Kenya’s and Migrants; harnessing their potential

Every year around October, thousands of Kenyans fill out their green card applications and hope that they shall become part of the American dream. Every year 30,000 people worldwide win the lottery and start off their dreams in the land of opportunity. With unrelenting drive to excel they soon become prosperous in America, the worlds richest Nation and become beacons to many others who envy their positions. One wonders why the Americans always invite more and more migrants. What secrets has this nation learnt that others are yet to tap into? Well to understand the importance of migrants, let us observe more closely the winning Kenyan now armed with his green card.

The first thing that the Kenyan winner- jack for purposes of this article will do is collect as much information about America. He will call his friends in America to celebrate his new status to ask as many questions as possible. Jack will soon be talking about America in every sentence to his friends and family in Kenya. This will make his friends and family become more inquisitive of America thus creating much interest in Kenya for America a free and effective advertising campaign. He will thereafter accumulate as much money as possible, selling off his assets and borrowing from friends and the bank in preparation of his relocation to America. Jack will then convert Kenya shillings into dollars and take a plane to America probably an American airline. He will then spend the money right from the airport, while sourcing an apartment and furnishing it, while buying food from the local stores and in all other activities to sustain his life. Since he will not be able to maintain his lifestyle on his savings alone, he will look for a job and or start an income generating activity. With no family to run to for additional support and ‘boosting', he will take his job very seriously since losing it means staying homeless. Jack's creative energies will be at the highest level as he will think of ways to improve his life and eventually fulfill the American dream. Five years later it is likely that Jack's consumption will be three times higher than when he arrived who gains in the process America. What benefits will America have gained from Jacks migration?

When Jack changed his money at the airport, he created a demand for the American Dollar that in effect raised the value of the currency. He then spent the dollar in America thus creating a demand for local products starting with food products, housing and household items like fridges etc thus supporting local American industries. He also provided cheaper labor for those industries since he did not have any family support system forcing him to accept lower wages than the local populace. This made the cost of goods sold and production costs cheaper increasing the marketability and profits of the products/services sold. Later Jack may have started a business thus creating employment and benefiting America with creative talent and finally retired and enjoyed his riches in the country boosting the local consumption for products.

Kenya can benefit from the same process greatly. We have the potential to attract migrant labor from the whole of east and central Africa. We can tap take advantage of the war in these countries to spur growth in our own by firstly ensuring we ourselves don't go into war. We can then accommodate all the refugees from those countries giving them a form of citizenship and tap especially into the skilled labor to help us reduce our local deficits like in the area of health. We can also integrate them into the local market as a source of cheap labor. We currently have a number of manufacturing firms an export processing zones (EPZ) that the potential to produce more products to fully exploit our trade quotas into the European and American markets yet are hampered by the high costs of production. By using migrant we can make our goods much cheaper and even to be at par with the Asian countries thus retaining the manufacturing plants in Kenya and building more EPZs. We can use the additional revenues earned from the migrant workers to fund the building of learning institutions to train students from the region and to ensure that our local labor is educated to take up the more skilled jobs.

Just like in America, migrant labor will create a huge demand for local products and especially those of a lower quality due to lower earnings thus building our cottage industries. They will also create a demand for housing and other items thus spurring growth in the country. Eventually they will want to go back to their countries and will import local technology and or form partnerships with local enterprises to exploit resources in their home countries just as is the case with Sudan.

Kenya can also tap into the large pool of migrants who come as tourists every year. We can market ourselves as a country with a huge market pool, full of cheap labor and also a talented work force. We can market ourselves as an entry point to the whole of East and Central Africa. we can then encourage this tourists to come and live in Kenya and ensure that we make the entry and business set up process as easy as possible. Like the migrant worker we can give them also a form of citizenship that does not allow them to vote but to participate, own and invest in any form of business activity as long as they have a local partner. This will then create room for the movement of local labor into higher earning jobs created by the migrant investors. Eventually Kenya would develop into an economic power house and a regional hub for labor. with the adequate infrastructure we will then be able to attract foreign companies to set up offices and plants in the country that serve the whole of Africa. Kenya will then be in a position to move itself into a middle income economy. Like all other theories, this one comes with its threats namely security issues, labor strikes and political unrest, foreign cash outflows through remittances and demands for equal treatment and rights for migrant persons.

The bigger question is if Kenya currently cannot educate, employ, house and feed its local population then how can it focus on educating, employing, feeding and housing foreign population? I do call this reasoning defeatist. Going by the example given above, the major reason why Kenya currently cannot house, educate and feed its people is because there are not enough companies and institutions to offer these services. The main reason why we cannot attract the companies that would offer these services or even start our own is because we do not have sufficient markets, cheap labor and other factors of production to do so. To solve the problem, we can invite migrant workers starting with refugees to work on infrastructure projects. Better infrastructure by reducing costs of production, will create a suitable environment to attract other investments that will spur growth in the local economy. Those investments will find a ready market consisting of low income migrants and higher income locals and migrant investors. The Government will then be able to raise additional revenues from taxes which can be used to fund education and health programs subsidizing them for local populations through scholarships. Our Kenyan population will then get more educated and then take up higher income jobs locally and abroad thus reducing poverty. In fact with the huge influx of migrants Kenyans can work less hours and maintain ownership rights for the infrastructure that they own and charge rental fees to the migrant just as it is in Dubai. The Kenyans can then build better houses, go to better schools and live life lavishly creating the Kenyan Dream.