engage in illicit sex in the
diaspora while those at home
might also engage
in extra marital affairs mainly
being caused by
the other partner’s absence . For
women the fact
that they are illegal immigrants who in
most cases would
be desperate for money makes
them vulnerable to
abuse and contracting the
virus as a means of getting
income .
The HIV
and AIDS pandemic is an important
problem for Less Developed
Countries (LDC) and its impact is that
the illness of a productive
member of the family
leads to a double loss in
that the
productive family member remits
less as the condition worsens
it would amount to no
remittances at all and there is a
demand for care
of the sick person . In such an instance HIV and AIDS
accompanies poverty, is spread by poverty and produces it in its turn. Death
due to HIV and AIDS leads to increase in
school drop outs and
orphans which the community through extended families have
to take care of meaning that the
little money and
resources that were to be spent on developmental facets of the household end up being
diverted towards the sick individual.
To support the above claim one anonymous woman observed that
the diaspora has impacted on her in that
her younger brother
had gone to South Africa
illegally and after falling ill from HIV and AIDS he feared going to the
hospitals there because of
his illegal status ,thus he was transported back to Zimbabwe
considering the view that the diaspora has no room for unproductive and sick people of which
the burden of
nursing him was placed on his
ailing mother who was also
suffering due to old age.[74]
Tuberculosis (TB) has
been posited as another
killer disease which has claimed the lives of many Zimbabwean diasporans ,
though it is curable
. It has mostly affected
those in South Africa as
they live in squalid conditions
and because of the influx
people in Johannesburg
specifically diasporans end up paying
for the space which they sleep
on which is separated by a curtain from the other occupants of that same room . A single room is said to accommodate two or
more families of three people each in some instances. Due to this overcrowding most
diasporans end up being at risk
of contracting TB which
is an airborne disease
.
Migration entails physical
risk therefore the diaspora
has led to people losing their lives enroute to the promised
land as they engage
in risky behavior and encounter misfortunes on the
way. An interview with one man named
Mabandla revealed that it is rare in Mbizo
for a month to pass without hearing of a funeral
of someone who died either
in the diaspora or
enroute there with emphasis
specifically on South Africa
, he further lamented that the costs
accrued in retrieving the body is
huge and at times outweighs the
remittances sent by that person.[75] Some die along the
way especially during the rain
season when the Limpopo
river is flooded, while some encounter problems like being robbed
and raped by amagumaguma who
are people mostly Zimbabweans operating near illegal border entry points
who raid those
people going to
South Africa . However some people died from being shot or from other
mishaps in the diaspora such as xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
The fact that upon reaching the diaspora some
people change their documentation illegally and become
citizens of the host country has led
to a complication in that for some people who die there they are buried there away from their real kith and keen . In line with the above impact Mr Nkomazana
an interviewee alluded that his young brother went to South Africa around early
2000 and stopped communicating in 2004 of which efforts in searching for him
have all been in vain thus leading to the conclusion that he died and
disappeared.[76]
From this observation it is true to note that the diaspora has led to some
people disappearing completely from our
country and their whereabouts have become things to ponder on.
Brain drain which has been
exacerbated by globalization and in this instance the diaspora has had its toll
on the households of Kwekwe and Mbizo respectively .The skilled health
personnel from the city have also been part of the exodus abroad resulting adversely
in the current increase in doctor-patient ratio where upon for Kwekwe general hospital
it is now possible to spend three to four days at the hospital without being
addressed by a doctor. This has negatively impacted in the community in that
deteriorating health facilities have contributed to loss of life and high
mortality rate as most people cannot afford to go to private hospitals.
This has also been the case
across most civil service parastatals whereupon the education sector is still
to recover from its near total collapse as teachers had gone to the diaspora. A
notable example is that one school girl from Mbizo in form 4 noted that due
to the moribund nature of
the education sector last year , her parents have decided
that she postpone writing her
O`Level this year
and should write
next year perhaps
by then things would have
normalized as last year they did not learn anything as most of her
teachers had gone to the diaspora.[77]
Moreover the diaspora has
also impacted socially in that it has fueled multiculturalism where people
embrace new ways of life such
as intermarriages with hosts from the diaspora, dressing , language, style
of walking and other behaviors which local communities are contemptuous of . To further validate this
claim is the observation that in Mbizo there are some people who are
said to have married people
from the diasporan countries
probably due to love or as a
means of getting citizenship into the host country or both . The majority of cases cited were of
Tswana women. In terms of dressing Zimbabwean
diasporans in South Africa have
popularized the wearing of tennis shoes and hats which are worn in a slanting manner .The rise
of the diaspora has also led to an
increase in foreign names especially those originating from Botswana and South
Africa .
CONCLUSION
Various factors contributed to
the rise of the Zimbabwean diaspora as has been noted in the research, the
factors included dwindling economic conditions
leading to unemployment ,underpayment and the quest for greener pastures
.Political instability , ecological conditions such as droughts coupled by
social aspects like peer pressure have
also fueled the mass exodus of people
from Mbizo Kwekwe and Zimbabwe at large into going to the diaspora mainly being South Africa, Botswana ,United
Kingdom, Australia and other countries. This research revealed that economic
conditions outweighed the other causes
as most people cited them as the push factors versus the pull factors in the
countries where their relatives migrated to., however the causes are largely
intertwined and could not be wholly
separated from each other as they ended up having an economic manifestation.
The dominance of economic
factors contributed to the impact in
that as the economic situation worsened
in the country the diaspora became more
popular as a survival strategy from 2004-2008. From this research most
diasporans migrated during this period. Due to its popularity the diaspora cut
across ethnic, gender and even age groups however the majority of people in the
diaspora are males and females above twenty five years of age with women having
a propensity to remit more compared to men. Class structures also impacted in
shaping the diaspora in that those from better financial families went overseas
as they had the financial muscle to do so.
At household level the diaspora has impacted in that it has sustained the
livelihoods of those receiving remittances, during the period which our country
was facing challenges, whilst at the same time it negatively impacted on those
without remitting diasporans through fuelling the parallel market and price
increases. For those with their relatives in the diaspora it has also culminated
in a number of negative impacts such as divorce, child headed families and the
spread of HIV and AIDS which could have been minimal had the situation that led
to people migrating to the diaspora not prevailed.
In relation to development the
diaspora has been influential socio-economically through remittances, however
these have only benefited households and to a minute extent communities. The
nation state is yet to benefit and perhaps had there been a stable economic and
political environment, policies that ensured that traveling documents from the
sending and receiving countries were affordable making sure that diasporans do not
become illegal immigrants to ensure that they remit through legal channels and
policy implementation that countered the mass exodus of people and mostly
skilled personnel probably the country would benefit. This is derived from the
view that crisis or no crisis people will always migrate to areas of better
economic opportunities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary sources
Interviews
Bhebhe Bradley ,Secretary Tombs Motorways, Tombs
garage , 11 August 2009
Bumbate Pilate , Police Officer
Mbizo Station , 3 June 2009
Charakupa Stanley , Mbizo section 8 , 24 July 2009
Dhlamini Winguard , Youth
,Mbizo section 6 , 23 July 2009
Gweme Thomas , Mbizo section 2,
13 June 2009
Ndlovu Thanduxolo, Mbizo
section 4 extension , 12 August 2009
Mabandla Nicholas , Parent , Mbizo section 2, 11August
2009
Mapurisa Mavis , Parent , Mbizo
section 8 , 26 July 2009
Makhamisa Settie , Mbizo
section 13 , 8 June 2009
Moyana Brian , Mbizo section 6
, 26 July 2009
Murapiro Lovemore , Mbizo
section 13 , 4 June 2009
Ruvinga Tatenda , Nurse Mbizo 4 Clinic ,4 June 2009
Secondary sources
AssaL A.M etal ,Diasporas Within and Without Africa ,Dynamism , Heterogenity
Variation , Afrainstutet, Uppsala ,Sweden ,2006
Bayart J , Reactive
Migration , Cambridge University Press
, Oxford , Lonndon,1991
Cohen R ,Global Diasporas An Introduction , London
University College, London, 1997
Dick Ranga , Migration
Effects of Economic Structural Adjustment Programme ,
Population Studies , Harare, 2003
Fredrick B , Ethnic Groups
and Boundaries , The Social Organisation
of Culture
Difference, Norwegian University Press,
Anthias ,1998
Jones H , Population
Geography, Sage Publications Incorporated, New Dehli, 2004
Kubat D, The
Politics of Migration Policies ,
Centre for Migration Studies , New York ,
1969
Lans Bondestam and Staffan Bengestom editors , Poverty
and Population Control,
Academic Press, New York , London, 1986
Lewis C J , Migration,
Croon Publishing House , London 1982
Malthus T.R An Essay
on the Principle of Population , Macmillan Publishers , London ,
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Mcnieill W and H Adams editors , Human Migration
Patterns , Indiana
University
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Prithchett C , Migration
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Rome , Italy
Raveinstein E.G , The laws
of Migration , Journal Statistical Society ,1989
Sanjek R , Rethinking
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Schwind P, Migration and
Regional Development , University
of Chicago, 1991
South African Migration Project (SAMP) Migration Policy Number 44
Speares A , Migration , Life
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Dr Magaisa A, Donors , Diaspora
and Zimbabwe locatted at www.newzimbabwe.com
Economy of Zimbabwe locatted at
http:www.allafrica.co
Hilary Anderson , information
officer UN international research and Training institute for
The advancement of women ,
Southern African Women Changing the face
of Migration
Locatted at www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows
Maphosa F , Impact of Remittances
From Zimbabweans Working In South Africa on
Rural Livelihoods in the
Southern Districts of Zimbabwe locatted at
fmaphosa.hotmailcom
Mbiba B ,Zimbabwe’s Global Citizens in Harare North
locatted at
www.enzimbabweandiaspora/doc/mapping
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Tsiko S, Impact of Migration on Food Security in Chiredzi locatted at
www//volensafrica.org/impact-of-migration-on
food
Interview Questions
1
What
is your name?
2
Where
do you stay?
3
Do
you have any of your immediate relatives who migrated outside the country?
4
Which
country did they go to?
5
When
exactly did they go to the diaspora?
6
What
can you say were the reasons that led to your relative going to the diaspora?
7
How
has your relative’s being in the diaspora affected you back here in the country?
Questionnaire
1
What
is your name ……………………………………………………………………..
2
Where
do you stay ………………………………………………………………………………………
3
If
you stay in Mbizo Kwekwe, do you have any of your immediate relatives who are
living outside the country ………………………………………………………………………………………
4
If
you have which country are they in ………………………………………………………………………………………
5
When
exactly did they go to the diaspora ………………………………………………………………………………………
6
Is
your relative male or female ………………………………………………………………………………………
7
Under
which age group does your relative in the diaspora fall under
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
8
Is
your relative Shona or Ndebele ………………………………………………………………………………………
9
What
reasons can you say led to your relative having to go to the diaspora ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
10
Has
your relative been sending back money or goods and how frequent has he/she been
sending them ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
11
If he/she sends cash or goods through which
channels does your relative send these goods or cash
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
12
What
does he/she usually send ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
13
How
can you say the migration of people to the diaspora has impacted on you
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
[1] Dr A
Magaisa, Donors , Diaspora and Zimbabwe
located at newzimbabwe.com
[2] Ibid
[3] Pasura D
,Gendering the Diaspora, Zim Migrants In
Britain A Journal of Transnational Africa In A
Global World located at www,iondon.org/doc/mapping
[4] Ibid
[5] R
Sanjek, Rethinking Migration ,Ancient
To Future, Global Network vol a no 1, 2003 pg 316
[6] B
Fredrick, Ethnic Groups and
Boundaries, The Social Organization of Culture,
Norwegian ,University Press,
Anthias,1998,pg557
[7] en.wikipedia.org/uk/diaspora
[8] Ibid
[9] ibid
[10]ibid
[11] ibid
[12] ibid
[13] W
Safran , Diasporas in Modern Society ,Myths of Homeland and Return,
Simon and Schuster , New York ,1991,pg33
[15] A M
AssaL etal, Diasporas Within and Without Africa ,Dynamism, Heterogeneity
Variation , Nordiska,2006 pg110
[16] S
Tsiko, Impact of Migration on Food Security in Chiredzi located at www//volensafrica.org/impact-of-migration-on
food.
[17] D Ranga
, Migration Effects of the Economic
Structural Adjustment Programme
on Rural Communities in Zimbabwe, Population Studies ,Harare, Zimbabwe,2003
[18] F
Maphosa, Impact of Remittances from
Zimbabweans living abroad on Rural Livelihoods in the Southern Districts of
Zimbabwe, located at www.fmaphosa.com.2005
[19] Economy
of Zimbabwe located at http://allafrica.com
[20] ibid
[21]Interview
with Tatenda, Mbizo section 6, 4 June 2009
[22]Economy
of Zimbabwe located at http//allafrica.com
[23] ibid
[24]D Ranga
,Migration Effects of the Economic
Structural Adjustment Programme Zimbabwe ,Population Studies , Harare
,2003 pg7
[25]
Interview with Brian Moyana 27 July 2009
[26]Interview
with Baba Anesu (Lovemore Murapiro) ,Mbizo section 13, 4 June 2009
[27] Economy
of Zimbabwe located at http:allafrica.com
[28]
Interview with Amai Sydnee (Paidamoyo Mhlanga),Mbizo section 8 ,3 June 2009
[29]
Interview with Thomas Gweme, Mbizo section 2, 3 June 2009
[30]Interview
with Thompson Mugadhula, Mbizo section
8, 6 June 2009
[31]F
Maphosa, ibid
[32] D Kubat ,The Politics of Migration Policies ,Centre for Migration Studies , New York,
1969,pg 71
[33]B Mbiba Zimbabwe’s
Global Citizens in Harare North locatted at www..en.zimbabweandiaspora/doc/mapping
[34] ibid
[35]
Interview with Abel Mlotshwa ,Mbizo section 6 ,5 June 2009
[36] ibid
[37] O Mumba
,Drought Mitigation and Indigenous Knowledge System in Southern Africa, Safire, Harare,2000 pg
12
[38]
Interview with Stanley Charakupa, Mbizo section 8 ,24 July 2009
[39]
Interview with Collen Lupondo , Mbizo
section 6, 23 July ,2009
[40]F Maphosa
,Impact of Remittances from
Zimbabweans working in South Africa on Rural Livelihoods in the Southern
districts of Zimbabwe locatted at fmaphosa.hotmail.com
[41]
Interview with Audrey Moyo, section 13
,24 July 2009
[42] J
Wolpert etal, Escape from Violence Conflict
and the Refugee Crisis in
Developing World, Oxford University
Press, 1998, pg 67
[43] Bayart
J, Reactive Migration,Cambribge University Press ,Oxford London 1986,pg 24
[44] D Pasura ,Gendering the Zimbabwean Diaspora
locatted at www.ion.org/doc/mapping
[45]
Independent UK 18 January 2003
[46]
Interview, Rosemary Ndlovu, Mbizo section 6 , 24 July 2009
[47]
Interview with Amai Sean , Mbizo section 4 extension , 3 June 2009
[48]
Interview with Kundiso Matongo ,
Mbizo section 8, 24 July 2009
[49]Ibid
[50] Numbers
, Needs and Policy Options,Centre for Development and Enterprise , Johannesburg
, south Africa ,2008
[51]
McDonald and Crush, Migration Initiatives
Appeal 2009 located at www.zimbabwediasporadynamics.docs/mapping
[52] Numbers
needs and policy options , ibid
[53] Speares A, Migration Life Cycle Stage and
Residential Mobility , Mass Bellinger Publishing , Cambridge, London,
pg449.
[54] The
Least Developed Countries Report 2005 , UN Geneva locatted at www.unctad.org
[55]E G
Raveinstein ,The Laws of Migration, Journal Statistical Society ,pg214
[57]South
African Migration Project (SAMP)
Migration Policy No 44, 2006
[58] H
Anderson, Information Officer UN
International Research and Training Institute
for the Advancement of Women Southern
African women are changing the face of migration located at
www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows
[59] E G
Raveinstein, ibid ,pg301
[60]R Isinagibva
,
Ethnic Problems of Tropical Africa,
Progress Publications, Moscow, 1978 pg 16
[61]
Interview with Bekezela , Mbizo section 4 extension ,26 July 2009
[62] D Ranga , Migration Effects of Structural Adjustment Programme, Harare ,
pg8
[63] ibid
[64] Economy
of Zimbabwe located at http:allafrica.com
[65]
Interview with Settie Makhamisa, Mbizo section
13 ,8 June 2009
[66]
Interview with Mrs Mapholisa, Mbizo section 8 , 26 July 2009
[67]
Interview with B Bhebhe Secretary Tombs Motorways, 11 August 2009
[68]Interview
with T Moyo, Mbizo section 13 , 3 June 2009
[69] Interview
with B Bhebhe Tombs Motorways , 11 August 2009
[70]
Interview with S Gonondo ,Mbizo section
6 , 25 July 2009
[71]
Interview with Talent and Thanduxolo ,
Mbizo section 4 extension, 12 August 2009
[72]
Interview with anonymous man , Mbizo section 2 ,4 June 2009
[73]
Interview with Officer Bumbate
,Mbizo Police Station , 3 June 2009
[74]
Interview with anonymous woman, Mbizo section 13, 2 June 2009
[75]
Interview with Mabandla N ,Mbizo section 2 ,11 August 2009
[76]
Interview with Mr Nkomazana ,Mbizo section 13 , 24 July 2009
[77]Interview
with Phiona Khumalo Mbizo section 8, 3
June 2009
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