During a seminar in Rome, international experts underlined the importance of harnessing migrants' skills to promote development in African countries.
Participants at an international seminar on "Migration and the Demographic Dividend: mobility from Sub-Saharan Africa" organized by the Italian foreign ministry and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Rome have stressed the importance of harnessing the skills of migrants who have integrated into their host countries in order to promote development back home.
"The diaspora is very familiar with the situation in the places where migrants come from," said Cleophas Adrien Dioma of the group Migration and Development. In this respect, it can help identify priority areas for intervention, as well as assisting new arrivals in integration into the host community, he added.
The diaspora contributes to development
Modou Gueye of the association Sonugal recalled how the diaspora contributes directly to development in some parts of Africa by providing water or electricity or by raising awareness of specific development needs. He also said it is important to involve women and young people when projects are drawn up.
Young people's frustration not to be underestimated
Frustration among young people who see no possibility of participating in the social and political life of their country must not be underestimated as a driver of migration, according to Luisa Enria of Oxford University, who carried out a ten-year study in Sierra Leone. Those who decide to set off for this reason know well what dangers face them along the journey as, thanks to social networks, they are able to follow their friends who have gone before them in real time. But this is not enough to dissuade them from taking a risk that is in any event linked to the hope for a better future.