{"id":28582,"date":"2026-07-23T12:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/?p=28582"},"modified":"2026-07-23T12:16:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:16:25","slug":"jobs-abroad-or-jobs-in-africa-why-a-focus-on-work-in-other-countries-shouldnt-replace-opportunities-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/education-languages-health\/jobs-abroad-or-jobs-in-africa-why-a-focus-on-work-in-other-countries-shouldnt-replace-opportunities-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Jobs abroad or jobs in Africa? Why a focus on work in other countries shouldn\u2019t replace opportunities at home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>African governments are increasingly encouraging young people to work abroad. To address youth unemployment at home, for example,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.gov.bb\/News\/Press-Releases\/More-Nurses-Arrive-From-Ghana\">Ghana<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/citizen.digital\/article\/kenya-to-export-2500-nurses-to-saudi-arabia-by-mid-january-n333589\">Kenya<\/a> have expanded labour mobility agreements with other countries, <em>says Michael Boampong, Visiting Fellow, The Open University<\/em>. These include Spain, Qatar and Caribbean states.<\/p>\n<p>Agreements with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/au.int\/sites\/default\/files\/pressreleases\/43806-pr-Doha_Declaration-1.pdf\">Gulf countries have largely focused on construction and service-sector jobs<\/a>. But\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.modernghana.com\/news\/1441615\/ghana-grenada-sign-health-pact-to-recruit-ghanaia.html\">newer partnerships with Caribbean countries<\/a>\u00a0are targeting skilled professionals like nurses and healthcare workers.<\/p>\n<p>These arrangements can create structured pathways for people to work abroad, often in sectors where labour is in high demand.<\/p>\n<p>Many African countries have large and growing youth populations struggling to get decent jobs. Meanwhile, wealthier economies face ageing populations and labour shortages.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilo.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2024-11\/GET_2024_EN_web4.pdf\">Evidence<\/a>\u00a0suggests that 71.7% of young adult (25-29) workers in sub-Saharan Africa are engaged in \u201cinsecure\u201d work. At the same time, countries across Europe and elsewhere need labour in sectors such as care, agriculture and construction. Matching workers to labour shortages abroad appears to offer a practical solution.<\/p>\n<p>But a deeper question emerges. What are the long-term development implications of governments promoting overseas employment as an economic strategy?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/jobs-abroad-or-jobs-in-africa-why-a-focus-on-work-in-other-countries-shouldnt-replace-opportunities-at-home-282616\">Read the full article on The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Picture credit: Elizabeth Lizzie on Pexels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>African governments are increasingly encouraging young people to work abroad. To address youth unemployment at home, for example,\u00a0Ghana\u00a0and\u00a0Kenya have expanded labour mobility agreements with other countries, says Michael Boampong, Visiting Fellow, The Open University. These include Spain, Qatar and Caribbean states. Agreements with\u00a0Gulf countries have largely focused on construction and service-sector jobs. But\u00a0newer partnerships with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":28583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[861,1525,1640,2200],"class_list":["post-28582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-languages-health","tag-faculty-of-stem","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home","tag-the-conversation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28584,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28582\/revisions\/28584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}