African in the Diaspora

Many times when I look at the stats of my blog, I always see that the most recent visitors on my website are mainly looking at one blog post in particular. The post is ‘The African Diaspora Dilemma – Move Back or Stay Abroad’. I had a conversation regarding this topic on Afrika Jamii Podcast with Warsame Osman which you can listen to on Spotify or Soundcloud.

I continually find it interesting that this urge and interest remains among Africans in the Diaspora – that no matter where we are and what we do, it’s always at the back of our minds. The continent is always described as the place “where roots take hold and never let go”, thus there is always that divine like energy calling us back home. The big dilemma is whether or not we choose to answer that call and the very many things we have to consider. You can read more about this here.

So recently I have been exploring something else through discussions with some of my friends in Kenya who want to move abroad. I realize that there are various categories of people who are keen on moving to the diaspora. There are many who are frustrated with the lack of opportunities and are desperate to leave at any time and in any way. Then there are those who are not as desperate but have toyed with the idea of moving and would like to move abroad either to work or pursue higher education. I recently launched my new research and writing consulting business and one of my services is providing graduate school application support services. Over the past couple weeks, I have interacted with some educated, ambitious young Africans on the continent who feel that they are lacking valuable opportunities and want to move abroad for grad school.

For the vast majority of people on the continent, living abroad presents far much better opportunities than remaining at home. Neocolonial Africa is very elitist and it only presents the best living environment for its wealthy citizens. We can’t ignore the high unemployment rates especially among young people, fragmented and unstable governments, massive corruption that has left systems and citizens very vulnerable, insecurity, poor education systems, poor public health systems, poverty etc.

So it’s only fair and objective on my part to acknowledge the many reasons that drive people to move away from the continent. Since, I spend a lot of time discussing the issues and challenges we as diasporans encounter, I should also mention some of the good things that keep us here .

So here is a list of ten things that I truly appreciate and love about living in Canada:

1. A universal health care system – the system is not full proof and many issues exist but health care is free and accessible
2. Taxes that efficiently fund public services – taxes may be high but funding goes into things such as healthcare, public utilities, education, infrastructure, economic development etc.
3. Low unemployment rates and jobs where employers must pay at least the legal minimum wage
4. A well funded education system – the government of Canada provides decent funding to public primary and secondary education
5. Low bank lending interest rates allowing property purchases and investments.
6. Safety – of course there are unsafe places in every part of the world but Canada has relatively low crime rates
7. Multicultural diversity – I feel privileged to have met and interacted with people from all corners of the world
8. Beautiful summer weather – I live for the summers but autumn colours are absolutely stunning and winter…. (this is a positive list so let me stop here)
9. Lower population density so there’s lots of space with limited crowding and there are very many parks and green spaces
10. The opportunity to have dual citizenship and travel easily to many countries without visa issues. It’s called passport privilege.

If you’re interested in moving to the diaspora for graduate school as an international student, you can schedule a consultation with me at charitymaritim.com. Let’s work together to make your application stand out!