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Belgium: An Economic Forum to encourage the initiatives of the African diaspora

Belgium: An Economic Forum to encourage the initiatives of the African diaspora

Belgium: An Economic Forum to encourage the initiatives of the African diaspora

/ SOCIETE / Wednesday, 27 July 2022 06:38

Translated by Gloriose Ntirenganya
Africa will develop through its Diaspora or it will not grow. The reality of a group of young African leaders that are active in the media and helping migrants prepare to organise an economic forum likely to raise awareness and help partnership projects between Europe and Africa to enable the latter to benefit from the experience and work of its diaspora seems unlikely.

Several essential questions should be addressed such as, among others: How to effectively sensitise the African diaspora to invest - and invest themselves - in Belgium by creating their businesses? Who are the key partners who can help promote and develop entrepreneurs with a migrant background? What are the formalities to be completed to set up a business in Belgium? What opportunities are available to young leaders with an immigrant background to create start-ups?
The answers to these questions can be found in the knowledge of these opportunities offered to the diaspora settled in Europe, and particularly to those living in Belgium, to establish an "economic bridge" with Africa. A win-win partnership would help to find the necessary balance between commercial exchanges which have always suffered from misunderstandings by this propensity to reduce everything to colonisation which has become a fact of history but which must not prevent Europe and Africa from looking to the future.
According to the World Bank, diaspora savings, amounting to $53 billion a year, exceed annual remittances to the continent and are mostly invested elsewhere. “If we could convince one out of ten members of the diaspora to invest 1,000 dollars in their country of origin, Africa would thus collect 3 billion dollars a year to finance development”, already recalled in 2011 by the Bank World in its Report “The Diaspora for Development in Africa”.
Many Africans living abroad have a deep sense of attachment to their country of origin and want to contribute to its development. According to Doctor Girma Tefera, President of the Ethiopian-American Doctors Group (EADG), based in the United States, "professionals belonging to the diaspora have a real desire to make a difference in their country of origin thanks to their expertise and their skills.''
OECD migration data for 2019 paints a mixed picture of the flow of populations in the Africa-Europe direction: "Representing one in ten immigrants, African migration to OECD countries has seen its weight increase slightly over the recent years; however, it remains low compared to Africa's share of the world's population.'' Nearly half of migrants still come from North Africa, with the large countries of sub-Saharan Africa remaining in the minority. France is still the leading destination, but its share is declining in favour of Germany, Belgium, and Spain. 
African migrants are more and more educated and the share of women is growing, but they often remain underemployed and downgraded in the jobs they hold. It is for this reason that the forum that will be organised tries to encourage them, through awareness, to take charge of their personal development by setting up their own business.

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