These past few weeks my
beloved country has been in the news because of the prejudicial and violent
actions of a few against foreign nationals, particularly those from our own
African continent. From a different perspective, this has me thinking about the
role of migration and diversity in a person’s own development. I have thought
it best to do this through a personal reflection, which will show again the
absurdities of those who pursued these barbaric actions but also the value of
looking at migration in a positive way.
The first notable personal
growth experience that was impacted by migration was during my secondary schooling.
The apartheid education system had been designed such that it would make it
either extremely difficult or almost impossible for black students to achieve
anything in fields that required science and mathematics. Dr Hendrik Verwoerd,
an apartheid education architect, is quoted in the 1950’s as having said "There is no place for [the Bantu] in the
European community above the level of certain forms of labour ... What is the
use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice?
That is quite absurd. Education must train people in accordance with their
opportunities in life, according to the sphere in which they live."
I happened to grow up in one
of the so-called independent homelands created by the apartheid governments.
One of the things that the education department did in this homeland was to
allow for teachers to be sourced from other countries, such as Ghana and
Mauritius, for subjects where there was a shortage. These immigrant teachers
were to be a source of benefit for me as the school I went to had world-class
mathematics teachers that were not the norm in similar black schools. It was
through them that I was able to pass enough to get into an engineering graduate
school.
When I studied engineering,
a number of my professors came from many countries outside of South Africa.
They brought knowledge that South Africa did not have, but which would be
useful in developing a generation of professionals. I saw them as human beings
who were not taking from me but adding more to what I was, and had chosen this
country as the place in which they could display their knowledge and abilities.
I then myself became a
migrant when I decided to study outside of my own country. In a class that was
filled with students from more than twenty countries, it was a learning
experience that ranks as the best personal decision I ever made. It was through
the learning I made from others that I enhanced my own understanding of
diversity, and I learnt critical tools that have been invaluable in my
management career. In particular, I learnt the value of tolerance as a
personality trait, and the importance of diversity, in all its forms. I had
been welcomed in a foreign country as a human being.
I then had an opportunity to
work in an exciting economic development project in my country South Africa.
The development of this project required skills some of which we could not find
in South Africa. An immigrant
British-trained engineer, who had worked on similar projects in the Middle
East, was one of the critical people we had who played a role in ensuring a
better understanding by many of us of the challenges that such a project entailed,
and the steps needed to progress it. We also benefited by bringing back South
Africans who had worked on projects in other parts of the world, in order to
create a world-class team that could service demanding customers from all
corners of the world.
In the same project, in one
of my executive role, I had the responsibility of creating a research unit that
we had defined as critical to our success. Two of the skilled professionals we
brought to work in that unit were originally from Cameroon and Benin, and had
become permanently resident in South Africa. We had a dream of training young
economics graduates in one of the country’s poorest provinces, and also provide
critical data and information to the provincial government which would be of
use in designing policies that would positively impact the lives of ordinary people.
These two professionals, working with other South Africans, put their heart and
soul to their work in their adopted country, including training these young economists.
We welcomed them with open arms. They were critical to my own success and I
learnt a lot from them.
I now work in an African-focused financial
services institution and my career success will be defined by how I understand
the world, by me being able to interact with others, and by some who have
decided to be migrants in my country, even if for some it is temporary and by some
who decide to migrate to other parts of the continent. And it is in working
with a diverse group of people, who have different professional backgrounds,
origins, gender and race that I have come to appreciate more its value.
Whilst there are many South
Africans I could also honour for how they have impacted on my growth, the
recent experience has brought to my mind the need to see how those who are
migrants have been critical to my success. It also has, in my mind, brought to
focus the absurdities of the actions of a minority that has sought to damage
our country and potentially deny us the possibility of learning and engaging
others.
Migration can be a positive
force and we can use it for as part of our development as it enriches the human
experience. There is so much to learn about the world from others.
