American dream alive for jobless Ugandans

President Museveni has indicated that his New Year’s speech set to be delivered today before Ugandans ring in 2023 will be tailored to resonate with the youth “who don’t like to work.”

In his penultimate national address on December 22, Mr Museveni stopped short of calling Ugandan youth lazy. Still, he chastised them for “wasting time” by among others “playing cards” instead of making themselves useful.

READ: Govt lists 40 countries where you can travel without a visa

The President has also previously made reference to interest in foreign football as an underwhelming measure of the impact of Ugandan youth.

Observers say beneath the chastisement is a delicately complex and understated admission to the growing problem of youth unemployment in the country. Data points from the Uganda National Labour Force Survey 2021, released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) in November, paint a particularly disturbing story. They also probably show why Mr Museveni will take the unusual step of dedicating his New Year’s address to the youth.

The survey, startling in its significance, and its candour, made no attempt to hide the fact that youth unemployment is a ticking clock. With 9.3 million Ugandans aged between 18 and 30 years not spared its visitations, the survey was unstinting in its declaration that youth unemployment remains a “serious challenge” to the country.

It also drew attention to what Ugandan youth do to extricate themselves from the embrace of unemployment. About 6.2 million of them, aged between five and 17, to be specific, end up being subsumed by exploitative forms of labour.

These include unpaid care work (40 percent), subsistence agriculture (21 percent), and other subsistence works (39 percent).

Youth unemployment

The survey also found that 11 percent of the youth contributed to the domestic migration problem. It defined this type of migration as “movement from one [district] to another and living there for six or more months at one time.”

But as the International Organisation for Migration noted in a study that reflected the Uganda situation as of December 2013, “there has been a considerable increase in residents and non-residents exiting [Uganda] over the years.”

More than half of Uganda’s population is of working age as per the survey Ubos released in November. Of this 23,494,000-strong working age population, 12,145,000 is outside the labour force. Nearly eight million of these opt not to work on their own volition.

As President Museveni uses his New Year’s speech later today to address himself to this subset, critics are also encouraging him to spare a thought for the 6,612,000 Ugandans whose need for employment remains unmet.

There are bodies of empirical evidence that suggest that this subset of people who are passive in the face of unemployment and labour underutilisation end up seeking greener pastures in places such as the United States of America. Even whilst grappling with a cost of living squeeze, many Ugandans pushed the envelope this year to raise the minimum non-refundable fees for a US non-immigrant, temporary visa ($160 or Shs600,000).

Many Ugandan youth have, however, found themselves coming up against an insurmountable obstacle after paying the aforementioned non-refundable fee.

Ms Sally Sternal, the consular officer at the US Embassy in Kampala, recently told this newspaper that this is because “it is hard for younger people who are just starting out in their career, or in school, to demonstrate that they have the ties for eligibility for the visas.”

No bed of roses

Those who have ended up getting temporary visas caution against the false belief that the document makes chasing the American dream that much easier. Martin (not real name), who successfully applied for a temporary visa in 2014 after pulling up short three years earlier, told Saturday Monitor that he depleted the meagre savings he took with him to the north-eastern US state of Massachusetts.

“Throughout the months of January up to March in 2014, shelter, food, and clothing were hard to come by,” he said of his initial days in Boston, the state capital of Massachusetts.

EXPLAINED: Process of applying for a visa at U S Embassy Kampala

It didn’t help matters that Martin fell out with his host. He was duly “thrown out of the little cubicle and pushed out to the streets.” Martin didn’t land on both his feet on the streets, not least because of the punishing snowstorms.

When he started taking odd jobs in June of 2014, nothing came out of them due to the dearth of a work permit.

“Without [a work permit], you are forced to earn through an ‘under the table’ system where you are paid directly for each session worked,” Martin revealed, adding, “The lack of a work permit also forces many—as was the case with myself—to work in the names of other people.”

Land of opportunities

Martin nowadays uses Uber’s ride-hailing platform to eke out a living from a four-door saloon car registered in his name. The migrant is the first to admit that he came to this position not through swaggering certainty, but by learning to humble himself.

He is, however, hesitant to tell this newspaper how his application for asylum ended up getting the green light.

Since most migrant workers (famously known by the ‘mu-summer’ pejorative) who return to Uganda for respective festive seasons have mastered the ‘fake it till you make it’ art, tales, such as Martin’s, of success coming after years of hard work tend to be drowned out. The lure of Uncle Sam consequently remains stronger than ever for Ugandan youth.

“Arriving here alone reboots your mind. There are many good things like the efficiency of the traffic system, respect for persons, and punctuality levels amongst all persons regardless of one’s background,” Tracy (not real name) told Saturday Monitor, adding: “I came in as a student but my two years here [at Arizona State University] exposed me to new opportunities, new people who valued honesty [and] I didn’t want to go back home to bribe for jobs yet I was assured of getting one here once I settled in well.”

Our labour we give

Peter (not real name) reiterated what Tracy proffered. He added that there is comfort to be found in the fact that “labour is one of the most expensive commodities [in the US] and it is paid for by every stroke of a minute.”

“Corruption back home just takes away any hope. In the US it is different because everyone is accorded equal access to services, jobs and any opportunities regardless of the roots of origin,” he reasoned.

Peter nevertheless warns that the initial couple of years can be quite “rough” as one tries to ensure that “their paperwork is in sync with the US Department of State.”

A top official at Uganda’s embassy in Washington DC, speaking on condition of anonymity, told us that many Ugandans come to the US “before understanding the implications and ways of life [in the country].” The official added that many Ugandans “run back to us once the system starts hunting them down for lack of legal documentation.”  The official further revealed that many Ugandans, much like Martin, end up becoming asylum seekers.

ALSO READ: Uganda, US to deepen ties

We understand that the vast bulk of the applications filed by Uganda migrants are thrown out because of inconsistencies in documentation. The official at the embassy in Washington DC, who wished to remain anonymous, told us that sensitisation of Ugandan migrants about the procedural steps that ought to be met has taken on great significance in the recent past.

All pointers suggest that Uncle Sam’s hold over Uganda’s unemployed and underemployed youth will be undiminished in 2023 regardless of what Mr Museveni says today or dangles in  the New Year.