The Role of the Diaspora in Southern Africa with Special Reference to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland

The volume of international migration has more than doubled since 1975 and Africans have become the most mobile population globally. Although much of the movement from and within sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is voluntary, a substantial part is triggered by a combination of political and economic events which may force professionals to migrate. A high proportion of these migrants are skilled and the ‘brain drain’ effect of this skilled emigration was perceived as a blight on the region’s economy before the twenty-first century. According to United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates, between 1990 and 2003, 20,000 skilled people left African countries annually for destinations elsewhere (Mutume 2003).