FACTBOX: Facts on Africans abroad
(Reuters) - As African nations shake off war, adopt better governance and cash in on a commodities boom, former refugees and members of the wider diaspora are coming back to build businesses, drawn by patriotism and the opportunities presented by a fast-growing region.
In Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Ethiopia and elsewhere, these returning Africans are using skills acquired abroad and local knowledge to prosper.
Here are some facts on Africans abroad:
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* In 2006, remittance flows are estimated to have exceeded $276 billion worldwide, $206 billion of which went to developing countries.
* Remittances from Africans working abroad from 2000-2003 averaged about $17 billion a year, overtaking foreign direct investment flows which totaled $15 billion in the same period.
* The economic impact of remittances is huge. Data from 74 low- and middle-income countries shows that a 10 percent increase in the share of international remittances in a country's gross domestic product leads to a 1.6 percent decline in the share of people living in poverty.
* Available data suggests that migration continues to rise with income levels, until an income threshold is reached. Above this threshold, the domestic economy begins to offer people opportunities at home and migration begins to taper off.
* The International Organisation of Migration estimates that some 20,000 skilled professionals -- doctors, nurses, engineers, accountants, managers, teachers -- leave Africa each year.
* Approximately 40 percent of all African professionals have left in recent decades and of the around 4 million Africans living in western Europe and the United States, over 50 percent are qualified.
* The U.N. Commission for Trade and Development estimates that each professional leaving Africa costs the region $184,000, as well as significant tax losses which could be used to support government programs alleviating poverty.
SOME DETAILS ON AFRICANS ABROAD:
DESTINATIONS: USA FRANCE, GERMANY & ITALY
(Thousands**)
AFRICA:
EAST 225 100
NORTH 375 1,575
SOUTH 50 N/A
WEST 275 175
UNSPECIFIED 200 N/A
**Figures are approximate:
Source: UNHCR/ 2006
WHERE THEY RETURN TO: SOME CASE STUDIES
-- SIERRA LEONE
* Hundreds of thousands left Sierra Leone during a 1991-2002 diamond-fuelled civil war that became a byword for brutality as rebels and armed groups hacked limbs off civilians.
* Most of Sierra Leone's 750,000 -1 million-strong diaspora are still abroad and the remittances they send home are worth around $250 million a year.
* An estimated 50,000 have returned since the war.
NIGERIA:
* Many well-off Nigerians, who left during years of upheaval under military dictatorship, are now returning, lured by jobs in financial institutions and a desire to help create world-class Nigerian businesses.
SOMALILAND:
* Officials in the breakaway republic of Somaliland say thousands of former refugees, who fled this region during the rule of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and the chaotic aftermath of his ouster, are returning home, creating businesses and offering a lifeline to residents. Somaliland is not recognized internationally.
* Remittances from the Somaliland diaspora come to around $450 million annually. The total budget is approximately $35 to $40 million.
LIBERIA:
* Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf returned to her country after years in exile to become Africa's first elected female leader in 2005. A Harvard-trained economist, she had also spent time working in the private sector, and at the World Bank and the United Nations.
* UNHCR helped almost 900 Liberians return home from other West African countries since resuming a voluntary repatriation program in mid-April 2008. It formally ended its Liberia repatriation program in June 2007, after bringing back more than 100,000 refugees in slightly less than three years. Another 50,000 returned home on their own, encouraged by the restoration of peace and democracy.
Sources: United Nations; /UNHCR/UNCTAD/African Youth Foundation
