MIGRATION has become a mega trend of the 21st Century, a feature that doesn’t seem to change if unbridled.
The 21st Century is the century of human mobility and migration is a global phenomenon that is growing in scope, complexity and impact.
We can no longer think about our economy, society or culture without thinking about human mobility. World-wide, human mobility is expected
to increase and nearly double in the near future.
Migration is both a cause and effect of broader development processes and an intrinsic feature of our ever globalizing world. While not a
substitute for development, migration can be a positive force for development when supported by the right set of policies.
The rise in global mobility, the growing complexity of migratory patterns and its impact on countries, migrants, families and communities have all
contributed to international migration becoming a priority for the
international community.
According to global migrations trends, approximately one in seven people today are migrants, 232 million people of these being international
migrants, 740 million internal migrants with women accounting for 48 per cent of the global migrant stock.
According to the United States (US) State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report, the number of identified victims of trafficking at the global level was over 44,500 in 2013.
The lack of uniformity in national reporting structures makes it impossible to collect accurate figures.
Globally,20.9 million people are in forced labour, trafficked for labour and sexual exploitation or held in slavery-like conditions, of these11.4 million are victims of forced labour comprising women and girls while 9.5 million men and boys.
There is an estimated 4.5 million victims of forced sexual exploitation, 98 per of which are women and girls.
The percentage of detected child victims has increased from 20 per cent in 2003-2006 to 27 per cent in 2007-2010.
Difficulties remain to establish the extent of irregular migration, though this is believed to be significant.
The most recent estimates suggest that there are at least 50 million irregular migrants in the world, a significant number of whom paid for assistance to illegally cross borders (UN).
An estimated three million people illegally enter the US each year, mostly smuggled in trucks across the border (UNODC).
In terms of Africa, the second highest forced labour numbers is found on the continent, at 3.7 million (18 per cent).
More than half of the top 20 migration corridors worldwide are accounted for by people migrating from south to south.South-south represents the second largest migration flow (35 per cent).
The majority of migrants are male.
Majority of international migrants, originate from the south. Three out of four migrants are likely to come from the south. The percentage of up to 24 years of age is much higher in the south than in the north.
Contrary to public perception, the majority of refugees not only originates but also lives in the south.
In 2010, four out of five refugees were born and were living in the south (accounting for 81 per cent of the global number of refugees).
These findings are confirmed when refugees are considered as a share of the total migrant stock in each of the four migration pathways: only in the south-south context do refugees make up a significant proportion of migrants-more than ten per cent of all migrants. South-south migrants appear to face more significant challenges.
They are the least optimistic about their lives and find it difficult to achieve a satisfactory standard of living. Furthermore, migration seems to make little difference to them financially.
Personal safety is a concern. Moreover, migrants tend to lack confidence in the institutions of the country they have moved to, and tend to be troubled by their health.17,000 to 20,000 irregular migrants from East and the Horn of Africa towards South Africa often transit through Zambia (in Pursuit of the Southern Dream, Victim of Necessity, IOM 2009).
Zambia: the rural urban migration.
One of the forms of migration common in Zambia is rural – urban migration.
The Population and Housing Census of 2010 indicates that over 70,000 young girls between the age of 14 and 19 have migrated to urban areas while males dominated migration only emerges from the age of 20 to 44 years.
Inter – provincial migration trends show that Lusaka Province has the largest number of in-migration from all provinces. Lusaka and Central provinces had in-migration greater than out-migration.
Lusaka had 38.2 percent in-migration and only 11.6 per cent out-migration. 39.1 per cent of Lusaka’s in-migrants are females.
Copperbelt Province had the highest out-migration of about 22.4 per cent followed by Northern Province with about 14.5 per cent.
The percentage distribution of employed migrants and non-migrants (12 years and older) shows that Lusaka and Copperbelt had more migrants working than non-migrants.
According to the percentage of male migrants that were employed by age group, 49.5 per cent were in the age group between 12 and 14 years of age, and 50.1 per cent were in the age group between 15 and 19 years of age.