There are many nurses, teachers and business professionals from Africa who are welcomed with open arms in Europe. I wanted to say this because of my previous post about illegal Africans in Europe. So two videos. The first video is about a Ghanaian nurse in Sheffield UK, the other one is about a Nigerian business professional from the UK who returned to Nigeria. I saw both videos on Shadow And Act
“Witness – A Nurse’s Tale” (The Brain Drain)
In Ghana, Lydia Kwashie is a highly trained midwife, but with a family of eight to support, she can barely make ends meet. The 48 year old mother left behind family and friends in Ghana to seek work as a nurse in the UK. Witness joins Lydia on her first trip back home to Ghana to share the conflicting emotions of pride, joy, guilt and hope.
Nigeria's brain gain - Nigerian expats repatriating to take advantage of opportunities in Nigeria and Africa's growth despite global economic downturn.
I don't blame these nurses and other professionals for leaving home and going abroad to make more money. At the end of the day, they have mouths to feed, so you do what you gotta do.
ReplyDeleteHopefully they will go back home and start businesses and hospitals to help their fellow countrymen. Our African governments got to wake up and find a solution to retain some of these people because soon we will lose the best and the brightest which will further our development process.
I've always hated the terms brain drain/gain, it has so many negative connotations and ignores how those who stay manage to keep the country going without those who've left.
ReplyDeleteThe CNN report is a nice puff piece, but it's a bit of a joke. They have no reliable figures, but make these sweeping claims about Nigerians going back. That may be true for those with financial mobility, but the majority of working class Nigerians in the Diaspora are in some sort of indentured servitude to the banks and credit card companies paying back neverending hi-interest loans.