Gone for good — dwindling number of South African emigrants return

My family have been in this country for more than 300yrs - a mixture of hard working Dutch, Scottish and Irish roots with no chance of getting a passport anywhere else, even if I wanted one! The whinging poms, boring Aussies & New Zealanders and uneducated MAGA supporters in the US have absolutely no appeal! Im staying and taking my chances - fighting against racist BEE policies and for better education for all. One thing about this country…it’s not boring! Going to be an interesting ride!

This world of ours has never offered more access for migration, be it health, education, economics or political. Inevitable, the First World looks more attractive to the younger generations and we should not be surprised at the increase of migration across the continents. South Africa has a huge amount to offer, we migrated here nine years ago for the reasons of standard of living, health, climate, activities .. all of which you might consider frivolous, however, one of our best ever decisions. Yes, political uncertainty, crime, corruption and many things required by younger families are disincentives but, each category has worse comparative examples in the First World. Accept this article as merely statistics, which can be interpreted and presented to suit the messenger, know you have many advantages in this country which outweigh the disadvantages, in perceived Utopia.

This world of ours has never offered more access for migration, be it health, education, economics or political. Inevitable, the First World looks more attractive to the younger generations and we should not be surprised at the increase of migration across the continents. South Africa has a huge amount to offer, we migrated here nine years ago for the reasons of standard of living, health, climate, activities .. all of which you might consider frivolous, however, one of our best ever decisions. Yes, political uncertainty, crime, corruption and many things required by younger families are disincentives but, each category has worse comparative examples in the First World. Accept this article as merely statistics, which can be interpreted and presented to suit the messenger, know you have many advantages in this country which outweigh the disadvantages, in perceived Utopia.

Gert, where have you been? I've been saying: most of SA's problems are at municipal level and to a lesser extent with SOEs. I am an ANC member but I will not be voting for the ANC during the local elections. I read that President Ramaphosa has drafted a minimum qualifications bill for local government..just not sure if it's been passed yet. The biggest problem was that most local government politicians were often trained school teachers who used their connections to SADTU to elevate themselves within the ANC. The case we have is that most of our mayors and municipal managers are primary school LO teachers... ? and they have to manage multi billion rand annual budgets. Recipe for disaster maybe?

Hi all, thank you for your insightful comments. Here's my response if you allow: - Shrinking tax base? No. Not going to happen. As long as Wits, UCT, etc exist and are producing graduates annually, this can never be. In fact, SARS just beat their collections target by R10bn. - BBBEE? Smart companies are finding ways to make this policy work for them. Think: bursaries; vendor financing wherein the firm raises additional funds by essentially selling the shares to a black partner, which then applies for funding with the shares as collateral; job creation (read: cheap labour via internships and learnerships), etc. BBBEE works for the brain's trust. - Expropriation without compensation? I'm almost certain all of us will die without having witnessed this expropriation. Why? The law says that the land will have to have been barren for a long time; secondly there'll have to be a sound basis for the state to expropriate the land; and thirdly, there'll have to be a sound reason why some form of compensation is unjustified. Justifying these three points is close to impossible because it's possible that I'll plant maize after hearing of a possible expropriation if my land was barren. Now what? Some form of compensation is warranted; but how much? "Well, I'm planting maize so that I can raise funds to build a residential complex on this land. Here's my business plan". What now? What's the value of my land? - Load shedding? My response is twofold: 1. The root cause of load shedding was Apartheid. Accept it. In 1999 when Eskom first notified the cabinet of the requirements of new powerplants, SA was in dire need of basic services across the board: basic housing, access to electricity, roads, schools, etc. A decision was made to delay these fiscus-draining projects (new powerplants) in a bid to improve the quality of life for every SA'n. They hoped that an agreement would be reached with private companies so that they could take on the construction projects...deals which never materialised. 2. President Ramaphosa's master stroke act of increasing the private citizens' electricity generating capacity is the primary reason why loadshedding will end much sooner than expected if one looks at the renewable projects being undertaken by mining and manufacturing companies, most of which are still under construction but we have already started witnessing a reduction in loadshedding due to those companies that have gone off-grid. -Quality of life overseas? A can of coke costs R30 in New York and I'm told it costs R40 in London. Hopefully you get where I'm going with this. It's R11 here ? - The next Zimbabwe? Hahaha. There are 4000 applications for mining rights pending. Car manufacturers are expanding their assembly plants. The world's biggest retailer, Walmart, bought Game and Makro. The world's second largest non-alcoholic beverage company, Pepsi co., recently bought Pioneer Foods. I can continue. Stop. Being. So. Negative. Please.

Two points: It’s hyperbole that SA migration “gives significant population boost” to hosting countries, e.g., 0.036% in UK is hardly significant. Secondly, I don’t see the significance of categorising per race group, it clarifies nothing except increasing the toxicity in this debate. Residing in a country where I never had to mention my race, I see how helpful this is to social cohesion.

Emigration/immigration - this is a very personal decision that everyone has to make based on their own life situation, perspective and possibilities. As far as the EU countries are concerned, the requirements for legal immigration are relatively high and depend primarily on the ability to integrate into the labor market. Anyone seeking a temporary stay without a work permit must provide proof of the necessary funds and sufficient health insurance. Some visitors are surprised that English is not the lingua franca on the continent; the willingness to learn the language is extremely helpful for successful integration. If I am asked about the opportunities and conditions in South Africa, I refer to the website of the South African embassy and the current travel advice/warnings from the Foreign Office in Berlin, this information corresponds very well with my personal experiences. Emigration is a challenge, more so for a family with a child than for unattached young people. Anyone who can afford it should first get to know the country of their choice through an intensive, short visit rather than just from hearsay.

I moved to SA in 2016 on a critical skills visa and am a permanent resident, but will be leaving this year. People like me aren’t even included in these statistics. The thought of having to pay another cent in taxes to the gluttonous incompenents that supposedly run this country (not to even mention the city of Joburg where I’ve lived for nearly 8 years now) is enough to make me leave. But also the disregard for the environment (why is rubbish being burnt everywhere but nothing done about it — why is there no functioning public transport — why aren’t people driving big polluting SUVs and bakkies incentivised more to drive cleaner vehicles?), the crumbling of public services, the low standard of customer service in most companies, the list goes on. When I wrote to Home Affairs asking why my wife’s application for permanent residence still hadn’t been processed after three years, I got a defensive letter signed by Home Affairs minister Motsoaledi that amounted to “How dare you criticise the government” and “If you don’t like it, you are free to leave South Africa”. Thank you, minister, leave I will. And I’ll be taking my brain and my taxes with me, you short-sighted toad. We had so much hope when we moved here in 2016, but that hope is gone after having seen things go downhill ever since and seeing the complete lack of accountability of the government. I will miss the beautiful nature, the friendly people, the great weather, but that’s not enough to keep me here anymore.

Sometimes I wish I had the intelligence of European.

Strange how stats SA knows where you emigrated to. The day I leave (soon) I won't tell this stupid government where I go. I would also never ever come back to this godforsaken land.