REASONS FOR COLONIAL INVESTORS PREFER THE USE OF MIGRANT LABOUR
It was a cheap: the migrant laborers were paid a little amount of money as wages. It was a meager (hand to mouth) wages. The natives of the production areas could rebuke such as kind of wages.
Less resistant because they worked in a strange place, the circumstance forced them to be humble. This reduced the administrative acts to the colonial investors.
Family obligation: the inter-territorial migrant laborers were free from the stresses brought by the daily family obligations. This made them more efficient than the labor from nearby places.
Easy to keep: The migrant labors were kept in easy camps such as the bachelors rooms within the production areas. They were also supplied with the basic needs which were repaid in through bills during the wages payment day.
They were the easy direct markets for manufactured goods: By grouping the natives in the production areas, the Europeans created the working class which in turn served as the ready market for manufactured goods from Europe.
Constant labor supply: At first place, the colonial investors experiences the problem of lack of constant labor supply in plantations, mines, industries etc. the use of the migrant labor provided the best solution to problems.
Easy collection of taxes and rents: It was easy for the colonial government to tax a well organized labor force as the migrant labor also the labor.
Easy to exploit: The migrant laborers were not very much educated; they were more employed under short time contracts. The laborers education was not improved hence the native migrant labors were paid as low wages and allowed the colonial investor to make profit.
Presence of labor recruiting agencies: This simplified the mobilization of labor force and signing of the contracts e.g. In Tanganyika in 1946, SILABU was established for recruiting workers from various labor places of colonial Tanganyika, the SWANLA for recruiting migrant labor to work in South African mines, the WENALA, the TEBA and others agencies. There were many agencies across the continent.
