Why I left Namibia

I should start by making it clear that Namibia is a beautiful country and I loved the three years that I spent there (please read My experience living as an expatriate in Namibia). I will explain the circumstances that made me to leave the country despite having planned on staying for medium to long term. Background The fact that Zimbabwe was heading in the wrong direction as far back as 2016 was apparent though things were not as bad as they are now. After a three months stint in the USA at the beginning of 2015, I came back convinced that there was nothing worth staying for in Zimbabwe. From the time I returned, I started looking for job opportunities abroad. At that time, I was already married and had a one-year old baby. A country we planned to relocate to would be one that was good to live with family and also enable my wife to find job opportunities. I got an opportunity in Botswana at the end of 2015 and although I had a feeling that it would not be ideal for my wife, my family would have been worse off by our continued stay in Zimbabwe so I accepted the offer. We were ready to relocate to Botswana, the work permit had been approved flights booked then boom, another opportunity that I had been pursuing in Namibia materialised. I did not think twice about choosing Namibia especially based on the fact that it presented better opportunities for my wife. Application for the Namibian work permit The application was submitted in July 2016 and I received confirmation of the approval at the beginning of November. However, the two-year permit had actually been approved in August 2016 so when I commenced my employment in January 2017, I had nineteen months left on my permit before the next renewal! No joy for my wife Before relocating, my wife had already started the process of registering with the professional body in Namibia. In February 2017, she joined me in Namibia with our two babies, first who was now two and a half years and a new born who was just one and a half months. She made a follow up regarding the status of her registration and was informed that the documents she sent had not been received and therefore had to resend (much later, we discovered that the reason why her records could not be located was because her name had been incorrectly spelt and not that the documents she sent had not been received). Until November 2017, she had still not been called for an interview which preceded the registration process. After following up, she was slotted in for the interview and the registration process finally completed. The consequences of September 2017 Up to this point, I have not mentioned that my wife is a nurse by profession. During the month of September 2017, the government of Namibia implemented a policy that foreign nurses could no longer be employed as the country had adequate local nurses to fill up the posts within its health institutions. I should also mention that before this announcement, Namibia was one of the top destinations for Zimbabwean health professionals. This pronouncement did not only affect the hiring within public health institutions but also the private sector.

Aftermath of September 2017 The immediate impact was that foreign nurses could no longer be hired. Going forward, work permits for nurses that had expired could no longer be renewed which resulted in an exodus of nurses mostly to Europe. I remember talking to a certain Zimbabwean nurse who was working at a state hospital in Windhoek who told me that 20 nurses (including himself) were leaving the hospital and consequently the country at the end of December 2018 because their employment contracts had not been renewed. This predicament however did not only affect nurses. I had friends who are doctors whose employment contracts at state hospitals were also not renewed. Engineers, quantity surveyors and architects were also affected. What was the effect of this stance by the government? One thing that is important to any professional is stability. Everyone wants to be in control of their future and have the ability of making decisions well aware of the short or long term impact. However, this ability to plan was no longer there. Instead of one waiting to be told that their permit could no longer be renewed, many skilled immigrants thought it wise to have their destiny in their hands and make the first move. This resulted in a number of professionals relocating from Namibia and this is still the case. Lack of clarity in the work permit process and the path to permanent residency I personally did not have any challenge in renewing my work permit when it expired. I have however heard some not so good stories from people whom I know personally. One person got a work permit that specifically stated that it was non-renewable. One can only wonder why it was non- renewable when other permits for professionals with the same skills set did not have such a condition. Would such a person stay and hope that they would get a renewal anyway? Your guess is as good as mine, they left when their permit was about to expire. The standard length of work permits is usually two years, but I have heard instances of people being given six month or one year. It makes it difficult for one to plan their future. I have interacted with accountants, specialist medical doctors, lecturers etc all expressing anxiety regarding whether their permits would be renewed or not. Naturally, professionals do want such uncertainty worse still if one has a family. In addition, there is no clear path as to how one obtains a permanent resident status. I have interacted with people who have stayed in Namibia for between ten to fifteen years who do not have permanent residency and others who have been in the country for less than ten years who have it. What I gathered is that there is no structured and clear path. Some had their applications initially declined and later approved on appeal and explanation of why they were initially rejected did not sound quite reasonable. A general comment on skilled immigrants In the eyes of the locals, immigrants are sometimes been seen as crowding out the job market and thus taking away jobs from locals. This view is prevalent mostly in Africa. This however is a narrow view. Skilled immigrants contribute immensely to the economies of the countries in which they work in. To understand this, one has to consider the current drive by the western countries to attract critical skills. If one is to look at western economies today, certain significant breakthroughs in research and inventions as well as formation of big businesses can be attributed to immigrants. In some western countries, one can apply for permanent residency before they even migrate. However, in Africa, skilled immigrants are viewed with disdain. Instead of African skills developing the African continent, they are instead developing western economies. Need for clarity of policy by the Namibian government Though South Africa has its own challenges, I think they have done well in this regard. The critical skills requirements are clearly stipulated and so is the path to one getting permanent residency. Namibia might have policies in place but surely something is lacking in the implementation thereof. Why would it be that when one is expecting a two-year permit, they receive a six months or one year one? This decision cannot be made by a Home Affairs official and one hopes that it is not the case. What is the path to getting a permanent residency if one so wishes? This should be clear and the implementation thereof should be consistent. I was recently talking to a friend who is a medical doctor. His employment contract was not initially renewed at the state hospital he was working and he had to seek employment else within Namibia. Due to the uncertainty arising from non-renewal of his work permit, he looked for and secured employment in Europe and is preparing to relocate. The hospital which had previously not renewed his contract reached out to him with the intention of re hiring him and of course he said no! Being in Namibia in the medium to long term was no longer an option So one, two, three years...my wife was still not working and there was no hope that government policy would change. The longer she continued out of a job, the harder it would be for her to be employable. In addition to this, having her becoming a stay at home mum was financially not sustainable so we had to leave and this we did December 2019. It is not just me, I know of a couple of professionals who have left or are planning to leave based on the same reasons I have outlined. There are many countries around the world that currently offering much more favourable policies for immigrants that Namibia is competing with. Conclusion Certain professionals were advising each other about opportunities that were recently advertised in Namibia. The advice that they gave each other was that relocating to Namibia should be a transitory plan and not long term. If Namibia currently has local critical skills required for the various sectors of the economy, then that is good for the country. However, if the country still needs to attract skills, the current policies and stance may prove detrimental in the long term.

Again, I will end up by reiterating that I love Namibia. During my three-year stay, I really had a good time and have memories that I will cherish for a lifetime. Given favourable immigration policies, I would definitely have stayed for the medium to long term.