Innovative societies attract skilled immigrants. Why turn them away?
What you need to know:
- In my view an immigrant who comes into Kenya in search for economic activity signals the fact that she is ready to work, and that her view is that better economic opportunities exist in Kenya relative to her home country.
The government of Kenya should openly advertise the availability of a certain quota of licenses to work in Kenya and ask interested non-Kenyan professionals to bid for them in cash.
Immigration policy is understandably intertwined with both politics and security and therefore prone to populist rhetoric.
Think of it in any way you like, but the construction of a solid wall across all or a part of Kenya’s border with Somalia is one of the newer ideas in Kenya’s immigration policy.
Few people, other than those driven entirely by jingoistic fervour, think this is a good idea. If you leave aside for a moment the political and security considerations informing this policy, the bigger issue is that for all the praise heaped on Kenya’s leading diplomats, there is a paucity of new ideas that can inform Kenya’s immigration policy.
In my view an immigrant who comes into Kenya in search for economic activity signals the fact that she is ready to work, and that her view is that better economic opportunities exist in Kenya relative to her home country.
This category of immigrant is an economic resource and their energy and capability ought to be harnessed, and a number of mechanisms exist to provide incentives to facilitate self-selection among immigrants of this special kind.
Currently, the issue of work permits for foreigners is an enduring bone of contention in Kenya. The effective policy has the effect of capping the number of immigrants who may come in to take up certain jobs.
The ostensible reason for this cap is the intention that foreigners do not displace Kenyans who are capable of performing similar tasks. The effect of this stringent policy is that Kenyan firms are prevented from taking in as many foreigners as they may wish to employ, yet the belief that every foreigner who works in Kenya displaces a Kenyan citizen has no foundation in economics.
DISCRETION OF OFFICERS
This belief is based on the assumption that any economy creates a specified amount of jobs, for which foreigners and Kenyan citizens are in competition. This idea of a fixed number of jobs, known as the “Lump of Labour” fallacy, is unsound.
A growing economy such as Kenya’s needs to add people to bring in new ideas and work methods into the labour force, ensuring expansion of the range of services and products produced. Immigration is therefore an innovative mechanism with which to infuse diversity into the labour force.
This set of professionals may be encouraged to reveal their interest in coming to work and invest by putting a transparent and clear price on the permit for working in Kenya.
While it is true that the acquisition of a permit in Kenya by a foreigner is subject to a payment, it is not always clear that an applicant will be granted that permission even if the cost were met.
The first aim of immigration policy geared towards efficient distribution of work permits is to eliminate uncertainty from the process as well as the discretion of individual officers.
The government of Kenya should openly advertise the availability of a certain quota of licenses to work in Kenya and ask interested non-Kenyan professionals to bid for them in cash.
Gary Becker, an economist who taught at the University of Chicago, suggested that an auction would be an efficient way to distribute work permits to foreigners interested in moving to a country other than the one they were born in.
NO WELFARE SYSTEM
Since Kenya does not have a welfare system that would be the chief incentive for many a foreigner, most of those who purchase these auctioned visas would intend to work and generate value during their stay.
Thus professionals, scholars or entrepreneurs who see opportunities to contribute towards their own professional growth would be willing to bid for, and purchase, their permits. At the same time, the cost of the permits would send a signal about the demand for immigration into the country to prospective immigrants.
It’s clear that this policy measure is not relevant for refugees and other people fleeing conflict because this category of forced immigrants, who are governed by a different regime of international law, would be outside the purview of this policy.
Immigration policy is understandably intertwined with both politics and security and therefore prone to populist rhetoric. However, there is no evidence that issuing long-term work permits through auctions would add to insecurity in Kenya.
In addition, an auction mechanism for work permits adds the important ingredient of transparency and takes away the uncertainty that a person who wishes to undertake business activity in Kenya would otherwise be subjected to.
A liberal immigration policy is good economic policy because it allows for the flow of labour and ideas needed for economic growth.
Kwame Owino is the Chief executive Officer of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA-Kenya), a public policy think tank based in Nairobi. Twitter: @IEAKwame
