Circular Migration and Tourism Entrepreneurialshipin Tanzania: a Case Study of Dar Es

CIRCULAR MIGRATION AND TOURISM ENTREPRENEURIALSHIPIN TANZANIA: A CASE STUDY OF DAR ES SALAAM AND KILWA

Dr. George F. Masanja

Department of Geography

St. Augustine University of Tanzania

P. O. Box 307, Mwanza, Tanzania

Email:

ABSTRACT

This paper explores circular migrants’ skills, remittances and investments and tourism entrepreneurialship, drawing on data of 324 respondents out of which 113 are circular migrants from Tanzania. The paper reviews existing evidence on the role of circular migrants and the diaspora in promoting development in Sub-Saharan Africa, before computing odds ratios to binary data that influence whether circular migrants contribute to tourism entrepreneurialship. Factors tested for their association with tourism entrepreneurialship include a range of individual characteristics, reasons for visiting regularly, and the acquisition of financial, human and social capital while abroad. The analysis suggests that exposure, work experience abroad, remittance and regular visits are the most significant predictors of tourism entrepreneurial ventures among the circular migrants and the diaspora in Tanzania.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

From the 1980s, African international migration has been viewed as an important resource for development in African countries in terms of the Diaspora and remittances. Yet, there is no unanimity on evidence and conclusions drawn from the existing previous literature, and more work is still required on the Diaspora migration-development linkages. With the emergence of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) in the 1990s and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2000, a growth interest has focused on the linkages between Diaspora (as a distinctive aspect of migration), remittances and poverty reduction in Africa.

Over the past decade, there has been both significant growth in the world economy, and progress in terms of the economic development of poorer nations, and the fight against poverty. Indeed, recent reviews of progress towards the UN’s ‘Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) in some respects have painted a remarkably positive picture, particularly associated with rapid economic growth in China and India (Sachs 2005). Yet one region in particular stands out as problematic in terms of the MDGs – that of Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is alone among world regions in that by 2004, it had either made no progress, or was lagging on all 20 targets against which progress towards the MDGs is measured (United Nations 2004).

As with people the world over, Tanzanian migrants remain tied to their home country. Some return as tourists; others plan to retire as soon as they have “made it”; many, motivated by kinship obligations, remit cash and kind. Remittance payments have been important sources of income for many households in the country. These cash receipts are used mainly to purchase food and consumer durables and to improve living conditions. Both remittances and circular migration have been beneficial to individuals, improving living conditions, sources of income, and in investments. However, there still looms a great debate as to whether remittances and foreign savings aid and abet development despite personal benefits to migrants and their households. Likewise, despite the volume of resources flowing to developing countries, many people believe that they have yet to realize their full development potential. Because remittances tend to flow directly to family members and households in developing countries, and because they are generally used for consumption rather than investment or savings, many believe that their impact on communities is limited.

This paper therefore seeks to examine whether or not circular migrants including the African Diaspora and their remittances do leverage development in African countries. Tanzania’s circular migrants’ tourism entrepreneurial ventures have not been systematicallyinvestigated. The specific objective of this study was to assess the association ofcircular migrants’ remittances, and skills and tourism entrepreneurial establishments in the coastal zone of tourism with Dar es Salaam and Kilwa as study sites.

The paper is organised into four sections. First, it provides a typology of migration flows and definition of migration concepts. In the second section, consideration is given toemigration as a source of data for circular migration in Tanzania and its potential links to small tourism business development. Additionalsub-sections includelabour migration, limitations of migration data in Tanzania; Tanzania’s efforts and remittance flows from and to Tanzania. Drawing on this review and an empirical survey of circular migrants to two Tanzanian cities –Dar es Salaam and Kilwa – odds ratios were caculated to estimate the association between the propensity to establish a tourism enterprise as a circular migrant and background factors, focusing in particular on the role of different kinds of capital transfer, skills and regular visits to places of origin. Although the analysis does not consider whether such businesses were successful, or contributed to development, the final section suggests some tentative conclusions on how the paper’s findings might be relevant to ‘migration and development’ policies.

A Typology of Migration Flows and Definition of Migration Concepts

No generally accepted typology of migration flows exists, but commonly, in the literature, authors classify contemporary migration flows in Sub-Saharan African temporal and spatial dimensions. The temporal aspect of migration relates both to the distance traversed and the duration of residence at the destination. In the temporal dimension, Sub-Saharan African migrations include seasonal migration, short-term migration for a period of two to five years and long-term or permanent migrations. Spatially, migrations may be rural to rural, rural to urban, urban to rural, or urban to urban (Amselle 1976). Others less common typology concerns chain and group migration, which are common in Sub-Saharan Africa. Chain migration arise from the fact that migrants rely on the network of social relations (friends, relatives, town-folk) that provide accommodation on arrival and assist in securing employment. Unlike voluntary migration, which derives mainly from economic factors, the reasons for mass or group migration within and across national borders in Sub-Saharan Africa are noneconomic, and are related to political and religious factors, and sometimes, natural disasters.

For the purposes of this paper, different types of international migration are relevant. These include labour (unskilled/semi-skilled, highly educated/skilled professional transients) and specific forms of tourism-related migration such as labour migration, return migration, entrepreneurial migration, and retirement migration. In many developing countries, the migration process is predominantly circular, not permanent. Migrants regularly return to their countries and villages and retain their ties to land. The distinction between circular migration and return migration lies in the fact that circular migrants return seasonally or temporarily whereas return migrants’ return is more long term or permanent (Thomas-Hope, 1985). Diaspora on the other hand can be defined as people who have migrated and their descendents maintain a connection to their homeland. The African Union, defines the African diaspora as “consisting of people of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union” (African Union 2005). In this paper, circular migrants and the diaspora are put into one basket sharing a common characteristic of being continuous migrants as opposed to return migrants.

Emigration as a Source for Circular Migration Data in Tanzania

Data on emigration in Tanzania is scarce. Tanzania’s National Bureau of Statistics, for instance, has no data at all on emigration (Prinz 2005). Only estimates and data from developed receiving countries, international organizations and research entities are used to overcome such gaps. Estimations elaborated by the DRC of Sussex University (Migration DRC, 2007) provide the most recent data that can be used to approach the number of Tanzanian emigrants by country of destination. According to this data source, there are 287,051 emigrants originating from Tanzania worldwide representing 0.7 per cent of the total population. The top ten receiving countries, hosting 84,7 per cent (243,131) of Tanzanian emigrants, are: Uganda with 58,725 emigrants (20.5 per cent) followed by South Africa with 52,554 emigrants (18.3 per cent), United Kingdom with 32,943 emigrants (11.5 per cent), Zimbabwe with 25,297 emigrants (8.8 per cent), Canada with 19,960 emigrants (7.0 per cent), Mozambique with 15,208 emigrants (5.3 per cent), Malawi with 13,699 emigrants (4.8 per cent), United States of America with 12,819 emigrants (4.5 per cent), Germany with 7,587 emigrants (2.6 per cent) and Kenya with 4,339 emigrants (1.5 per cent). Out of these ten countries, six are within Africa and host 59.2% of Tanzanian emigrants. The remaining 43,920 (25.3 per cent) of Tanzanian emigrants, living out of the top ten countries, are variably spread all over the world and mostly in Africa.

Previous estimations of Tanzanian emigration compiled by DilipRatha and ZhimeiXu as country profiles for the Migration and Remittances Factbook of the World Bank (2008) and referring to the year 2005 provided different figures. They estimate the stock of emigrants from Tanzania to 188,789 representing 0.5 per cent of the population. According to the same source, only four out of the top ten destination countries for Tanzanian emigrants are within Africa. This shows that migration data, even when available, is subject to weaknesses related to the concepts definitions and measurement and estimation methods adopted by the data producer. Moreover, even observed stock data derived from censuses are subject to underestimation especially for migration. Therefore, users need to be fully aware of these weaknesses when drawing conclusions from the data.

As for data comparison again, figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the year 2008 show that more than 72,000 Tanzanian born emigrants live in the OECD countries in 2008, of which 36,000 in UK, 19,765 in Canada (2006), 9,686 in the USA and 3,357 in Australia (OECD 2010b). However, we should notice that figures are not available for all the receiving countries, especially in Africa where 67.5 per cent of Tanzanian emigrants reside.

Regarding other migration indicators, Tanzania had an emigration rate of 0.8 per cent for the period 2000-2002 as calculated by the UNDP (2009) based on data from Migration DRC (2007) and the population prospects of the UN (2009). The major continent of destination for migrants from Tanzania, as calculated by the UNDP (2009) based on data from Migration DRC (2007), is Africa with 67.5 percent of emigrants. This is actually the case for 72.7 per cent of sub-Saharan emigrants who move over national borders but remain within the African continent. However, Tanzania's share of total migrants’ stock in Africa is only leveled at 1.21 per cent (UNDP 2009). Europe comes at the second position as a receiving continent for Tanzanians with 17.4 per cent of emigrants followed by North America with 11.4 per cent for the period 2000-2002 (UNDP 2009). However, Tanzanian emigrants represent less than 1 per cent in each of these two continents as a share of their total immigrant stock.

Labour Migration

Few emigration outflows occurred during the early postcolonial history consisted of labour migration to mines in Zambia and South Africa and people crossing to neighbouring Kenya and Uganda in search of either wage employment or land (Egerö, 1979).

Outside Africa, the stock of Tanzanian migrants in OECD countries, aged 15 years and above, is estimated to have reached 70,200 of which 40.7 per cent are highly skilled (tertiary education level) (OECD, 2010a); one of the highest among African emigrants in the OECD countries (24.5 per cent for all Africa and 33.1 per cent for Sub-Saharan Africa). The emigration rate of the tertiary educated among the total Tanzanian population with higher education is, in the contrary, lower and estimated at 15.6 per cent. Nonetheless, it is still quite high compared to other countries in the region, as this percentage reached 12.2 per cent for sub-Saharan Africa and 5.2 per cent for the countries with medium human development.

Getting access to higher education is the most important reason to migrate overseas (de Bruijn et al. 2001). Brain drain of young talent seems to constitute a great part of the migration from Tanzania to Europe (IOM 2008b). As for the mobility of physicians, we noticed that figures are subject to conflict between sources as reported by the World Bank in its as country profiles for the Migration and RemittancesFactbook (2008). According to Docquier and Bhargava (2006), 81 or 8.8 per cent of those physicians trained in the country emigrated and according to Clemens and Pettersson (2006), the value are considerably higher: 1,356 or 51.8 per cent. This is quite considerable discrepancy which should be scrutinised in further analyses. For nurses, 953 or 3.5 per cent of those trained in the country emigrated.

Regarding the economic activity status, the labour force participation rate of these Tanzanianemigrants is estimated at 69.9 per cent (OECD 2008) which is lower than the national rate (88.4 per cent) and the sub-Saharan rate (72.6 per cent) but higher than the overall African rate (63.4 per cent). The total unemployment rate of 5.9 per cent is lower than the African and sub-Saharan-African rates (6.5 per cent vs. 12.0 per cent respectively). By level of educational attainment, as generally, Tanzanian migrants with tertiary (higher) education are less affected by the unemployment compared to migrants with lower educational levels. The unemployment rate is estimated to have reached 4.2 per cent, 7.4 per cent and 8.1 per cent respectively for migrants with high, medium and low educational attainment. This means that international migrants from Tanzania are better involved in the labour market than others from Africa, especially when they are highly educated.

On the other side, it is acknowledged in Tanzania that refugees in the old settlements havecontributed to the economies of the regions in which they live (UNHCR 2010). Besides that, Tanzania is increasingly receiving irregular and mixed migratory flows, most of them from the Horn of Africa, heading to southern African countries in search of safeguarding physical and economic security (IOM 2009).

Moreover, Indian and Chinese migration to Tanzania has occurred over time, since the end of the 19th century, through distinct waves and for diverse motives. Basically for labour purposes for the later and trade for the former. In the 1930s Chinese went to settle in Zanzibar. During the 1960s and 1970s workers were sent by the Chinese government as part of development assistance to Tanzania (around 13,000 workers in the railway construction). Private entrepreneurs and traders began doing business there during the 1990s. Some expatriates, in the 1990s, went initially to Tanzania with the intention of working in industries, such as construction, textiles, or food products before they switch into business and trade activities. Many people of Indian origin are traders and they control a sizeable portion of the Tanzanian economy.

Limitations of Migration Data in Tanzania

Except for refugees, research on migration, within and beyond the Tanzanian borders, is hampered by insufficient, if not inexistent data. Tanzania’s National Bureau of Statistics, for instance, has no data at all on emigration (Prinz, 2005). Only data and estimates from developed migration receiving countries and international organizations are used to overcome such gaps.

Other key gaps still exist not pertaining only to non availability of accurate numerical estimates of migrants and remittances, but also to lack of information on migrants’ profiles and migration policies (implicit and explicit) related to all migration issues in the country.

Tanzania’s Efforts

Tanzania being an African country has also realized the potential of its people who have decided to stay in foreign countries in terms of skills and economic investment. Previously Tanzania was concerned over brain drain and made all efforts to restrain migration. It is now gradually giving way to migration facilitation and changing from “brain drain” to “brain gain” concept. The government is seriously exploring the best ways to reap the benefits of migration. It is creating an environment in which Tanzania can gain from the wealth of skills and expertise that its people in the diaspora posses. There are many countries in the world which have immensely benefited from engaging their diaspora in their development goals. Good examples are India, China and Philippines.

Tanzania hosted the International Conference on ‘African Diaspora Heritage Trail’ in Dar es Salaam from 25th to 30th October, 2009. The theme of the conference was “An African Homecoming: Exploring the Origins of the African Diaspora and Transforming Cultural Heritage Assets into Tourism Destinations”. The African Diaspora conferences aimed at sharing accessible expertise and technical assistance in the development of heritage tourism programs and products.

As a result of the government’s recognition of its circular migrants and the diaspora, and coupled with the current focus on these groups, the Government has established that Tanzanians in the diaspora have acquired professional experience in various fields. Some have vast investment potential and do constitute a critical reserve of skilled labour force. Consequently, Tanzanians of the diaspora are considered as one of the country’s economic development stakeholder. The Government thus envisages a structured diaspora role in diverse sectors of development such as tourism.