By press time, at least 42 Africans from other countries had been killed in South Africa. More than 25,000 foreigners have fled their homes since the attacks began. Those determined to stay are facing deportation. Images of foreigners being killed - burnt alive, stabbed, shot or beaten to death – have deeply embarrassed African leaders. Two burnt bodies were found Thursday in a slum outside Johannesburg, according to local media reports. When the xenophobia news first filtered through, foreigners in South Africa stood in bewilderment. This was Nelson Mandela’s nation with its history of fighting white racist rule was expected to be safe heaven for all Africans. Some of the victims of xenophobia went to South Africa for political reasons after their own countries sunk into economic turmoil. President Thabo Mbeki directed, for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994, the South African National Defense Force to step in and end the crisis. Although Mbeki has sent soldiers in to the streets to ensure order, xenophobia is likely to linger. Throughout the world people emigrate; when their countries of origin frustrates them either economically or politically, they seek refugee in other stable countries. But nationals look at these foreigners and blame them for their own woes namely unemployment. I too grew up in a foreign country. Many despicable things were done against us! You would go for interview and get the job. But the nationals would look at you with contempt. “Why doesn’t he go back home and leave our jobs alone?” The feelings of resentment by unemployed South Africans while unusual in their ferocity and intensity are not unusual in substance. Out of the desperation in their countries, many people risk the lives for green pastures. They pack up, leave and take their skills elsewhere. The path they have chosen is not an easy one. As immigration laws in developed countries get tighter day by day, illegal migrants face the prospect of life as a fugitive. Your chances of being trapped and deported are very high. Meanwhile, the countries left behind are suffering the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon. In a bid to counter the brain drain and create a mechanism to bring back Rwandan expatriates in the Diaspora, Rwanda in 1997 launched Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals (TOKTEN) programme. In the knowledge that people often emigrate in search of job, TOKTEN initiates projects that create employment. Employment that will then drive economic and social transformation. If Rwanda can provide its people with jobs, the hope is that they won’t feel inclined to leave and live as outcasts in foreign countries. Ends
