IOM report: Cameroon attractive to migrants from neighbouring countries
Current migration flows in Cameroon continue to be mostly internal from the countryside to the cities, with increasing numbers of skilled and unskilled Cameroonians emigrating to neighbouring countries and beyond to Europe and to the United States, a report by IOM shows.
According to the report, Cameroonian emigrants were estimated to number 170,363 in 2007. France, with 38,530 migrants, remains a preferred destination, followed by Gabon (30,216), Nigeria (16,980) and the United States (12,835).
Cameroon's Ministry of External Relations estimates that up to 300,000 Cameroonians lived in the Gulf of Guinea States between 2000 and 2004, essentially because they belong to the same ethnic groups and geographical area.
The report notes that the majority are long-term migrants, with 40 per cent residing in their country of emigration for ten years or more and 16 per cent for a period of between five to ten years.
Remittances sent by Cameroonian migrants have increased from an estimated USD 11 million in 2000, to USD 103 million in 2004 to a record high of USD 167 million in 2008, which represents 0.8 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product.
Remittances are used to pay for medical care, school fees, rent or for the purchase of consumer goods. The report notes that these transfers stimulate the country's economic activity by replacing credit and other financing methods and facilitating the initiation of projects and other income-generating activities.
Furthermore, the report finds that the increase in the transfer of funds has led to the expansion of the banking system and the multiplication of banks and money transfer companies, thus generating thousands of jobs.
However, migration from Cameroon continues to contribute to the brain drain. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OSCE), 42.3 per cent of the 57,050 Cameroonians working in Europe are highly qualified.
According to the Cameroon Medical Association, 4,200 Cameroonian doctors, mostly specialists, are working abroad. Only 800, that is 1 for 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants, are left in the cities, with 1 for 40,000 to 50,000 practising in the rural areas.
The report underlines the fact that Cameroon's political stability and socio-economic potential remains relatively attractive to migrants from neighbouring countries, such as the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria.
The IOM Migration profile of Cameroon, which is funded by the European Union, the Belgian Development Cooperation and the Swiss Federal Office for Migration, recommends that Cameroon's new national migration policy includes migration in its Poverty reduction Strategy Papers and does more to harness the development potential of its Diaspora.
Similarly, more efforts need to be deployed to ensure better coordination and coherence between various Cameroonian ministries responsible for formulating the new Cameroonian migration policy framework.
Finally, the report underlines that migration issues and policies in Cameroon cannot be properly addressed because of a persistent lack of reliable computerized data on current migration flows and trends.
