Africa-Press – Mauritius. Mauritian exodus Talking to compatriots and watching developing trends in the Mauritian Diaspora, as any keen observer does, it can be extrapolated from the existing sources of information that the Mauritian communities both in Britain and France have undergone seismic transformation.
The already saturated labour market, inflated to bursting points by the thousands of demobbed soldiers from the Middle East towards the latter part of the 50s, let alone the population explosion, Mauritius could not then support its people. The only option left was to seek means of survival overseas. Thus, the Diaspora of Mauritians in the history of Mauritian migration took off.
Pushed by chronic unemployment, loss of trust in the economic system and seeing no hope for better days on the distant horizons, thousands of Mauritians left the island, starting with a trickle at the end of the 50s and developing into an avalanche in the 60s and 70s.
■ Emigration: A short-term plan However, the emigration enterprise, aimed at regaining self-confidence lost temporarily in the country of origin, was conceived as a short-term programme. This short-term idea was not only unique to the Mauritians.
It is a universal phenomenon among people emigrating from relatively stable and peaceful countries, as we are all subconsciously nationalistic in our patriotic zeal and emotionally attached to our country of origin.
The findings of several eminent experts in the field of migration to Britain have supported this view: they include Dilip Hiro (1971), Daniel Lawrence (1974) and Nancy Foner (1978).
However, the main pull factor was employment, as indicated above and correctly argued by David J Smith (1976): ?Without carrying out any systematic study of conditions in the West Indies, India and Pakistan, it is plain that lack of work is the worst problem shared by the largest number of people, and this must be what produces most of the push towards migration?.
There is no doubt that seeking employment for the Mauritian migrants was a major push factor. Nevertheless, they never meant to remain overseas on a long-term basis, as already stated.
The basic ideas in the migration project were to spend a limit of four to five years overseas, working as hard as possible and making the return journey with enhanced status symbolised by savings for investment, education and some conspicuous goods.
This statement by the respondent below reflects the view of the majority of Mauritian immigrants of the early 60s and those in the 70s (Lingayah, 1988: p: 65): ?We would be returning home shortly.
Our two-storey house in Mauritius will be completed early this year. We are now concentrating on earning money to buy a car and furniture to take with us?.
■ The homeward Journey: A cherished fantasy Living in an intensely competitive and class-conscious society as Mauritius, the psychology of keeping up with the Joneses has a powerful influence.
The impact is particularly strong and even shamelessly transparent in respect of the underprivileged and the poor, who are alienated and trapped in the neo-colonial social enclosure of the survival of the fittest.
Therefore, the goal of the emigration enterprise was, in a nutshell, motivated by the idea of short-circuiting the efforts to join the middle class, whose life-style had been envied by many of them, on returning home.
There is no doubt that migration has paid off handsomely and has been well rewarded for the adequately motivated Mauritian immigrants: many of them have succeeded in acquiring some lands, a house or two, saving accounts, making frequent visits to Mauritius to confirm their achievements and offering generous gifts to relatives and friends.
?However?, I observed, ?what worries me most is that houses, lands, and other investments might remain to many of us simply monuments recording a strong desire to return home and nothing else (ibid.
p: 66). ? There is no doubt that these achievements have sufficiently met the psychological needs of many of them. However, assessing it from a different perspective, it could also reflect a means of self-deception.
What has, however, become undeniably clear that the main objective of the initial short-term migration plan, making the return journey, has proved to be a myth for the overwhelming majority of Mauritian immigrants, as it is also in the case of the other significantly larger ethnic groups.
These could include major ethnic communities such as the Afro-Caribbeans, the Indians and the Pakistanis. Mohammad Anwar?s seminal study (1979) has shown beyond doubt that making the homeward journey for the majority of immigrants is a fantastic dream desired by many and few experienced it in reality.
■ The old returnees My study of Mauritian immigrants in Britain (1988) showed that 81% of them expressed a strong desire to return home. The findings of my comparative study (1991) revealed that 74% of the Paris informants expressed a similar view.
However, recent information gathered from the Mauritian community and discussions with compatriots at informal and social gatherings have shown that what is intended as goals is not necessarily achievable in reality.
In the late 70s and 80s, some disgruntled and unhappy Mauritians, unable to adapt themselves in the country of migration, returned home. They were mainly from the nursing profession, pulled by the incentive of vacancies in the expanding psychiatric and general hospitals in Mauritius.
Many of them left the country of migration with young children. During the 80s some pensioners, particularly those who emigrated in the latter part of the 50s and early 60s, from the large sorting post office, like Mount Pleasance, and their contemporaries from semi-skilled and skilled sectors of employment, also chose to return home. Apart from their original plan of returning home one day, it appeared that a number of factors drove them back to Mauritius.
In this we could include racism and the unpleasant English winter, let alone the double advantages of low cost of living there and the opportunity, with their relatively high British pensions, and comparatively substantial bank accounts made up of the proceeds from the sale of their houses, to participate in the long aspired middle class standard of living.
The latter point was, and is, one of the principal ambitions of many of the immigrants generally. But soon many of the younger returnees, especially those with nursing qualifications, felt frustrated with the working conditions at home and lack of educational facilities for their children, re-emigrated.
In this category one would find many are vocally bitter critics of almost every aspect of the Mauritian society. However, these pioneers had never given up the idea of retiring in Mauritius at the pensionable stage of their lives, when their children had become independent adults and were better prepared financially to lead a life of their cherished dream, a middle class life-style.
But few have realised this dream while many have failed to achieve it. ■ The obstacles A number of factors can be attributed to making the return journey a myth to many Mauritians.
The main factor is that the majority of the Mauritians who pioneered the emigration project have died or on the last leg of their life. This is particularly true among those who pioneered the migration enterprise in the late 50s and early 60s.
Attending a recent Mauritian cremation of a Mauritian pensioner, I asked the Mauritian Hindu priest who conducted the ceremony about the death trend among our compatriots.
He said that during the week before Christmas he had been involved in no less than four deaths in the Mauritian community, most of whom were old and suffering from the disabilities associated with ageing.
It is needless to point out that with the expiration of life also vanished the home-returning aspiration. Illness has been another major factor in giving up with the greatest of reluctance and regret the cherished dream of returning home.
Healthcare is relatively excellent and free in Britain or France, whereas it is perceived, perhaps correctly, to be atrociously poor and expensive in Mauritius.
Therefore, the prolongation of life has been given priority over the homeward journey among the older Mauritians, but not without being troubled by the constant nagging feeling of failure.
Pragmatism calls for making hard choice between the extension of a few more years of the lease of life and sustaining the yearning for returning home. Many have correctly given priority to the former rather than to the latter, though not without regret.
A third factor, which has contributed toward turning the homeward journey for the Mauritian pioneers into a myth, is the children and grand children born in the country of their migration.
Emotional attachment with them, who, brought up in the assimilative culture of Britain and France, with no interest in Mauritius, seems to have been one of the greatest dilemmas undermining the pioneers? return aspiration.
Thus affected, few have been able to tear themselves away from kith and kin and accomplish their dream. Many, thus constrained, have decided to suppress the desire of making the homeward journey.
■ The innovative return strategies In recent years the Mauritians determined to realise the dream of the return journey have conceived perhaps one of the most sophisticated ideas and developed the most practical strategy in making it come true, even partially.
This innovative approach has been much in evidence since the 1990s and subsequently among the Mauritian immigrants of pensionable age. It is a cleverly designed compromise negotiated from the standpoint of the new Mauritius, where the problems of re-adaptation in the welter of rapid social change has driven many inadequately prepared Mauritian returnees back to the country of migration.
Much more sophisticated than their unsuccessful predecessors, with better planning, financially more secure and pragmatic enough to make compromise about the method of returning home, the new returnees have chosen a middle way.
Instead of selling everything, including their houses, lock, stock, and barrel, in the country of migration, as did many of the earlier groups, they have kept their house or flat overseas but have also invested in a pied-à-terre in Mauritius.
To facilitate re-adjustment on the socially transformed island, they have not, so to speak, burnt the bridge after crossing it, unlike the previous batches of returnees.
They have kept the bridge in good repairs by the pragmatic compromise of spending part of the year in Mauritius and part of it in the country of migration.
Thus straddled between the two cultures, between the society of emigration and the society of origin, the new returnees have effectively realised the dream of making the homeward journey, even partially, by leaving all the options open.
Our success lies not only in the readiness to make compromise but also in making pragmatic decisions based on the findings of evidence of trends that proved positive and those which showed to be ineffective. In a world, which is progressively scientific-based, the heart must not be allowed to control the mind.
■ Attitudes of the next generations As expected, the children of the Mauritians, who pioneered the migration enterprise, do not possess similar strength of emotional or psychological attachment with Mauritius. However, they do not deny that their parents came from the cultural melting pot of the island of Mauritius.
Assimilated through socialisation in the country of their birth, reinforced by the Mauritians? intrinsically pro-westernisation tendencies, few among the first or second generation of Mauritian immigrants have anything in their long-term programme beyond a short holiday on the splendid sun-kissed beaches of Mauritius.
My investigation has shown that not many of those born of Mauritian parentage will send a greeting card to a member of an immediate relative in Mauritius, except if their parents have returned to live there.
There is no strong attachment or commitment either to close relatives or to the island, let alone the idea of making the return journey, which the majority of their parents have failed to accomplish.
This is confirmed by the sale of many of the lands or properties on the market overseas today which were once owned by their hard working, parsimonious and acquisitive now deceased parents.
Open any magazine or newspaper in the Mauritian community and one will not fail to see advertisements for plots of land or houses for quick sale at a price below their market value.
■ Conclusion There has been a major shift in the attitudes of Mauritian immigrants and their children born overseas in terms of returning home.
The deceased of the growing number of the Mauritians who pioneered the mi- gration enterprise and the circumstances of the remaining few, who also dreamed of the homeward journey after making good overseas, have turned this goal into an unachievable myth.
As regards the first and second generations of Mauritian migrants, well adjusted in the country of their birth, Mauritius does not mean anything more than it was the country of origin of their parents or grand parents.
The new technological systems of communication, the globalisation of the world?s economy and the lack of opportunities for good employment prospects in Mauritius have collectively made the island unattractive to the well qualified high profile young Mauritians. In fact, the rapidly developing new trend is to leave the island.
The impact of the current system of education, driven by the invasion of new knowledge and social circumstances, seems to have contributed towards developing a new type of Mauritian people who are less emotionally attached to their country and more objective in terms of accepting the challenges of the fast encroaching new world.
Apart from Britain, which is attracting both Mauritian returnees and other groups, Canada, with its small population and great potential for development, appears, among other countries, such as Australia, to have become a magnet for the new generation of Mauritians seeking greener pastures.
The existing disguised emigration trend appears to be students-led: for instance, once the latter have settled down in their studies, their parents and other relatives frequently follow them.
Therefore, the concept of returning home by the Mauritian immigrants in the West, as originally planned, is no longer tenable. Outliving its time, it has become merely a myth.
Dr Sam LINGAYAH Thousands of Mauritians left the island, starting with a trickle at the end of the 50s and developing into an avalanche in the 60s and 70s.
But soon many of the younger returnees, especially those with nursing qualifications, felt frustrated with the working conditions at home and lack of educational facilities for their children, re-emigrated.
There is no strong attachment or commitment either to close relatives or to the island, let alone the idea of making the return journey, which the majority of their parents have failed to accomplish.
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