The American dream is not all it is cut out to be and some Africans are turning their backs on life in the US.

Frustrated by tough economic times in the United States, Sammy Maina is packed, ready and waiting to return to Kenya.

"I'm fed up and finished with the US," declares Mr Maina, 33, owner of a prepaid calling card firm, Myaatel, and a money transfer company, Doubles Xpress, that caters for African immigrants.

But with money scarce because of the recession, fewer and fewer immigrants can afford to purchase his international phone cards or pay to use his money transfer services.

"People here don't have money any more," complains Mr Maina, who says the "American Dream" of a big house, flashy car and piles of money was unrealistic.

Instead he found long hours, little pay and limited joy.

Life in America is so demanding, says Mr Maina, that it has cost several of his African friends their marriages and even led some to commit suicide.

"It is very difficult right now and so many people are packing and going back to Kenya in big, big numbers."

'Little Senegal'
There are an estimated one million Africans in the US.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

You are very unlikely to find Africans who have settled in the US giving up the insurance policy of a green card or US citizenship to completely transfer their lives back to Africa”

Kathleen Newland
Migration Policy Institute
According to the homeland security department, 130,000 Africans migrate legally to the US each year.

It is impossible to say how many returnees there are, as the evidence is anecdotal but representatives of African community associations in New York, Atlanta and Boston all say they know of large numbers of expatriates making plans to leave the US.

The reason: they cannot find jobs and have become desperate about their future here.

New York's Association of Senegalese in America has been inundated with requests from expatriates who have lost their jobs, are facing homelessness, and who want financial help to return home.

Dame Sy, a volunteer with the association, says members donate money to buy aeroplane tickets to send home Senegalese who are down on their luck in New York.

"We just sent one home in January and before that we sent between 12 and 15 last year," explains Mr Sy. "Everyday, people are talking about it."

At the association's offices in the "Little Senegal" section of Harlem, in New York, I was introduced to a 41-year-old illegal immigrant called Ndoum.

She has been having a very difficult time in the US, she says, and would happily go home to Dakar if she could find the money for a plane ticket.

Before the recession it was possible for an undocumented immigrant like her to find a menial job in a factory. Unable now to find work, and in constant fear of being seized by immigration police, Ndoum does not know what to do.

"I tell people: 'Don't come to the US now'," she says tearfully.

'Sweet Liberia'
Kenyan Irene Onyango is a 37-year-old nurse living in Delaware, near Washington DC. Her income sometimes barely covers her bills. She is also concerned that working a 16-hour day is damaging her health.


"Africans in the US will leave in record numbers." predicts pastor Shadrach Deline
When she goes to Kenya on holiday, her friends refuse to let her pay for anything because they say she has to slave to earn her money in the US.

Now that the Kenyan constitution has been amended to allow dual citizenship, Ms Onyango says she can go home and not worry that should she need to return to the US one day, she will be stopped.

"Believe me," she says, "the next plane that goes to Jomo Kenyatta airport will have me on it."

But migration expert Kathleen Newland, a director of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington DC, says what Ms Onyango and other Africans resident in the US are doing when they return to Africa, is not reverse migration.

Ms Newland says this is better described as "the formation of transnational populations" - people who keep a foot on two continents.

"I think you are very unlikely to find Africans who have settled in the US giving up the insurance policy of a green card or US citizenship to completely transfer their lives back to Africa," Ms Newland says.

What transnational people like Ms Onyango will do, she adds, is divide their lives between two places.

Continue reading the main story
Focus on Africa

Focus on Africa is broadcast by the BBC World Service
Download World Service Africa podcasts
More from BBC World Service
"What it does tell us about Africa is there is a lot more hope and optimism about the economic prospects," she says.

Liberian singer and pastor Shadrach Deline is one of several African expatriates in the US to recently release a song expressing a longing for Africa.

In Tomorrow I Am Going Home, Deline, a pastor of the Nation of Christ Believers' Fellowship Center in Atlanta, Georgia, sings he has "sweated hard" in the US. Now it is time for him to "sell his house, sell his car, sell his boat" and go home to "sweet, sweet Liberia".

In the video, Deline removes his Western-style three-piece suit and puts on an African robed garment.

Deline says the song's message resonates with African expatriates because no matter how comfortable an exile they enjoy, an African will always yearn for home.

"There will come a time," he says "when Africans will not even bother coming to the US because life will be so beautiful back in Africa. There will be no need to ever leave."

Leslie Goffe is a freelance journalist based in New York


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12810828

No Place Like Home.

Things are tough in the U.S. No one is exempt. Perhaps Africans can take whatever

education and skills learned in the U.S. and apply them in their country; possibly

make things better there for other Africans as well.

I don't know why they want to come back when things are tough for them, they should have work till everything is good before coming back to africa, so if it is difficult in africa now, maybe they will be thinking of heaven or MARS.

Well in US it is just the economical problem, but in africa you will deal with more i.e political, social, education, just to name a few.

@Dell_net
I think most till aspiring moving there, they are returning with something and not nothing.

lovejo:

Liberian singer and pastor Shadrach Deline is one of several African expatriates in the US to recently release a song expressing a longing for Africa.

In Tomorrow I Am Going Home, Deline, a pastor of the Nation of Christ Believers' Fellowship Center in Atlanta, Georgia, sings he has "sweated hard" in the US. Now it is time for him to "sell his house, sell his car, sell his boat" and go home to "sweet, sweet Liberia".

In the video, Deline removes his Western-style three-piece suit and puts on an African robed garment.

Deline says the song's message resonates with African expatriates because no matter how comfortable an exile they enjoy, an African will always yearn for home.

"There will come a time," he says "when Africans will not even bother coming to the US because life will be so beautiful back in Africa. There will be no need to ever leave."

This is the one that really cracks me up! What a clown.

@Topic,
One wonders if these economic migrants are not fleeing debt, legal status, or something else. It's not like the sun has started shining different for Mama Afrika.

its a spiritual connection. america is a harsh place. i can see why an african will run back home after a while. cant quite say the same about britain though. the africans in britain love the place to death. life is more relaxed and fulfilling.

Are Nigerians also returning home in droves?

See, i don't know what you guys are saying, my own is very simple, you should all stay back there ooo, dont start coming back to 9ja in droves. I am warning Y'll. Home is best now that there is recession abi?, when things look up you guys will run away again abi?, leave us alone to salvage this country that we believe in. We have dug in and we are making slow progress, dont just come and destabilize the success we have made of our lives and this country so far. This is because from experience, rather than eat a humble pie when you come back, una go begin equate everything with, 'if it was in Houston Texas, if it was, '' Abeg ooo

snowdrops:

Are Nigerians also returning home in droves?

yes oooo. but they are not running to nigeria. they are running to ghana

buzugee:

yes oooo. but they are not running to nigeria. they are running to ghana

And what's your evidence that they are in Ghana?

@ hardbody

Don't take out ur frustrations on any returnee. It's not their fault the embassy denied you visa lol.

Seriously a broken America remains a much better prospect than the Nigeria our leaders have left people with today. Nevertheless there is no place like home.

snowdrops:

@ hardbody

Don't take out your frustrations on any returnee. It's not their fault the embassy denied you visa lol.

Seriously a broken America remains a much better prospect than the Nigeria our leaders have left people with today. Nevertheless there is no place like home.

i know at least 20 like that. apparently ghana is a kick azz place. nice houses, organized, no wahala, low crime, etc etc . i have also met many nigerio-chicagoans who plan on going to ghana to settle down. this guy (ndigbo guy) has a medical supplies store on wilson right beside truman college. the guy was yarning me about how sweet ghana is. he says he has a house there and will retire there. we spoke at length. cool guy

Truth is, no matter where you are in the world, things are always tough. Time and chance can make the difference, though.

buzugee

i take it u are so uptight you cant take a joke. Anyways, we are saying the same thing, if a broken america holds a far better prospect than Nigeria, stick it up and remain there, dont come and add to our woes. But on a more serious note buddy, I have never applied for US Visa before oo, but UK na my backyard. I tend to understand those ones betterthan that una US that claims to be a land of opportunities. Next,

@buzugee, my error

@snowdrops I pity ya life. If i wan go US, na when dem dey beg us come over na him i 4 don go, I felt i could make something out of this place and so far i am not disappointed. And yes Ghana is good too, i spend some weekends there, and guess what, in my personal house in an Accra surbub. Nid i say more? I built that house working from 9ja.

ol boy, naija sweet and get opportunities if u sabi wia to tap in and when. QED

How come Nigerians arent coming back home? I'll say these other African immigrants arent as sharp as Naija boys, who have a higher determination to survive and make a better living

@ hardbody

Congratulations then. You have done well for yourself. I would really like to know your experience of Ghana. What challenges have you faced so far. How friendly are the locals?

hardbody:

@buzugee, my error

@snowdrops I pity ya life. If i wan go US, na when dem dey beg us come over na him i 4 don go, I felt i could make something out of this place and so far i am not disappointed. And yes Ghana is good too, i spend some weekends there, and guess what, in my personal house in an Accra surbub. Nid i say more? I built that house working from 9ja.

ol boy, naija sweet and get opportunities if u sabi wia to tap in and when. QED

can i rent ya boysquarters in accra
accra is so sweet even african americans are rushing and relocating their in droves.http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/photo.day.php?ID=73241

Hmmmmmm, RATHER BE A LION IN THE JUNGLE THAN A DOG IN THE CITY!!!

still planning to visit America next year, i need to see myself before i believe .

Different strokes for different folks

How could I ever understand Nigerians going to settle in Ghana. You´re leaving a foreign country for another worst foreign country where you´re detested like shit. Ghanaians don´t like us and Nigeria is 100 times better than Ghana (forget fake african organisation) I grew up in Germany but my last bus stop will be naija (my fatherland) of course we can apreciate the progress in Ghana but I would never go and settle in another African country like Ghana or South A.


I would even recommend europe to bros & sis getting away from the US fraustrations, I know many Americans living here in Germany that would never return to the US, they can as well try Belgium if they don´t like Germany, maybe (Brussels or Antwerp) those cities are wonderful cities to live in for black people & africans. I go run for one Oyinbo country, kon go follow up for Ghana again? ne! I don´t know how it is in the US o but here in Germany, they hate us and we always shako to them & show them why we´re better than them as Nigerians. Here it´s competition between Nigerians, Black americans & Ghanains but we show them we´re superior

Bavarian:

How could I ever understand Nigerians going to settle in Ghana. You´re leaving a foreign country for another worst foreign country where you´re detested like poo. Ghanaians don´t like us and Nigeria is 100 times better than Ghana (forget fake african organisation) I grew up in Germany but my last bus stop will be naija (my fatherland) of course we can apreciate the progress in Ghana but I would never go and settle in another African country like Ghana or South A.


I would even recommend europe to bros & sis getting away from the US fraustrations, I know many Americans living here in Germany that would never return to the US, they can as well try Belgium if they don´t like Germany, maybe (Brussels or Antwerp) those cities are wonderful cities to live in for black people & africans. I go run for one Oyinbo country, kon go follow up for Ghana again? ne! I don´t know how it is in the US o but here in Germany, they hate us and we always shako to them & show them why we´re better than them as Nigerians. Here it´s competition between Nigerians, Black americans & Ghanains but we show them we´re superior

bruv, i will pick ghana over germany anyday. i have been to germany. tis not a 'homely'place.

snowdrops:

Are Nigerians also returning home in droves?

Hardly in droves. Though these days a lot more people are coming back than are leaving, I'd say.

@buzegee


Are you saying you´ll be economically better off & you´ll get bailed out if you run out of cash in Ghana or you just mean living happily in an African soceity? I don´t know which city you´ve been to in Germany but maybe some cities are not so multi-cultural but the only western country you can have more fun as much as in Germany is the US. Germany is the USA of europe and it beats the UK a 100 times. I lived in the UK for 4 years and I know you can´t compare Germany to it. Of course there´s no doubt that Germany, as a 85 million "white country" with around 4 million ethnic minority, is kind of a very oyinbo country, but you can´t miss Germany with the economy, jobs,business friendliness, entreprenuer spirit/mentality,social security, safety, standard of living, and how much fun you can have with a lot of tall beautiful blonde girls & party life. I think life is different if you visit a big city like Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne etc, let me know if you would like to visit once again bro, I live in Munich.

Bavarian:

@buzegee


Are you saying you´ll be economically better off & you´ll get bailed out if you run out of cash in Ghana or you just mean living happily in an African soceity? I don´t know which city you´ve been to in Germany but maybe some cities are not so multi-cultural but the only western country you can have more fun as much as in Germany is the US. Germany is the USA of europe and it beats the UK a 100 times. I lived in the UK for 4 years and I know you can´t compare Germany to it. Of course there´s no doubt that Germany, as a 85 million "white country" with around 4 million ethnic minority, is kind of a very oyinbo country, but you can´t miss Germany with the economy, jobs,business friendliness, entreprenuer spirit/mentality,social security, safety, standard of living, and how much fun you can have with a lot of tall beautiful blonde girls & party life. I think life is different if you visit a big city like Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne etc, let me know if you would like to visit once again bro, I live in Munich.

i was in aachen and dusseldorf. didnt quite like the kinda jobs black people did there. they were doing factory work. they also lived on boats and makeshift quarters in squalor with a bunch of turks etc etc. then again this was the nineties. maybe it is different now. but having said that, i still would prefer ghana. of course in ghana there is no social security but i am talking of when you are 'made' not when you are struggling.

@buzegee


I get your point, of course it´s different now & those cities are not top cities in Germany anyway, I don´t even know any Nigerian factory worker here we have IT pros, Doctors, Engineers,Scientists, Entreprenuers or people with normal jobs. I´ve lived in 5 different western countries & I´ve visited many, Germany is the no 1 country in the world to live in, although life is bad everywhere nowadays without proper education or capital. I mean, I didn´t see anything I could dump Nigeria for in Ghana apart from lower crime rate & besides I hate the fact that they hate us that much there! maybe I´m just too proud & patriotic for it. But I understand, it´s a matter of taste.

Bavarian:

@buzegee


I get your point, of course it´s different now & those cities are not top cities in Germany anyway, I don´t even know any Nigerian factory worker here we have IT pros, Doctors, Engineers,Scientists, Entreprenuers or people with normal jobs. I´ve lived in 5 different western countries & I´ve visited many, Germany is the no 1 country in the world to live in, although life is bad everywhere nowadays without proper education or capital. I mean, I didn´t see anything I could dump Nigeria for in Ghana apart from lower crime rate & besides[b] I hate the fact that they hate us that much there[/b]! maybe I´m just too proud & patriotic for it. But I understand, it´s a matter of taste.

but you dont hate the fact that the germans hate you that much too   so long as you dey see euro chop you go conveniently tuck ya pride  and patriotism inside ya pocket. or maybe you will rather be hated by a white man than a black man ? racial pride issues ? self esteem issues ? i just dey yank ya chain bruv

Bleep home;make cash! Naija for Life