How the West is losing the visa war
Tough talk on borders may win elections, but incoherent visa rules are costing Western economies the young talent and skills they need – and handing the initiative to the rest of the world.
Western leaders face a dilemma: to win elections, they must appear uncompromising on border control and migration. Yet, if their countries are to remain competitive across most supply chains, they urgently need to attract young talent and a wide range of skills. The result: inconsistent and irrational visa policies.
Visas — once a technocratic footnote in migration debates — have now become a central political and diplomatic battleground between ‘the West and the rest’. And the West is certainly not winning.
US President Donald Trump set the scene by imposing a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, as well as travel bans, visa curbs and extortionate fees for applicants from several countries – many in Africa – in part as a bargaining counter in his efforts to make African countries accept deportees from the US. Ghana and other nations appear to have succumbed to this pressure.
The United Kingdom is following suit … well, sort of: the Home Secretary has just announced visa restrictions for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Namibia to incentivise returns as part of the asylum-policy crackdown.
However, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also exploring cutting visa fees entirely for top-tier professionals, while at the same time making it nearly impossible for recent graduates to remain in the UK and contribute to its economy.
…if I need a visa to come to your country, you will need one to visit mine and it will cost you
Yet, in a desperate attempt to retain much-needed tech workers, the UK government has now made another U-turn and will allow some international students, including many Africans, to switch from a student visa to an innovator founder visa without returning home, because the economy desperately needs them.
This is a very Western mess and the rest of the world is not impressed, especially Africa where the financial and human costs of unequal and ineffective visa regimes are just staggering. Recent analysis by LAGO Collective reveals that in 2024, European short-stay visa rejections cost applicants €145m ($168m): €60m was paid by Africans alone in non-refundable fees.
In the UK, rejected visitor visa applications cost £50.7m ($67m) in fees in 2024, up from £44m in 2023. Of the £6m difference, £2m is the cost increase for Nigeria alone. These rejected visa fees function as ‘reverse remittances’ — money flowing from poorer to richer nations: which is ironic at best, if not infuriating, given that the poorer the country of Schengen visa application, the higher the rejection rates, with African countries the most affected.
Unsurprisingly, this has infuriated many on the African continent, where people and countries are taking action, from demanding refunds of rejected visa fees to establishing reciprocal arrangements along the lines of: ‘If I need a visa to come to your country, you will need one to visit mine and it will cost you.’
Beyond retribution, one African country after another is implementing visa-free travel. Rwanda and Kenya have led the way for all Africans, and Nigeria has recently extended visa-free entry as part of a landmark deal with Caribbean nations. While continental free movement and the African Union-backed African passport are still works in progress, Africa is moving forward and the so-called West is sliding backwards.
Passport inequality and unequal visa regimes are not a zero sum game and nobody is a winner. While voters in the US and Europe may be led to believe that their leaders are just protecting their borders, in reality we all lose out. Artists are unable to exhibit their work at international fairs, scholars cannot present their research at conferences, hotel rooms remain empty and business deals cannot be closed.
There is no point discussing debt, trade, tourism, investment and especially the future of international cooperation without a fairer, more reciprocal deal on human mobility.
Surely this is an agenda in which Africa should take the lead and show the way to the world.
with Marta Foresti, first published at The Africa Report