14
World Bank Working Paper
Undocumented Ugandans engage in blue-collar work such as cleaning, porter, and moving. Undocumented workers and low-skilled migrant workers earn less than ₤1,500 a month.4 Companies that are in labor-intensive work and face low retention rates appear to hire undocumented and low-skilled workers to fulfill their needs. Some undocumented workers find that they receive much lower wages than documented workers in the same workplace because employers take advantage of their lack of documentation.5 The Ugandan communities in the United Kingdom tend to be divided and organized along ethnicity, tribes, and clans. The community is broadly divided in half: the Bantu speakers from the South and the Nilotics from the North. Clan members are regarded as family and offer a close-knit support network to the fellow migrants. With many still separated from their families, Ugandans maintain strong links. Sending money home to support family and relatives is a standard practice. Ugandans form ethnic-oriented associations to support their own population in the United Kingdom as well as in Uganda. Ugandan ethnic associations have developed programs to support their home communities. Associations of Ugandans from the northern and eastern regions strongly support their communities because these regions are less economically developed. The Iteso Welfare Association was formed in the 1990s as a Diaspora group. Registered as a nonprofit organization in the United Kingdom in 1999, the Association supports Iteso Ugandans in the United Kingdom and engages in community development in the Teso region in eastern Uganda and in some parts of Kenya. Remittance Sending: The United States
Compared to other regions, Africa receives a small proportion of remi ances from the United States. This is a consequence of the relatively small proportion of African-born population in the United States. Of the foreign-born population in the United States, Africa accounts for only 2.8 percent, while Latin America and Asia account for 51.7 percent and 26.4 percent, respectively (Table 2.1). According to the 2000 United States Census, 11,740 people born in Uganda were living in the United States. This figure includes both naturalized American citizens and non-American citizens. Of the 11,740 Ugandans, 6,310 (53.7 percent) were black or African American; 4,350 (37.1 percent) were Asians; and 400 (3.4 percent) were white. Figure 2.2 illustrates the Ugandan-born population by period of entry to the United States (based on the 2000 United States Census): 5,590 Ugandans living in the United States entered between 1990–2000; 3,030 entered between 1980–1989; and 3,120 entered before 1980. It is estimated that approximately twenty-four thousand Ugandans have entered and remained in the United States since the 2000 United States Census. Available statistics show
Table 2.1. Foreign-Born Population in the United States, 2000 Region Africa Asia Europe
Population
Percentage of Total
881,300
2.8
8,226,255
26.4
4,915,555
15.8
16,086,975
51.7
Northern America
829,440
2.7
Oceania
168,045
0.5
31,107,570
100.0
Latin America
Total Source: 2000 United States Census.