Restrictive migration polices counter-productive — Prof. Manuh

THE Director of the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana, Professor Takyiwaa Manuh, has stated that restrictive policies of migration on Africans are counter-productive.
She described such policies as discriminatory, which led to increase in fraudulent activities concerning visa application and other immigration challenges that did not serve the purpose of globalisation.
Prof. Manuh, an expert on migration policies, was speaking at a workshop organised by the Goethe-Institute, in collaboration with Rueckehrerbuero Ghana, on the theme: "International Migration and Development", in Accra last Friday.
She said issues concerning migration were very serious and noted that even the broad theme for the workshop, "Reintegration as a potential for development co-operation", suggested that restrictive policies on migration did not work.
Prof. Manuh, therefore, appealed to Western policy makers on migration to ensure that the phenomenon of globalisation reflected in their policies.
"The way some Africans struggle to travel to Europe especially is very serious but I think people should be able to move about freely without any prejudice," she said.
She explained that some of the policies were prejudiced to the extent that one could notice a lot of students from Europe visiting Ghana and Africa in general but it was otherwise with students from the sub-region, noting that even some of the questions asked during interrogation at some of the embassies were so offensive and derogatory.
Prof. Manuh said most Ghanaians outside the country were living in other parts of Africa, contrary to the notion that most Ghanaians were living in Europe, adding that that was because there was enormous selectivity as to who is able to migrate or not.
She, therefore, encouraged policy makers to resort to policies that would enhance the mobility of labour and make migration an option instead of the restrictive policies that often led to illegal migration and fraudulent documentation for visa application.
Mrs Jeanett Martin, a lecturer from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, also said the benefits and experience migrants had was a powerful force for development in their prospective countries.
She said there was the need to search for an African alternative of development as the Western concept of development did not seem to work in Africa.
She said expert knowledge and power, the key concept for development in the West, had been questioned and needed to be changed.
In her view, ‘brain gain’ could replace the ‘brain drain’ to benefit both countries as it influenced economic development in respective countries.
The workshop sought to bring stakeholders together to highlight the potential of returned migrants, as it was difficult understanding why professional qualifications and social competence of Ghanaians trained in Germany were barley tapped in development co-operation between the two countries.