EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The aim of this essay is to discuss the causes, challenges and benefits of Youth Migration.

To discuss the effects of migration on both the receiving and sending countries. Over the years the numbers of migrants have been soaring and anti-migrant sentiment has also been on the rise. Despite all this, the very same things that breed migration have also been on the rise, trade liberalisation, increasing unemployment, wars and civil unrest, health and economic hardship, economic disparities between rich and poor countries. Information from Migration related organisation was used to establish the trends, figures and impact of migration on the world and in my case my country. It is from these resources that l was able to set a foundation backed by facts for the essay. The main conclusion drawn from this essay is that youth migration is an inevitable occurrence and its up for the governments across the world to build capacity in dealing with it. As long as there are injustices in the world, as long as there are more wealthier regions than others, sometimes within the same country, young people would always be on the move to try and further their lives.

YOUTH MIGRATION
INTRODUCTION According to the International Migration Organisation, there are 1 billion migrants in the world, 215 million international and 740 million internal migrants. More people are on the move in search of better opportunities, freedom, peace and in general a better life. This figures are not expected to go down anytime soon with urbanization on the rise and an estimation of international migrants to reach 405 million by 2050.Migration is one of todays defining global issues as more people are on the move than at any other point in history. With about one third of the youth accounting for the total number of migrants, the time is now to bring them on board on this issue. Migration is a world-wide phenomenal affecting every region of the world, from Africa to the Middle East. Todays cities are more diverse than they have ever been. Asians, Africans, Arabs and Caucasians are all present in any of the worlds biggest cities, from Lagos to Kuala Lumpur. It does not matter whether one is in Johanesburg or Paris, there is bound to be at least one Chinatown across town. The world has never been this integrated with globalization, social media, Pop culture and communication networks linking all parts of the world bringing together todays youth. It is because of this integration that a single event in a country 100000km away could affect the outcomes of another adversely. The youth of today are not only affected by events in their home countries but by events occurring across the globe. It is essential for them to develop a global mindset for them to survive not only challenges within their borders but also to mitigate global challenges and compete globally. A graduate from the University of Botswana (UB) should not only be weary of other graduates from UB and from other local Tertiary Institutions, but also graduates from the University of Cape town, University of Melbourne and University of Shanghai. Many young people would readily migrate from one region to the other, whether internally or locally for greener pastures hence making todays job market very competitive. Economic disparities between countries are also a big cause of migration especially if those countries are located within the same region. The admission of some Eastern European countries such as Poland into the European Union has meant that citizens of those countries can cross borders with little to no regulation to their more prosperous neighbours like the United Kingdom to seek better opportunities. Despite this good gesture of neighborliness most of the receiving countries are overwhelmed by the large inflows of migrants from their neighbours (and other countries) and the recent global economic recession has not helped the situation with most of the developed countries having stagnant economic growth. Despite all this interaction and movement among global citizens, the global recession has exposed some intolerance and injustices leveled on migrants by locals. It seems when the going gets tough migrants are at the receiving end of locals frustrations. They are used as scapegoats and they are blamed for all social ills, from lack of jobs, illegal activity, women stealing etc.

There is rising anti-migrant sentiment across the world, with government tightening their immigration policies, from the State of Arizona in the United States of America to the failure of integration policy in Germany. This essay will discuss the causes of migration, the challenges and benefits, in my country and across the world. It will be divided into two main parts, a look at how migration issues are around the world and a local perspective on migration. Migration is a global issue as some countries receive migrants others are losing citizens. GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE The anti-migrant sentiment is on the rise, with more countries tightening their border controls. This resentment and lose of patience with migrants has manifested itself into many forms from increased cases of xenophobia being reported from South Africa to France. Inhumane refugee camps and failure of immigrant receiving countries such as Germany to integrate migrants. It is reported that in the UK, a migrant enters that country every minute. The biggest population increase in Western countries is because of migration and not natural cause. This surge of population because of migrants has caused rifts between locals and immigrants with the locals feeling displaced within their own countries. The recent comments of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on immigrants failure to integrate into German society has sparked an outcry from human rights activists, seeing it as something that could spark a revolt against migrants. Most of German migrants live in parallel societies with little to no integration into the German society. As the world is becoming hostile towards migrants, the challenges that breed migration continue to increase. Unemployment is on the rise, wars and political unrest, disparities between rich and poor countries, skewed development and global warming continue to push young people within and across borders. The highest numbers of asylum seekers in the UK from the past decade were from Somalia, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Iraq. All this countries are in great civil unrest with many, the UK having played a direct role in their predicament. Both Iraq and Afghanistan are in never ending wars with the UK being the perpetrator. The UK is also at loggerheads with the Zimbabwean government with the young people of that country caught in the cross fire. This and many other challenges in the world will continue to push young people across national borders. Migration is a double edged sword, with both benefits and challenges. It is for receiving countries to come up with policies and build capacity to utelise the abundant human capital within their mist for development purposes while minimizing the negative impacts of migration. It is not only people that migrate but jobs are also migrating; most manufacturing jobs are being taken to China to take advantage of their low cost of production at the detriment of the American blue collar workers. Most American companies, from Apple to General Electric have all shipped their manufacturing operations to China for better profit margins. These companies have ceased the opportunities of migration, by using cheaper migrant labor to achieve bigger economic growth, both for themselves and their governments. Through taxes and levies. Migration is an essential and inevitable component of the economic and social life of every country.

LOCAL PESRPECTIVE Since gaining its independence from Britain in 1966, Botswana has rapidly evolved from an impoverished migrant sending country to a migrant receiving country that has attracted skilled professionals from across the continent, brought home many of its own expatriate nationals, and become a destination for refugees and asylum seekers from the Southern African region in particular (Everett 2004). Since independence Botswana has grown from one of the poorest countries to one of the most prosperous countries in Africa and a middle income country. This great economic growth has made Botswana a destination for migrants in and around the continent. Botswana developed a flexible and open migration policy to allow for more skilled people to come in and help develop the country. Most immigrants ceased the opportunities and made a good living for themselves while Batswana were educated to eventually pick up were the migrants were. Today there are more skilled Batswana than they were in the early stages of the countrys development but the economic pie as high as 70% is in foreign owned companies. There are more foreign millionaires in the country than locals. Since the exploration of diamond in Botswana, there have been a steady and consistent GDP growth and the government was the biggest provider, from free medical care, education and employment. However while Batswana were having it easy and slowly losing their self sufficiency because of dependency on government, their foreign counterparts were hustling and building their small enterprises. Today, these enterprises have grown into bigger companies and there are more foreign owned companies than locals. In Botswana there are two kinds of immigrants, those that are highly successful and prosperous, mostly skilled professionals, high impact entrepreneurs and transnational immigrants and there are those that are very poor either as refugees or economic migrants with Batswana caught in the middle. One group is the master and the other the slaves. Because of the good management of the countrys economy over the years, Batswana have lived relatively peaceful with their immigrants compared to other regional economic powers like South Africa. However the Global Economic Recession has provided the country with an opportunity to introspect, we can no longer depend on diamonds (which is the countrys biggest export earner), Batswana have to start being proactive in their countrys economic activity. There have been a number of government economic policies to try and empower its citizens particularly the youth, from soft grants and loans below the market value, guaranteed procurement of goods and services by government, free mentoring and training, it has all been served in a silver platter but we are still trailing our foreign counterpart. There are many foreigners in Botswana who have rich to rags stories, from a plumber who started from humble beginnings and today owns a multi-million prime estate, from a small general dealer that today has 100 of stores across the region. The evidence is there that our economy can drastically change ones life. In recent years there has been an avalanche of Chinese contractors cashing in into the infrastructural boom. The local Construction industry is at the brink of collapse because of this. In a heated newspaper report by a local newspaper, the head of local contractors association Christopher Gofhamodimo accused the government of choosing Chinese contractors over locals. Government should start taking care of citizen contractors. Many citizen owned contractors are collapsing and dropping like flies. Government is failing us, not willing to empower its citizens. We do not have jobs to sustain our companies, said Gofhamodimo. He accused the government of hiding behind the recent global economic meltdown for not involving local contractors in government projects, saying there are major projects going on in the midst of the economic meltdown. 4

These projects include dams, stadiums, airports; all these major projects worth P20 billion circulating within 25 Chinese constructors. I believe its a cartel. Ever since government started believing in them, they set their own prices. They are looting the country, said Gofhamodimo It is a challenge for Citizen Contactors to step up and face the competition head on, we are living in a globalised world and for one to excel they have to proof their worth. In the past the government has cried foul at the lack of professionalism and quality shown by citizen contractors. It is therefore imperative for Batswana to learn from their foreign counterparts and use that knowledge to further themselves and reclaim their countrys prosperity-knowledge is power. However there seem to be light at the end of the tunnel as most young people are walking up to the fact that they can no longer depend on government for everything and its upon them to take accountability of their lives. In the early days of the countrys democracy the push was for citizens to go to school and become workers, todays calling is for the youth to become more enterprenual and its these graduation from job seekers to employers that would see more job opportunities being created locally. CONCLUSION So long as we live in an integrated-world economy, the competition among people and countries of the world for scarce resources will continue (Chase- Dunn and Salvatore J. Babones 2006).The youth of today are on the move, they are out there trying to make a better life out of what the world has to offer. As trade barriers and communication links are more relaxed it only makes sense that one would go out looking for greener pastures. Internal migration is on the rise, with many villagers moving to bigger and more prosperous cities. For the first time in history, half of the worlds population is in urban areas. Globalisation and Transnationalisation has seen many western and now eastern countries raking in trillions from the African economy and its only fair that citizens from disadvantaged communities could seek opportunities to their more well off global citizens-especially if those economies were indirectly founded by your resources. If British Petroleum (BP) unexpectedly closes its operations in Botswana and retrench all its 5000 employees because of a bad business deal made in America-Would it be wrong for me to pack my bags and look west for employment? If Hyundai has had operations in a village of Kanye, Botswana and it was the major economic driver of that community and it suddenly decides to relocate its entire operations to South Africa because it would be more viable to operate from there-Would the now unemployed youths be wrong to seek employment from the booming South African automobile industry. Migration is here to stay, however perceived, bad or good, it is up to governments to try and achieve the best from it while filtering the bad. The world is more integrated; it is up for us to share the benefits and the challenges, the gains and the losses. No man is an island RECOMMENDATIONS Address unemployment: This is one of the biggest causes of migration among the youth. Youth unemployment is very high worldwide and the lack of jobs has seen young people move from villages to towns, country to country in search of greener pastures. Unemployment could be addressed in a number of ways, among them: I. Regional economic integration and cooperation:

In every region they are those countries that are doing better than others and these countries tend to be the preferred destinations for migrants. It is therefore advisable that this regional leaders use their economic advantage to break bread with their neighbours. Through regional economic integration the whole region could benefit from regional cooperation. There are already trading blocs such as EU, SACU, ECOWAS, and NAFTA etc. In case of SACU, the regional economic powerhouse, South Africa seems to be playing hardball with its my way or no way attitude, as it is Botswana stands to lose billions in a newly proposed trade policy imposed by South Africa. By regional cooperation, I mean looking beyond the trade policy agreements and protocols but cooperating with your neighbours for better economic welfare for all, however big or small. There is a currently a standstill between South Africa and Botswana on a power station that was to be opened in Botswana, with South Africa being the major client. However South Africa suddenly did a U-turn and the continuation of the project is uncertain. Botswana imports almost all its goods and services from South Africa, hence creating 1000 000 of jobs for that economy, would it hurt if they were to also buy from us. It is economic stifling and big brother attitude in regional economic powerhouses that could lead to immigrants jumping borders from their poorer countries to their more prosperous brothers. II. Develop rural Communities: Urbanisation is on the rise especially in developing countries. More young people are leaving their villages for cities in look of greener pastures. The truth of the matter is that is not everyone who would find employment in the cities and most of these migrants end up being delinquents, loiters and on the periphery of society. It is hard to survive in the city with only a primary education certificate. The Development of rural communities would create opportunities for the youth in rural areas and can help retain this vast human resource. In Botswana there is a huge opportunity in agriculture, with almost our food being imported from South Africa, the agricultural market is ripe for the taking. The country spends almost P2 billion every year buying food from South Africa. This is P2 billion that could be used to promote the agricultural sector with the youth particularly in rural areas (which is where the majority of agricultural activity takes place) at the forefront. Retention of local intellectuals: There is a saying that says think globally and act locally; this statement seems to elude many of Africas young intellectuals, who are sent abroad to study and learn best international practices but chose to stay behind even taking citizenship of their host countries at the expense of their own countries. It is no secret Africa cannot offer the same packages as the USA or Qatar for engineers, but the continent is on the upside and it needs its brain power to develop even further. In 25 years, Africa will have no brains left, Dr Lalla Ben Barka, the ex-United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Deputy Executive Secretary has previously declared. African governments are running at a loss by investing in higher education only to have their home grown qualified professionals seek opportunities further afield. Mo Ibrahim is a perfect example of how the intellectuals can effect change, he has invested heavily in Africa at times against the grain, and he currently runs a foundation where he promotes good governance 6

III.

among Africas heads of states. It is for the young professionals of Africa abroad to ask themselves, would I rather make money abroad or make a difference at home and potentially make even a lot of money. Money cannot teach our children, but teachers can. Money cannot bring electricity to our home, but engineers can. Money cannot cure sick people, doctors can, says Dr Ravinder Rena. Political stability: Many asylum seekers and immigrants are fleeing political instability and unrest from home and if they had a choice they would remain in their own countries. Good governance has been proven to be a prerequisite for prosperity and many countries that follow the rule of law are relatively successful. Through good governance, there could be more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) coming in the country and creating job opportunities for local citizens. However true this is, there seem to be some inconsistencies with following this rule. Despite many countries being advised to practice good governance as a term for doing business with the west, it is still ironic that Botswana one of the highest ranked and performers in Africa across all international watchdogs still struggle to attract FDI. Botswana has consistently performed well in most international reports, from governance, corruption, ease of doing business reports for many years. With Botswanas population just under 2 million and being a landlocked, Multi-nationals would rather go to a more populous but least performing country. If there is no reward for compliance why should corrupt regimes change their ways if they can still rake in billions from their oil. It is for countries like the USA to stop supporting the likes of the ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for their strategic purposes at the expense of the Egyptian youths who end up leaving their country in masses for better lives elsewhere. The youth of Libya are currently caught in the crossfire because of civil unrest in that country, if the countries like China which is fast becoming a Super power started adopting harsher measures against non compliant countries; maybe Muammar Gaddafi would lose markets for his oil that indirectly funds his war against his own people. Maybe Robert Mugabe may lose millions if his bank accounts in the East were freezed and may force him to reconsider his political position. And this might see millions of Zimbabweans spread across the world heading back home to rebuild their country Transition from mineral based to capital based economies: Most economic activity in Africa is fueled by the vast resources of the continent. However in recent past, there has been a great increase in the goods and service sectors, from retailing, telecommunication, banking and infrastructural boom. All this disciplines require a learned and educated workforce and for the local economy to flourish, there have to have the skills to tap into this opportunities. In Botswana where most industries are foreign dominated, its a challenge for the local citizens to step up and compete with their foreign counterparts. The paling field can only be level if they are as competitive as their competitors; it is for the government to ensure that the free education it offers its citizens is just as good as what their competitors from Singapore have learned. It is through this transition that will see Africa saving billions each year recruiting professionals and hiring contractors from more developed nations.

REFERENCES: Christopher Chase- Dunn and Salvatore J. Babones (2006), Global Social Change, Historical and Comparative Perspectives African Investor (January to February edition) http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/about-migration/lang/en http://www.unfpa.org/pds/migration.html http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2006/moving_young_eng/introduction.html http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=246 http://www.gazettebw.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8103:-citizens-petitionkhama-over-chinese-contractors&catid=18:headlines&Itemid=2