Targeting immigrants will not solve Kenya's unemployment crisis

Hundreds of Burundian Nationals at the Burundi Embassy along Denis Pritt road, Nairobi after President William Ruto issued a short notice to foreign nationals working in the country without work permits to leave. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

When I read about the new directive asking foreign nationals hawking on our streets to leave, I immediately thought about a lady I see every morning outside my place of work. I figured she was not Kenyan from the way she speaks. I thought about her when I missed her at her usual spot on Monday morning. I could not help but wonder if, in our understandable frustration over unemployment and the state of our economy, we may be targeting the wrong people.

Granted, the government has a duty to regulate who enters the country, who resides, works and conducts business here. It has an obligation to ensure that all foreign nationals operate within the law. But the immigrant question is far more complex than simply chasing foreigners from our streets.

Kenya is part of the East African Community (EAC) Common Market, which provides for the free movement of persons and workers, as well as the right of establishment. EAC citizens can therefore work, establish businesses and pursue economic activities in another Partner State, subject to the laws and administrative procedures of the host country. Kenya actually provides a Class R permit specifically for EAC nationals seeking to reside, work, trade or engage in business or other economic activities, including small-scale traders.

This does not mean that every foreigner selling goods on our streets is here legally, or that those operating outside the law should simply be left alone. It means that the solution cannot be to simply assume that every foreigner has no business being here.

If there should be any heat at the moment, maybe it should first be directed at those charged with enforcing the regulations that determine who is entitled to be here, who can work or do business and under what circumstances. There has to be a way of incorporating our neighbours into our economy legally without losing sight of the humanitarian dimension. The Ubuntu spirit demands that we be our brother’s keeper, even as we seek to protect our own citizens.

The young man selling mandazi and coffee on our streets is not the problem. I imagine that many of these young men and women are here because home is no longer tenable. Wars, political instability and economic hardship in neighbouring countries have created a humanitarian crisis that inevitably spills into countries that appear more peaceful and offer some economic hope.

South Africa gives us a glimpse of what can happen when economic frustration is allowed to become a migration problem.

This year, the world watched as South Africans took to the streets demanding that foreigners leave, driven in part by the belief that immigrants were taking jobs and businesses meant for locals. The protests became so intense that foreign nationals, many from other African countries, left out of fear. One would imagine that this would immediately create opportunities for unemployed South Africans. It did not.

The issue is not that foreigners never compete with locals. Of course they can. A foreign worker who accepts less pay, works longer hours or is willing to take a job that a local worker will not accept can affect the labour market. The issue is a system that allows workers, both Kenyan and foreign, to be exploited.

I understand the frustration of the hairdresser who loses a gig because a foreigner is willing to do the same job for a quarter of the price. I understand the young Kenyan men lining up at construction sites only to lose work to foreigners willing to accept less. Their frustration is valid. But it needs to be addressed by enforcing labour laws and regulating employment conditions in the informal sector, not through blanket eviction notices.

We can insist that everyone who lives and works here does so within the law. We can protect all workers, enforce business and labour regulations, and close the loopholes that have allowed us to get here.

Targeting those at the bottom of the barrel will not fix Kenya's unemployment or immigration problems. Kenya does not have to choose between protecting its citizens and showing compassion to its neighbours. We can do both.

We just need to fix the system that exploits the vulnerable amongst us.