Do you know any one who has emigrated??

[jansdejager]

The thought of packing up my typewriter, photo albums and Betamax collection will dissuade me from permanently closing up shop m'afraid

 

[scudsucker]

I emigrated.

From Zimbabwe, to RSA. Best move of my life.

 

[AchmatK]

My wife was born in the UK and moved to SA when she was 4. She has a settlement visa for the UK but this expired last month when her SA passport expired. Courier her application to the UK for her British passport last week and looking at leaving by the end of next year.

Many of my friends that left have not returned. My plan is however to eventually return but only to retire.

 

[Sinbad]

I emigrated.

From Zimbabwe, to RSA. Best move of my life.

Lol... Out of the frying pan into the fire is the phrase that springs to mind

 

[mercurial]

I emigrated.

From Zimbabwe, to RSA. Best move of my life.

Everything is relative...

 

[Brawler]

Dozens.

Only people who came back were family orientated people.

 

[AlphaBravo]

3 friends with families to OZ
2 family members to New-Z
3 cousins to UK

Noon coming back

 

[BobsLawnService]

Quite a few of my family members. UK, Australia and New Zealand.

None would dream about coming back.

The one thing that all of them mention is that you don't realize what a psychological strain the constant background radiation of petty crime causes.

Also less people trying to drag the country back into the stone age.

 

[zippy]

I left about 6 years ago to live in the UK.

Started out in London.

I live on south east coast now.

My family is all in SA. Try to visit once a year.

I doubt I will return to SA to live. But I never say "never". You just never know how things will turn out in the future.

In the process of buying property in the UK.

I always thought I would return to SA while in the process of emigrating. But when I visited SA for the first time since leaving, I realised the difference. SA is just way too tense. I'm sure there are better places than England to live, but I'm comfortable here and its easy to travel to the continent.

 

[cguy]

Just want to put the question out there.
How many do you know, how did it turn out for them, have you considered emigrating your self, whats holding you back and so on.........?

My wife and I did emigrate over 10 years ago. I have lived and worked in the US (primarily)and UK. A majority of my matric, honours, masters and PhD colleagues have left the country, and very few have come back. It was quite hard at the beginning - despite an exorbitant salary by SA standards, cost of living (Silicon Valley) was very high and I also had (and have) dependent family in SA and a bond to pay off over there at the time. Fortunately, (although I didn't realize this at the time) it was just a starter salary, and things got much better shortly after - professionally, I am doing very well now. I miss some aspects of SA, but visit every 2 years or so, and fly up family to visit in the years in between.

I was chatting to a old school friend who matriculated 2005 and he said that in his class of 18 he knew only one person who had stayed in SA, I matriculated in 07 and about 5 people i know have made the trek out of SA. So is this common how bad was the brain drain in reality?

There is and isn't a brain drain - many of the more educated folk are leaving, but it's not as though there is really that much demand for high level skills (people post-grad and/or extensive experience), that I would think it would be affecting growth. If there were, SA would be able to compete (at least at a cost-of-living adjusted level). There may be some unseen opportunity cost to not having as many of those people local though.

 

[chrisc]

Two familes went to Australia, are still there and doing extremely well
One went to Canada for 5 years and is back now
One went to Switzerland, was intending to come back but has changed her mind and been there 12 years now
One went to the Philippines and says they like it, a bit hot though (but extremely cheap)
Last fellow went to live in Thailand, married a Thai girl and now has 3 kids, I don't think he will return. Most beautiful children I've seen

 

[Nicodeamus]

My neighbours moved to Canada, their children came back after they were grown up and some of them stay in SA, non of my family moved away, some of them went over to work overseas for 6 months + but came back afterwards, they wanted the experience. We are all quite happy here.

 

[Sinbad]

For me it's not about being happy or unhappy here. I love it here, mostly. However I'm genuinely worried about the future and am not sure I want to take the risk of being old and stuck here.

 

[w1z4rd]

My neighbours moved to Canada, their children came back after they were grown up and some of them stay in SA, non of my family moved away, some of them went over to work overseas for 6 months + but came back afterwards, they wanted the experience. We are all quite happy here.

Yup, we are pretty much the same. With my wife been a doctor and I running a business or two, we could move anywhere in the world. we have chosen to stay here. If Canada had more sunshine, we might consider the possibility. But right now we have a very high quality of life. We live in a good leafy suburb in a large house with a pool/solar heating, next to us are three really high quality schools. We dont really have crime issues and feel safe. We are 1km away from one of the best surfing beaches in the world. I can eat a big ass steak and have some of the best beer in the world without breaking my bank account.

There is no way we could have this high a quality of life while been abroad. If we moved anywhere else we would have to compromise our lifestyle in some way.

People have been telling me since 91 that 'zomg we ganna die!'... yet our lives get better every year. I know this is not true for everyone, but it is for us. Saying that, if things really got too bad (which I dont believe it will), we could always move to the EU (I have a passport) or Manila (my wifes family). I really dont expect that to happen though.

I do think that working abroad is a really important thing to do. It gives you perspective. Like when I lived in a real 3rd world country (South Africans are a little clueless on this)... I really got a whole new appreciation for what I have at home. UK is not an option for us. **** weather, horrible beaches, expensive food... all the woman that go there seem to get instant fat injections and the guys turn into alcoholics. There is not enough money in the world for us to live there

 

[Jola]

I had an Oz PR permit some years ago, but I couldn't go because of my kids.

Now I really regret that, more so for the kids, that was a huge disfavour for them. But I was blocked by the ex.

 

[Jola]

@ghoti : It makes a huge difference if you have the ability to leave because of foreign passports, etc.

In a perverse way, if you have the ability to go, then you can stay.

It is the people who don't have that ability who should go as soon as, and if, they can.

 

[w1z4rd]

@ghoti : It makes a huge difference if you have the ability to leave because of foreign passports, etc.

In a perverse way, if you have the ability to go, then you can stay.

It is the people who don't have that ability who should go as soon as, and if, they can.

They should go and get passports if that worries them. This is one of the reasons I recommend they go abroad and get perspective. Anyways, I only travel on my SA passport. Ive never been stopped at customs with it

Many countries will accept South African refugees if things got really bad. Canada, Sweden, Finland... all of them would be open to (real) political refugees. Not like that ****twit in Canada who claimed he would be killed if he returned to SA.

 

[Nicodeamus]

@ghoti : It makes a huge difference if you have the ability to leave because of foreign passports, etc.

In a perverse way, if you have the ability to go, then you can stay.

It is the people who don't have that ability who should go as soon as, and if, they can.

I do not have any duel citizenship and my family (last year) has been in SA for 300 years. We don't have any plans on leaving.

 

[raind33r]

I know quite a few people, most do not come back

 

[drkev]

I left for over a decade... came back and have no intention of leaving.

Some family and friends who left were adamant they would "Never go back to that place" and are back now.

Others left and are doing worse for themselves in Australia / New Zealand than they were doing in SA, but refuse to admit in their circumstances they are worse off.

A colleague's son lives in Australia and apparently he never has spare funds at the end of the month due to huge childcare costs etc etc etc and he has a doctorate in Computer Science working for a large firm.