Life in the West not a bed of roses for Kenyans

NAIROBI: Four years ago, I witnessed a deportation drama involving a young Kenyan at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. His hands and legs were in chains.

His face had this haunted look; the same expression I saw on Abdullah Ocalan’s face, the Kurdish nationalistic leader when he was arrested in Nairobi in 1999. It is the expression of a trapped animal.

When the young man in France finally told me his story, I asked myself: is it worth the trouble?
Thousands of refugees are seeking asylum in the West.

Many of these are genuinely running from war, persecution and poverty. But what do we make of my friend who used well over Sh400,000 ($4,000) to find his way to a French refugee camp? Why not start a business here with the cash?

Of course, the decision processes are not quite the same. African immigrants are spending millions of dollars to reach Europe illegally.

To cross the Sahara from Ghana, for example, requires two things that ordinary people don’t have: A suicidal mind-set and lots of cash to bribe boarder officials, pay human traffickers and bandits, not counting the cost of food, water and accommodation.

It is safe to conclude that many ‘desperate’ emigrants are actually from rich backgrounds and are no more genuine asylums seekers than adventurists.

I often say that if I had the way, I would bundle all our young people into jumbo jets and deposit them in various Western capitals.

I am 101 per cent sure they would come whimpering back to their mothers within a week. It is the only way to make them realise that the West as they know it, is largely an illusion.

The image of a chained young man in a dirty T-shirt and a paper bag as his only possession has never left me.

Yet, for many young people, hopping into a plane and settling in 'majuu' is a lifelong aspiration. Parents will do anything to encourage their children to immigrate even when the prospects of landing a job abroad are becoming bleaker even for citizens there.

In asylum seeking, Kenyans from middle class families will lie about ‘forced marriages’, ‘FGM’, ‘Mungiki’ etc. There are valid reasons pushing people to seek asylum in the Eest. I am alive to the importance of diaspora remittances in the economies of poor nations.

This is a genuine economic process. Labour flows into places where it is needed and compensated most.
This article is meant for those who hold this nonsensical notion that the West is what God made next after heaven.

The Western’s powerful popular culture has fuelled the allure and glamour of an easy life in Europe and the US. It is an irresistible magnet. My deported friend found out the truth the hard way.

The unrealistic dream shatters the moment one lands in New York, London or Paris.

If you are illegal, you have to live like a rodent, for ever on the run. The only job you will ever do is either illegal or demeaning.

With your master's and PhD degrees from Kenyatta University or wherever, you can only scrub toilets or the skins of ‘senior citizens’.

You may be someone in your village; there you obey orders from boys and girls. It has nothing to do with race. It is their economy.

There is of course the race question. A report by Maina Kiai, United Nations Special Rapporteur, documents the sorry existence of black people in the US. “African-Americans are subjected to systematic police harassment...often for doing nothing more than walking down the street or gathering in a group...” , not so here.

For many blacks, Kiai reports, “a minor criminal – or even an arrest without substantiated charges – can show up on a background check, making it difficult to find a job, secure a student loan or find a place to live”.

If presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Marie Le pen win in the US and France elections respectively, then African emigrants will have tougher times in those countries.

How do we diminish this craze to immigrate? In schools and at home, children need to be taught to differentiate between fact and fiction about the West.

They need to know that the glamour portrayed in movies is just makeups paid for by some very rich companies. And that nobody in real life behave the way they do in movies. They should be aware that it is hell if you are not properly documented.

There will always be people wanting to immigrate for whatever reasons. In countries like Kenya, people migrate to seek better jobs.

With improving livelihoods, it cannot be long before people start opting to make things work for themselves here rather than plunging into the unknown.

Africa must accelerate the current economic growth if the haemorrhage of young people to the West is to be stopped.