GAMBIA-POPULATION: Migrants’ Dreams Turn Sour

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

BANJUL, Oct 15 1996 (IPS) - People from other West African nations used to consider Gambia the gateway to Europe and the United States, but many who arrived here with the hope of moving on have seen their dream gradually fade away.

The majority of the immigrants came to Gambia thanks to the open-door policy the small West African nation has had for years towards professionals from the sub-region.

The relatively higher salaries here have attracted medical doctors, lawyers and accountants, but most of the Ghanaians, Nigerians, Guineans, Sierra Leoneans and Liberians in Gambia are teachers who fled the poor wages paid in their home countries.

Teachers in Nigeria, for example, earn the equivalent of about 30 to 40 U.S. dollars a month, less than a fifth of the salaries paid in Gambia’s schools.

The majority of the immigrants came with the idea of using Gambia as a stepping stone — a place where they could earn more, save more and then buy an air ticket to a developed nation — but ended up staying.

Tunde, a Nigerian teacher who doubles as a barber is one of those who failed to make it further than Banjul. “I have been teaching here in the Gambia for six years because my American dream has not come true,” he told IPS in his barber shop in Serrekunda, 16 km outside the capital.

“I am now stuck here in the Gambia, teaching,” he lamented. “The salary can’t take me anywhere so I opened the barber shop to supplement my regular salary and, if I am able to get a U.S. visa, I shall then leave.”

The immigrants were encouraged to leave home by the many stories of West African professionals, especially teachers, who ended up in Europe, Canada or the United States after working for a year or two in Gambia.

However, for every one that makes it, many more are left behind. Saquee, a Sierra Leonean, is bitter. He has all but lost hope of moving on. “I don’t see this happening now,” he says. “After you pay your rent and take out food and transportation, there is virtually nothing left to save from your salary.”

Kweku, a Ghanaian teacher, also has little hope. He has been working in the Gambia for three years. “Two of my friends are now in Canada where their families have joined them,” he says. He tried to get a Canadian visa but was turned down. Returning home with next-to-no money makes little sense but, at the same time, he is fed up.

“I am getting tired with the Gambia,” he says. “Cost of living is high and the 1500 dalasis (150 U.S. dollars) I get monthly is never enough to get me going.”

The falling value of the dalasi and the attendant rise in costs has hit the migrants hard. When the government introduced a floating exchange rate in 1986, one British pound was equivalent to about three dalasis. Now the rate is 1:15.5.

Moreover, with the industrialised nations tightening up their immigration laws, visas are increasingly hard to get. For those who have had enough of the Gambia, only two options are left.

One is returning home. Bisi, a Nigerian teacher in Banjul, says she has been thinking of doing so for a long time. “It’s only that I’m skeptical about the political developments in Nigeria,” she told IPS. “Otherwise I can buy my ticket and leave. I know now that I can’t go to the U.S.”

The other option is trying your luck in Dakar, capital of neighbouring Senegal, where there are a number of consultancies that specialise in visa and immigration issues. However, the bona fide ones are few and far between, says Ismael, a graduate from a university in northern Nigeria.

“I spent 1,500 U.S. dollars trying to secure a visa in Dakar in April,” he explained. “The company was a fake and all they wanted was my money. Here I am still stuck in Banjul.

The more adventurous try to reach Spain from Senegal via Mauritania and Morocco with the help of networks that specialise in getting migrants to Europe. But many are intercepted by coastguard patrol boats on the Meditterranean.

Things are likely to get even tougher for the West African immigrants here since there are signs that the open-doors policy is coming to an end.

For starters, Gambia’s government has set up a training college to replace the teachers from neighbouring nations who are said to be in the majority in its schools although there are no reliable statistics that prove this.

“We hope to train many teachers to take over the schools,” an Education Ministry official told IPS. “Because we realise Gambians frown on the job, we want to create incentives to make conditions in the classroom even better.”