fury in Mogadishu . diaspora taxi drivers are taking all the jobs leaving local graduates unemployed

[Mooge]

"

The only places where we are safe from the diaspora are in the IDP camps. I wish not a single one of them had came back," Noor added

 

Every time I see another passenger plane flying over the city and landing at Mogadishu airport, I see my job chances decreasing.

 

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For some Somalis, a new threat after war

 

Mogadishu, Somalia - It's just after 11am when a group of more than thirty current and former students of the University of Somalia in Mogadishu gather in one of the student halls on the leafy campus, to discuss what they see as a fresh threat to their futures in the new Somalia - returning Somali diaspora.

 

The mood in the mural-covered hall is solemn. One by one they take to the podium to share their experiences and ways to overcome this new challenge.

 

"I believe they have taken our jobs. If it wasn't for them, I would have a job by now," said jobseeker Sadia Mohamed Abdirahman, a 22-year-old who graduated two years ago with a degree in social sciences.

"Everywhere I go they ask if I have a foreign passport. Which passport you hold can be the reason you get a job or not," she added, her passionate voice bouncing off the walls of the sparsely filled hall and eliciting rapturous applause from everyone in the hall.

 

With a fragile peace holding in the Somali capital since the ousting of hardline Islamist rebel group al Shabaab, thousands of Somali diaspora, mainly from the West, have flocked back to this city of more than a million people.

Unwelcome exiles

 

On average there are 35 flights landing at Mogadishu's international airport every day, bringing more than six hundred passengers to Somalia's most populous city.

 

The presence of these new arrivals in the city hasn't gone unnoticed.

"Every time I see another passenger plane flying over the city and landing at Mogadishu airport, I see my job chances decreasing. More diaspora [returnees] means fewer jobs for us," said 21-year-old Abdi Nasir Mohamed, while taking shelter from the midday sun.

 

Most of those gathered in the student hall say they have no friends or family members in high offices, unlike many of those in the diaspora, to help them get a foot in the door.

 

More than three quarters of Somali cabinet ministers were previously members of the diaspora, a fact that's not lost on Mohamed. "All these diasporas are getting the jobs because our government is a diaspora government," he said.

Those gathered in the student hall also said that the criteria for hiring new employees for government offices favours those returning from abroad and stops locals from accessing the few public sector jobs that are available.

 

Charges of favouritism

 

Hassan Mohamed Elmi is a 27-year-old, third-year business administration student. He thinks the current system of hiring new employees is meant to safeguard the interests of those in the diaspora.

 

"Asking a local to have five, seven or ten years experience is not fair. We were at war for the past 23 years. It was impossible to have that kind or length of experience," he said.

 

But returning citizens don't think there is any foul play in how they're getting government jobs.

Most see themselves as risk-takers who are merely here to help their fellow countrymen and get their country back on its feet.

 

Tariq Bihi moved to Mogadishu two years ago from London to work for the Somali government. He now works for the Ministry of Human Development and Public Services.

 

"Being in Mogadishu is a downgrade in every sense, in terms of security, leisure and transportation, but I feel it's a sacrifice well worth taking," he said.

 

That's a view shared by Maluka Abdulkadir, who works in the Office of the Prime Minister. "I left the comforts of Boston and a well paying banking job there to come to Mogadishu and be part of the rebuilding process. I'm here on merit and I'm in it for the long haul," she said.

 

But Bihi admits some of the concerns of the locals are understandable. "Taxi drivers from the West holding senior government posts won't win over many locals, but it is important to stress most of us are here on merit and qualifications," he said.

The Somali government, in office just under a year, doesn't share the same view and strongly denies any favouritism in the way it hires new employees.

 

"Somalia is for all Somalis. Jobs are only given to Somalis who have the experience and can contribute," Ridwaan Haji Abdiweli, spokesman for the Somali government, told Al Jazeera.

 

"We cannot prevent a Somali person from getting a government job because they have lived abroad," he added.

Abdiweli also disagrees with the accusation that most of those working in government offices are not locals. "More than 99 percent of government employees are people who have never left Somalia, even for a day. To say the diaspora make up most of the civil service is not true," he claimed.

 

The city is undergoing a boom unlike any it has experienced in the past two decades - thanks in large part to diaspora dollars.

 

Rent prices in this seaside city have hit an all-time high. Many of the locals are unhappy and pointing their fingers at the returning Somalis for the record rents being demanded.

 

Many are forced to move into overcrowded camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), because they can't afford the prices quoted by landlords eager to make quick returns - after suffering through two decades of low rents.

 

"I was paying $100 a month for a three-bedroom house, including bills. Then a guy from Sweden came and offered to pay my landlord $400 a month, excluding bills," said a frustrated Mohamed Noor from his new one-bedroom, tin-shelter home in an IDP camp in the Hodon district of Mogadishu.

 

"The only places where we are safe from the diaspora are in the IDP camps. I wish not a single one of them had came back," Noor added.

 

Diaspora cash is welcome

 

But not everyone in Mogadishu is anti-diaspora. The business community in particular can't get enough of them - and the dollars they bring with them.

 

Abdi Rahman Hassan opened Dirshe Car Dealership in downtown Mogadishu three years ago. Two years ago, before Somalis living abroad started returning in large numbers, he sold barely ten cars a month. Things are much different now.

"In a very quiet month I sell at least 20 cars. A car I used to sell for $4,000 two years ago, I now sell for more than $6,000. Almost all my buyers are people who have returned from abroad," Hassan said, beaming with a big smile - and surrounded by second-hand cars imported from Dubai.

 

The relationship between the diaspora and the locals could be mutually beneficial to both groups.

A five-minute drive from Dirshe's Car Dealership is Mogadishu's only laundry shop - Somali Premium Laundry.

"Seventy-five percent of my clients are Somalis from abroad. All eleven of my staff are locals," said Mohamed Mohamud Sheikh, the laundry's owner.

 

"It wouldn't have been possible to open this shop without the patronage of the diaspora, and I wouldn't have been able to employ 11 locals. We need each other," he added.

 

Student Mohamed, however, would rather the diaspora hadn't come back. "There aren't that many opportunities to go around," he said.

 

"It is best they come when there are enough jobs. The few jobs around here should be left for those who were here during the war."

[kickz]

Feel bad they feel that way.

 

The government needs some youth employment initiatives, help the locals compete with us diaspora.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

I hate to use a republican catch phrase but these locals should feel less entitled and start to compete. First the marriages and now jobs, calacaal badana.

[Mad_Mullah]

^ There's a reason why the republicans are a bunch of retarded cowboys.

 

As for this topic, I agree with them, they might study 3 years in Xamar and then another 3 years in Khartoum get back and see jobs are being given to 50+ old men from the west who lived on benefits and spent all these years chit-chatting in cafes.

[Mad_Mullah]

Then again Somalia CAN NOT be rebuilt by the locals.

[YoniZ]

It is a positive development.

 

Locals to get busy improving their lifestyle, see the dayuusbaros as their new rivals instead of getting busy to drag down one another.

[Alpha Blondy]

reverse economic migration, maha?

 

here in the nation's capital, it's not so much as taxi driving but any job with a desk. i'm one of those people but luckily i've been here for 5 years and 3 months, now. i have seen many of these qurbo-joog vultures come and go but it's time to be honest and say the house is FULL. we'd rather see no more of these diaspora folks. they're pathetic, walahi.

[YoniZ]

Alpha Blondy;975888 wrote:

reverse economic migration, maha?

 

here in the nation's capital, it's not so much as taxi driving but any job with a desk. i'm one of those people but luckily i've been here for 5 years and 3 months, now. i have seen many of these qurbo-joog vultures come and go but it's time to be honest and say the house is FULL. we'd rather see no more of these diaspora folks. they're pathetic, walahi.

AB, I guess 5.3years was enough for you to get institutionalized

[Alpha Blondy]

^ yeah bro. it sure is a long time too. you know, i've seen so much here, i could write a small book about it. but really these diaspora folks are pathetic. they are disgusting and clearly under-qualified. i'm qualified you see, so maybe that's why i keep myself to myself, and don't bask in the glory of being spat out by the west.

[YoniZ]

^ Well done Saxib, I truly admire your courage and durability.

[Alpha Blondy]

^ thanks, bro.

 

it's home, you know. there's nothing courageous about it though. as for durability, i've been durable.

[Cambuulo iyo bun]

Naxar Nugaaleed;975862 wrote:

I hate to use a republican catch phrase but these locals should feel less entitled and start to compete. First the marriages and now jobs, calacaal badana.

LOL instead of working harder wey calaacalayaan we in the diaspora had to go through similar stuff ,in school we need to work double as much as the cadaans we have to work double as hard to get connection or jobs. Dulqaad baa lo baahanyahay it will pay of later, but as i know somalis are always interested in the easy route.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

Your right C&B, dulqaad bey bahan yaheen. There is space for everyone to grow and find a calling. The crazy thing is, this is the beginning of a trickle, what happens later when people really start to come back lol. Mind you, this diaspora, be they taxi drivers, janitors or students, have roughed it for twenty years being the economic lifeline for this country. the greatest source of income for people back home has been this much maligned diaspora. My advice to these "locals" would be to be greatful, work hard and reduce the calaacal.

[Cambuulo iyo bun]

Naxar Nugaaleed;975919 wrote:

Your right C&B, dulqaad bey bahan yaheen. There is space for everyone to grow and find a calling. The crazy thing is, this is the beginning of a trickle, what happens later when people really start to come back lol. Mind, this diaspora, be they taxi drivers, janitors or students, have roughed for two years being the economic live line for this country. the greatest source of income for people back home has been this much maligned diaspora. My advice to these "locals" would be to be greatful, work hard and reduce the calaacal.

well said

[Miyir]

mr cambuulo stop stealing other people jobs