Back in early September this year, a conference on racism and discrimination was held in Durban in South Africa. The choice of South Africa as a host country for this memorable conference was significant in that the country had just emerged from the worst racist and Pariah State in the whole world. The entire world, except Israel and the United States of America, descended to South Africa in order to have a meeting of the mind regarding the worst treatment of people in the history of mankind. The conference was billed "racism" and each group that suffered any form of discriminatory act tendered their grievance and demanded some remedial action to right the past wrongs. What was discussed in toto at this conference was important as well as what was not discussed such as discrimination against foreign or recent immigrants residing in various countries other than their countries of origin.

This article deals with what was not discussed at Durban - job discrimination against Africans in the Diaspora even when these Africans had attained citizenship of the said countries that they reside in. Compared to past immigrants to the western countries, recent African immigrants are more educated and versatile. They do not depend on welfare or government handouts from their adopted country. They are not lazy; most of these immigrants migrated because of economic hardship at home, which was a result of past and present western economic and other adverse policies towards the African states especially during the period of colonization and the cold war era. Whereas the others primarily migrated in order to acquire western knowledge and education. As things at their home front began to unravel, these African immigrants pursued citizenship at their various domicile, although, that have not prevented them from staking a claim to their motherland.

The Africans in the Diaspora, such as in the United States of America, Canada, Australia and United Kingdom are proficient in writing and speaking English language. Their command of the language often far exceeds those of the natives whose mother tongue is English. Despite the Africans in the Diaspora proficiency in the language of their host countries, they still find assimilation very difficult. There are tons of stories told by the Africans in the Diaspora about their life experiences with discrimination.

In the Diaspora, an African who works at the lower level of employment strata may not encounter significantly high degree of job discrimination compared to someone who is a professional such as a medical doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, an educator, a computer specialist, etc. These are high visibility jobs where decisions about the running of the organization were made and credits were taken for the success of such decisions. For instance, a friend whose name would be withheld for privacy purposes and named Eugene Doe resides in the suburban Chicago and holds an engineering degree from a respected Chicago area university had worked with the same company for more than ten years. This gentleman has been in the Chicago area for more than twenty-five years. He has a very good command of English language, and whose professionalism in his field has never been questioned and is extremely egregious.

About three to four years ago, his boss left the company where he worked and the bulk of his boss’ job responsibilities fell on his laps. He managed the new duties without a hitch for months and a common sense dictates that he had a strong claim or at least a strong contender to the vacancy having successfully demonstrated, his ability and capacity to handle the position. Wrong. The company went outside and hired someone to replace his boss. Now, this fellow was asked to teach his new boss the company's rope. The company assumed that Eugene Doe is good at teaching someone how to manage the affairs of the company, but was not good enough at occupying the post and running the affairs of the company. If this example is not a classic example of broad daylight discrimination against Africans in the Diaspora, then what is?

But, Eugene Doe is not alone; there are other forms of discriminatory practices against Africans in the Diaspora. One of those occurs when they apply for a job and are hired. They were hired because of their qualification, which in most cases is higher than the qualification prescribed in the job requirement. One would assume that since they are hired, that their salary would commensurate with the said position. Unfortunately, it does not work that way. They would be paid several thousands of dollars less than the job stated. In fact, people of comparable qualification who were natives and hired for the same position would earn more than what the African who occupies the same position earns.

Unfortunately, this information is not available to the Africans given the confidentiality of divulging personal information laws. However, they are exited to have white-collar jobs. They are not worried because at the back of their mind, they always think of the large number of people that depended on their income for survival, ranging from immediate family to extended families. Given the dependence on them for livelihood, they tend to work very hard and ignore the hardship of the working environment. They would show up for work every day. I recall a comment made by a supervisor back in the 1980s at one of my places of work. He contended that he preferred hiring Nigerians (Africans) because they need the money, therefore, would show up for work every day.

Every African in the Diaspora has encountered at least one form of job discrimination throughout their sojourn in the Diaspora. But, some times, the cause of this discriminatory acts stems from the Africans themselves. For instance, most Africans are too arrogant some would say. They frown when given orders by someone younger than them. This is a cultural factor. In most African cultures, it is unacceptable for an adult to be told what to do by someone who is younger than him or her. But, they forget that this is a different culture where people achieve most of their life ambitions at a younger age. Others were put at a position of authority because of family status.

One of the most severe handicap and frustration that affect the Africans in the Diaspora, which may lead to job discrimination, was lack of articulation. This has nothing to do with being loud, rather, the ability to express oneself effectively and clearly in English. Most Africans can write English very well, but may not be able to articulate it proficiently. Sometimes, the accents get on the way. For instance, Africans tend to pronounce words differently as the Americans would. Most of the Nigerians in particular were schooled in the queen's English, thus, acquired the British way of pronunciations. Unfortunately, that may be contrary to the American way. And as it is said, when one is in Rome, one should behave like the Romans. Like an Igbo proverb says - learning to be ambidexterity at an old age is difficult.

The good news is that those who cannot stomach the insult went into private business where most have excelled. These businesses range from cab ownership and driving to ownership of grocery stores that cater to African needs. Those who lacked the capital necessary to start their own business has no choice, but to stick around the infested work environment hoping that some day, those who control the various African governments would see the light and alter their course by providing good governments. For instance, if the Nigerian government is serious about reform, there are thousands of Nigerians living in the Diaspora who would pack their luggage over night and on their own volition, return home to help build a stable and responsible society.

There are those who would argue that if these Africans feel so frustrated and discriminated, that they stop the whining and do one or two things. They argued that the western systems have built in safeguards that are geared towards protecting workers or people from such acts. That they should either seek legal action or go back to Africa here they came from. The last statement has always been the most frequently invoked when the African complain of the way their people were being treated or when they pursue deeds that ran contrary to the popular view of their host country.

It is necessary to deal with the second issue first, before delving into the first. Most of these Africans have resided in their host or adopted countries for many years to the point that they have adopted its cultures thereby losing the culture of their motherland. What this line of argument failed to understand was that acculturation is very difficult to undertake, that is if these Africans decided to pack their belongings and head home. In order to return to Africa, they would need to raise thousands of dollars and that may be difficult given the meager wages that the system through discriminatory acts allowed them to earn.

Now the first issue raised regarding legal redress. Again, one of the benefits of living in the developed countries is that there are safeguards built into it, which supposedly provides safety nets and recourse. Accordingly, this line of arguments assumed that Africans do have the same right and resources as the natives to pursue legal remedies. So why haven’t they utilized this process?

First, to mount a serious and meaningful assault on discriminatory actions, one requires a substantial amount of money. Unfortunately, this kind of resources is not available to most Africans living in the Diaspora especially given the level of their employment, which is at the lower end of the economic scale. This level of economic position can only allow a family man the basic day-to-day survival. In essence, these Africans may not even be able to afford a retainer (down payment) in order to hire a high power attorney.

Second, even when they do retain an attorney, they end up with none power attorney such as another foreign born with limited or no trial experience. It has been observed that most of the African born attorneys in the Diaspora do accident-oriented cases, and for whatever reason best known to them. Although, some times, an African in distress would prefer to use the service of an African born attorney given that it is easier to communicate with a native language where the precise issue at stake would be communicated in a clear and unambiguous way.

In fact, from all the conversations that I have had with some Nigerians in the Diaspora, it is doubtful that anyone would return home to seek government job. These individuals have acquired so much untapped knowledge under utilized in the Diaspora. These Africans are waiting for the right signs from the motherland in order to depart from their environmental misery and return to the land of their forefathers. There are so much untapped opportunities out there in the developing countries waiting to be exploited by Africans in the Diaspora.

More so, there are some Africans in the Diaspora that are willing to undergo the discriminatory practices that they are subjected to as long as there is food on the table. They are of the opinion that history would do them justice. History have shown that the first immigrants to any nation always suffer discrimination. They tend to be abused and also work the hardest in their new environment. The Irish, Italians, to name but a few in the United States of America went through the same process. However the immigrants believe that it is their obligation to pave the way for their next generation offspring born in the Diaspora by providing a solid foundation for the kids born in the Diaspora.

These are the ones that the African governments should be more concerned about. These kids grow up losing their mother language and cultures. The poor situation in Africa also denied them the opportunity to know where there parents came from since most of them are unable to travel home. Africans harbor ethnic and religious conflicts where innocent citizens were killed with or without provocation. In the Diaspora, there are diverse ethnic groups competing for scarce resources like the Africans. The only difference is that the courts are the legal means to resolve disputes, whereas in Africa, people take matters into their own hands.

At this point, there is little or no encouragement coming out of Africa. But, the African governments should be warned that the more they continue to pursue policies that discourage instead of encourage celebration of its ethnic diversity, the more they continue to pursue policies that prevent democracy, political and economic reforms, the worst off the continent suffer from brain drain. Finally, Africans that are interested in returning home with their families to assist in the development effort should be encouraged to do. Meanwhile, the Africans in the Diaspora are aging and dying and that amounts to brain drain because the only home that their children know very well is where they were born - in the Diaspora.

November 2001