“I’m going to the United States, no matter the job. Work is not hard to find.” Like many young Equatorial Guineans, Paciencia Mangue, 32, dreams of leaving in the hope of a better life.
“What you can’t find in your country, you can find elsewhere,” adds Laura Ntogono. At 27, this manicurist working in a beauty salon “constantly thinks about leaving” to settle “in Los Angeles.”
The press in this authoritarian country does not talk about it, there is no buzz on social networks, nor official statistics, but the subject fuels conversations: in recent years, not a day goes by without learning of the departure of a young person for the United States, as the AFP correspondent on the ground was able to observe.
“Making ends meet”
Manulo (not his real name), 44, has been living in Jacksonville, Florida, for just over a year. “I lost my job at INSESO (National Social Security Institute) and after three years of unemployment, I couldn’t make ends meet, so I sold my car and got a visa,” the father of four told AFP in the United States.
He works as a dog sitter and sends his family about $500 (about 450 euros) every month. He does not want to reveal his pay as a “dog sitter” but, according to him, it is nothing compared to the pitiful salaries in his home country – 128,000 CFA francs (about 200 euros) for the minimum monthly wage, according to figures from the Economic Community of Central African States CEMAC.
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With the collapse of oil prices – the main resource – the economy entered recession in 2023 and unemployment reached 8.5%, according to figures from the African Development Bank.
Paciencia Mangue, who has a degree in economics, no longer wants to “waste her time”: “to find a decent job here, you have to know someone in the circles of power or have a relative among those who govern the country”, managed by President Obiang who, at 82, holds a record for political longevity.
While some, like Manulo, manage to reach the United States directly with an American visa, others fly to Brazil or Nicaragua – sometimes via Spain – and then enter illegally via Mexico. Few leave via the Sahel and then cross the Mediterranean, according to accounts collected by AFP.
Between the plane ticket and the visa – 1.6 million CFA francs, or more than 2,500 euros for a Malabo-San Paulo and one hundred euros for the Brazilian visa – the route to exile requires a large investment. Then the most difficult part remains: reaching the United States, by paying smugglers.
“We suffered,” says Geraldina Adang, 33, who left in January 2023 via Brazil and now lives in California, where she works as a dishwasher. “To enter the United States, death is not far away,” says the woman who took two months to reach Mexico “via clandestine and dangerous routes,” then three months to cross the border.
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“An ordeal,” confirms Célestine Fouenfin, a 36-year-old Cameroonian cleaning lady who left Malabo for Las Vegas, also having to go through “an obstacle course” via Mexico.
“Loss of hope”
“Visa or not, I’m going to get to the United States,” says Angel Ondo, a 25-year-old taxi driver. “Many of our friends who were taxi drivers with us have already left” by going “through Brazil or Nicaragua and then Mexico,” he explains in front of his white car.
Far from the political exiles to Spain which marked the history of the former colony after its independence, the reasons for departures are multiple.
“The lack of individual and collective freedom. The lack of independent and solid institutions, systematic corruption, mismanagement of public affairs and disrespect for human rights are at the root of the exodus,” according to Joaquin Elo Ayeto, a human rights activist with the NGO Somos.
Elias Mba Engonga, a sociology teacher, speaks of “disappointment, loss of hope regarding political changes, social policies and the lack of a fair distribution of state revenues.”
Nearly six out of ten young Africans are considering emigrating within three years, primarily to find a job and with the United States as their primary objective, according to a recent survey by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation conducted in sixteen countries on the continent.
By Le360 Africa (with AFP)
09/17/2024 at 08:42
