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Scramble for Africa: Asian inroads into East Africa
BY MRINALINI REDDY, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
[to the lead story, "Indian return to Uganda"]
Mridula Patel, raised in Baroda, India,
came to Uganda during the 1960s
when she married her husband Praful Patel.
They left in 1972 and returned about
ten years later when their properties
including their present home in Kololo Road
were returned.
Asian immigration to Africa came about when the late nineteenth century "Scramble for Africa" began. The territories that Britain conquered in the late 19th century in Africa had all pre-capitalist economies with no market for labor. Commerce was secondary and peripheral, and the people lived and worked on the land.
In the initial phase, when only nominal control had been established over the colonies, the inability to extract forced labor from the "natives" meant that labor had to be brought in from outside.
Jaffar Bandali, the proprietor of
Fairway Hotel, returned to
Kampala leaving a successful
business in Vancouver.
He reclaimed his properties in 1992.
For the colonizing British, India, its primary and most populous colony, was the solution. So the first wave of Indians arriving in East Africa worked on the Kenya-Uganda railway. The second wave came about with the spontaneous migration that was motivated by the transport developments in East Africa that provided a greater possibility for such migrants to economically better themselves on African soil. This was enough reason for Asians to settle and capitalize on the lack of a trade establishment.
Their phenomenal success made them a powerful minority and an easy target for Idi Amin's idiosyncratic behavior, explained Sherali Jaffer, chairman of Kampala's venerable Fairway Hotel.
Upon their expulsion in 1972, the economy fell into shambles and a large part of this was believed to be the loss of entrepreneurship and management that this immigrant community excelled at, he said.
"I have not forgotten," said Jaffer, who helped coordinate relief efforts for Asian refugees when they fled to Britain. "The same thing was going to happen in Kenya and Tanzania, but when they saw what happened here, they let the Asians there stay."
Eventually, it was when President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, that there was interest in bringing the Asians back. Some like Jaffer returned to reclaim properties and resurrect their businesses, but only a few stayed.
Instead, a new generation began to arrive. Today, Asians make up less than one percent of Uganda's population, but control about 40 percent of the economy, according to Sanjiv Patel of the Indian Association of Uganda.
November 2007 (More)
Indian return to Uganda
BY MRINALINI REDDY, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
[to the sidebar story, "Scramble for Africa: Asian inroads into East Africa"]
Debolina and Prashant Choudhary are
recent transplants in Kampala,
raising their two-year-old daughter.
A family friend Goswami Debarata, from Calcutta, has been a resident for about ten years and plans to go back in a few years.
Debolina Choudhary had been married only a few weeks when she left Calcutta to join her husband Prashant, who had relocated to Kampala four months earlier. Neither had visited the bustling capital city of Uganda, let alone Africa. Yet, this country, that threw out its entire Asian population not too long before, made sense for their short-term goals.
Asian immigration to Uganda is not a new phenomenon--it dates back more than a century when Indians were brought over to East Africa by the British to work on building railway lines. When the work was done, some remained to fill the vacuum of trade in an agricultural economy and went on to become successful entrepreneurs and eventually big stakeholders in the Ugandan economy.
Eventually, a harsh expulsion order in 1972 by Uganda's infamous Idi Amin Dada removed this population--estimated between 60,000 and 70,000-- in its entirety.
The Asians have trickled back in and it is not unusual anymore to find convenience stores on Kampala Road with proprietors of Asian descent. Or sari-clad women walking into the Hindu temple situated prominently in the heart of the city, while others shop in nearby vegetable markets. Indian restaurants appear quite popular and "chapatti" or bread, a mainstay in North-Indian diets, is as common on any menu as the local favorite "matoke," or cooked bananas.
However, only about 10 percent of the 20,000 Asians in Uganda today are "returnees," or Asians who were expelled in 1972. The majority are new immigrants like Prashant and Debolina Choudhary. Despite the recent history of turbulent race relations, Uganda has once again become a land of economic opportunity for these first generation Indians. (More)
There are more than 117,000 doctors working in the United Kingdom ( Times of India, Deb. 10, 2007)
The Bnei Menashe tribe leaves India for Israel and the West Bank
BY STEVEN STANEK, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
[an earlier version was published by the Associated Press]
Tzvi Khaute, a native of a remote area near India's border with Myanmar, thanks God every day for allowing him to return to his ancestral home here in this West Bank settlement.
Khaute is one of about 1200 immigrants claiming descent from the lost Jewish tribe of "Bnei Menashe," or "Children of Menashe," a group of Indians who have to come to Israel and its settlements to reconnect with their spiritual roots.
The community was reinforced in late November 2006 by the arrival of 218 new immigrants, the largest group of the community to come in one fell swoop. Their plane tickets and initial expenses were paid by American Christian evangelicals who believe they will be blessed for helping to fulfill the biblical prophecy of returning the Jewish people to their homeland.
Their immigration, for the first time, was also sanctioned by the government. But their ordeal is far from over. (More)
25 million people of Indian origin live outside India and as of 2006, they were allowed to attain dual citizenship (Financial Times, Dec. 3, 2005)
(More)
10-12 % of all medical students in the U.S. are Indians (AP, Oct. 2006)
(More)
Indian doctors face brunt of sudden rule changes
BY SUEVON LEE, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
Kishore Sajjanraj in his East Ham,
London home with his visa that's soon to expire
In East Ham, a small, bustling neighborhood in east London, the fragrant smells of Indian and Sri Lankan cooking drift out from restaurants. Colorful saris are displayed in the windowpanes of the fabric stores that line the main road.
These reminders of home, along with the cheap rent and proximity to local hospitals, are what perhaps draw the hundreds of junior doctors from India to this largely immigrant corridor.
The doctors, fresh graduates from India's medical schools and licensed to practice medicine back home, have been coming to Britain to receive training in specialized fields of medicine. They hope to take what they've learned back to places like New Delhi and Madras to address the health needs of the population.
"Lots of my professors have been trained in the UK. Sub-specialty training is not available in India," said Kishore Sajjanraj, a 25-year-old junior doctor training in paediatric medicine.
Yet many Indian doctors, as many as 5,000, may be forced to leave Britain without completing their training. Starting April 3, 2006, the Home Office instituted new rules which restrict employers from awarding work visas to overseas doctors unless the employers can prove no other suitable candidate from Britain or a European Zone country could be hired. (More)
France - more foreign students from North Africa and Middle-East than from the U.S. ( French Higher Council for Integration, 2003)
Indian, Filipino Nurses - Largest Beneficiairies of the the New Immigration Bill: +50.000 visa per year ( )
Male nurses from Rajasthan
BY RANA ROSEN, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
[to lead story Go west young Indian nurses]
Purushotan Jangir
Purushotan Jangir prays every morning before going to Fateh to study until the place closes. At the institute, he has many friends who are also male nurses studying to go abroad. They are all from one place: Rajasthan.
The 23 year-old nurse says he has much to pray for. "I have a lot of responsibility in my family," he says. "I am the elder person in my family and have two brothers, three sisters and my father is no more. I want to give high education." He hopes for better pay in the U.K. But it isn't just the money. "I want to care for the poor and ill. I want to help the weak and handicap person. I have a helpful nature."
Because of the pressure he has to support his family and his future, he looked into many professions. He considered engineering and business. Jangir says, "I will join the nursing profession for many reasons. The first one is money. Second, you get a lot of respect. I heard people give a lot of respect abroad. Third one, you help the poor and needy people." His community in Rajasthan treats him with the respect of a doctor, he admits.
Although he has already had several marriage proposals, he plans to spend two or three abroad before he takes a wife. He wants to be more established in his career first. But he's not sure that he will be abroad for the long haul. He doesn't believe everything he hears. "If behavior is not proper, and there's not respect for nurses or people from abroad, then I can't stay," he says. "I will come back to my own country." He treats people kindly and wants that reciprocated. Money cannot be the only important matter, he says.
Jangir is too discreet, so his fellow student Jogender Singh, 28, explains why nurses from Rajasthan are mostly men. "People don't allow females to go outside to get a job; that will humiliate their families," he says. "Slowly, slowly they are understanding that Rajasthani girls should get a job, but not out of the area." Jangir added that Rajasthanis don't encourage their girls to do nursing; people don't think it is a good path for women. "Kerala is different because it is the most educated state," Singh adds. Jangir says education is needed in Rajasthan. The families don't think nursing is safe for women, because they leave the home circle and go abroad. But this thinking is slowly changing. They did see how lucrative the career was for the women from Kerala who came to work at hospitals there. So they sent their men to join in.
[to lead story Go west young Indian nurses]
June 2006 (More)
Go west young Indian nurses
BY RANA ROSEN, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
[a version of this story appeared first on Outlookindia.com, the web product of Outlook Magazine, one of India's premier weekly newsmagazines that sells more than 13 million copies a year, and later appeared on YaleGlobal Online]
[to Profile "Male nurses of Rajasthan"]
"Male, 28: We are looking for nurses working in U.A.E. or in India. The girl should be god fearing. Our boy, who is handsome, is working as a supervisor in an electrical company in Sharjah having family status. He belongs to a renowned family in Central Travancore. Interested parties do contact us". - Matrimonial website -
Beena Joseph
A nurse didn't always have a young man's family knocking at her door. Decades ago certain people whispered that she was dirty for handling the sick and the poor. Society questioned her purity knowing that she touched strange men unsupervised. That talk hasn't completely silenced today, but Kerala's nurses have persisted. They spread confidently across India, then to the Middle East and more recently to the West. They did a job others avoided.
These women traveled away from their country since the 1960s, when their fathers worried that it was inappropriate and unsafe. But they made good money doing it. Over time, their success got them attention and unexpected leverage. Today a woman can get more from nursing than a career - she can change life for her and her family.
(More)
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