Hard Times for a Zimbabwean Migrant in Dubai
Like many young people who dream of coming to the wealthy Gulf States to find work, 27-year-old Anesu Gamba came here to Dubai three years ago to escape Zimbabwe’s crippling poverty.
I met Anesu, a soft-spoken man with a round face, at the Department for Naturalization and Residency in Dubai. He went there to cancel the visit visa he requested for his brother because he could no longer afford the ticket. “I wanted him to come and enjoy Dubai, he was so excited,” Anesu said, gazing sadly at the ground.
In the beginning, his new life in the Gulf was just as he had imagined. “In the first two years, I lived in a dream, I had friends, and I bought a car," said Anesu. He was also able to send money to his mother, father and younger brother in Zimbabwe, none of whom have jobs.
But last month, Anesu didn't send his family any money. He was among several laid off by the small public-relations company that hired him as a graphic designer. The company blamed the downsizing on the global economic downturn.
About a quarter of Zimbabwe's population has gone abroad, and together they send home anywhere from $360 million to $1 billion in remittances, reports the UN news agency, IRIN. These remittances are often credited for saving the country from complete collapse.
But the burden of supporting family members abroad is heavy for those in the Gulf. Many, like Anesu, have cut other costs to keep up the remittances. Anesu sold his car and moved into a shared apartment with three other migrants. “Sending money home is not an option, it’s an obligation," he told me. "I just can’t let my family down."
Finding a new job in Dubai isn't easy these days, but returning to Zimbabwe isn't very tempting. Less than 6 percent of people living in Zimbabwe are employed, the UN said recently. At its peak last year, inflation reached 231 million percent and Save the Children reports that more than 75 percent of the population lives in abject poverty.
Anesu thinks his chances of finding a job are better in Dubai. "I have one month to find a job after the cancellation of my visa," he said. "I came to Dubai with hopes and dreams. I will try my best to find a job, even as a waiter, a dishwasher, I don’t care. At the end, I don’t have many options, do I?"
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Remittances
Remittances sent home around the world seem to keep many nations economies afloat, and a similar situation reveals itself in Mexico. In 2008 and early 2009 money sent from the United States to Mexico by migrants totaled $26 billion dollars—the same amount as foreign investment in Mexico. With labor intensive jobs plummeting in the United States, Mexico faces an ominous future as the amount of money flowing into the country decreases substantially.
Money sent home by migrants has the ability to fend off poverty by relieving reliance on government, whom most likely cannot provide the desperately needed public services to low-income areas of their country. In a nation such as Zimbabwe, where the article states there are only 6% people employed and there is 231 million percent inflation, money sent home is crucial and pivotal. It can be assumed that there is a high level of migration from Zimbabwe, especially since there is almost $1 billion sent home each year.
In Mexico, many towns outside of the Federal District of Mexico (The Capital) face between 50% and 80% migration of their population. Furthermore, those who return ‘home’ to their native towns from the U.S. are usually burnt out or injured, and therefore are not a labor asset to the community. Moreover, many times the young men and women who migrate leave their children with their parents, creating a situation where the elder of a community carry the obligation of looking after the younger generation.
The world now faces a situation where thousands of migrants will be forced to return home, especially to rural communities, where the people who stayed have been largely abandoned by their government and the local economy forsaken due to the limited labor force. This desperate world situation is one that has never been faced before, mainly because the movement of citizens within the world has escalated over the past two decades. If the recession continues to worsen, nations like Mexico and Zimbabwe with high levels of migration can expect catastrophic monetary losses and extremely difficult conditions.
Remesas
The ability of migrant workers to send money to their homelands has become indispensable for the economic well-being of many households. Remittances constitute an important and even indispensable (like in the dramatic case of Zimbabwe), source of income for developing countries. The relevance of this flow of income increases the sensibility of the economies of the developing countries to the ups and downs of the global economy. In the case of Zimbabwe for example, the 360 million dollars in remittances are considered indispensable, and thus the unemployment rates in states harboring migrant workers from Zimbabwe have a deep impact in the economy of this country. Latin America as a whole is also a region greatly benefited by remittances from workers abroad; the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) reports that the region receives and approximate of 66.5 billion dollars.
Households in developing countries receiving remittances usually employ this additional source of income to meet essential expenses such as food, rent and medicine, making this source of income indispensable to rise above poverty. In this respect remittances are a clear indicator of the level of dependency and economic development of underdeveloped countries. Donald Terry, the manager of the (MIF), points out that in the case of Brazil the decrease of 4% in remittances (7.1 billion dollars) is actually good news. Unlike many Latin American countries Brazil’s economy is relatively healthy and its currency has demonstrated a strong positioning against the dollar (the real has appreciated 24 percent against the dollar over 2008), which has contributed to the reduction of remittances among many other factors. However, there are still many states receiving over 20% of their gross domestic income in remittances from migrant workers (Guyana 43%, Haiti 35% and Honduras 25%). These nations too experience decreases in their remittances, but in their case it is a reflection of the effects of the economic crisis in the developed world.
Remittances are a crucial source of income for many families in the developing world. They allow many families to meet basic living standards and even invest in their own future. Nonetheless, the more dependent an economy becomes of such sources of income, the more it will be dependent on the economic success of another country. The current economic crisis will have a direct effect on households in developing countries throughout the globe that rely on remittances; those receiving money from the US will feel in their households the recession in American soil. The increasing levels of unemployment will impact the ability of many to send money back to their families, and these in return will have to lower their standards of living. As economies rise and fall migrant workers aim at working in different countries to help their household economies back home. I doing this a cycle of dependency is created, a cycle that can only be broken by the success of the domestic economy of developing states. Sadly the economies of many states such as Zimbabwe and Guyana are too dependent and weak to procure such an economic miracle amidst a global economic crisis, and will probably suffer the most if the global economy continues spiraling downwards.
It's amazing how that works
I continue to be amazed how that works, that these people are keeping their country from collapse by moving abroad and sending money back. It's yet another reason countries shouldn't turn inwards in the recession - we need each other and we dont want work visa restrictions to add to the mess
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