Repats - African diaspora return home: rewards outweigh challenges

Approximately 8.8 million African migrants live in Europe, North America, and Australia, with some gradually moving to Asia (The African Report, July 2013, No. 52). Another 13.2 million Africans are migrants on their own continent, having moved from one African country to another to secure safety and/or employment (Global Migrant Origin Database).

Many are starting to return to their homelands. From July 2011 to November 2011, about 35,000 South Sudanese returned to their newly independent country, said the International Organisation of Migration (IOM).

But coming home can often have its own challenges—the changing country, pressure from relatives to support them with new wealth and new skills from overseas, and returning to a lifestyle in which poverty is a major problem. However, starting a new business, rising employment options, and returning to families are the greatest rewards. More and more Africans want to invest in their own country.

The term repats describes people who repatriate back to their homeland after many years abroad. They are the returning Diaspora. As one journalist in The African Report (July 2013) says: there are two camps of repats—the Temps who come for a short term often regularly—and the Stays—the people who have returned “for good.”

The African Report interviewed 10 repats who described some of the challenges in returning home: people say you are crazy for leaving a developed country to come back to poverty; low and irregular salary; bringing their wife and children to a country they have never visited; or long absences from people and new families left behind in Europe or America. Another challenge was finding medical care in their homeland, and the cost required to return to Europe for continuous treatment and surgeries. Others said that their own mannerisms, speech, and clothes had changed and they felt awkward at first when settling back home.

As described in my novel, The Sudan Curse (2009), the constant demand by relatives for money does not diminish once a person has returned home. The concept that a person must have acquired considerable wealth in their new country—whether actual or perceived—continues to place pressure on Africans leaving and returning. Added to this is the pressure of not letting their family down. But often they now have two families to support: one in their adopted country and the other in their original homeland.

With rising unemployment in the countries they migrated to, the option of returning home with new skills, new ambitions, and big ideas was an attractive option to the repats interviewed. And their desire to assist the country of origin was also strong. The African repats, especially young graduates, felt that they could accomplish far more in their own country than in the competitive environment of their adopted country. Most are returning to the private sector or to start their own businesses. As one interviewee said, “Africa is where the opportunities are.”