Highly-skilled people leave SA

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Highly-skilled people leave SA​


SA is experiencing a brain drain as highly-skilled people leave the country.

A UN report showed that between 2015 and 2020, just under a million South Africans were living abroad, with that number expected to grow.

Wits School of Governance Professor William Gumede unpacks this further.


 
Immigration New Zealand's statistics for selections of Expressions of Interest for the Skilled Migrant Category are interesting in this regard. Whereas India and China have historically been the leading nationalities applying for this visa (with South Africa usually in around 3rd or 4th place), the past three months have seen South African applicants as the leading nationality, with 20% of all applications in the May 2023 selection.

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Kelerei said:
Immigration New Zealand's statistics for selections of Expressions of Interest for the Skilled Migrant Category are interesting in this regard. Whereas India and China have historically been the leading nationalities applying for this visa (with South Africa usually in around 3rd or 4th place), the past three months have seen South African applicants as the leading nationality, with 20% of all applications in the May 2023 selection.
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Interesting. A lot of accountants seem to go to NZ.
 
I wonder what the total percentage of the SA population is living abroad.

Yip, in the next couple of years, south african emigration will spike. Hopefully I will also be part of this statistic pretty soon.
 
koeks525 said:
Yip, in the next couple of years, south african emigration will spike. Hopefully I will also be part of this statistic pretty soon.
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Well, yes. Some countries are having population shortages so will welcome people but this could change depending on the development of AI and remote jobs.

Any countries you have in mind?
 
koeks525 said:
I wonder what the total percentage of the SA population is living abroad.

Yip, in the next couple of years, south african emigration will spike. Hopefully I will also be part of this statistic pretty soon.
Click to expand...

JuliusSeizure said:
Well, yes. Some countries are having population shortages so will welcome people but this could change depending on the development of AI and remote jobs.

Any countries you have in mind?
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Come to the Netherlands. Saffas highly sought after here and lots of work.

I'm on a few FB groups which assist with advice and work etc etc. Approx 4 new arrivals every week for the last year.

Everyone always focuses on Oz and NZ and maybe Canada...but ignore EU stats at your own peril.
 
JuliusSeizure said:
Well, yes. Some countries are having population shortages so will welcome people but this could change depending on the development of AI and remote jobs.

Any countries you have in mind?
Click to expand...
I am pretty sure I have seen a few countries introduce new "remote-work" VISAs, to keep up with the times. Not exactly sure what the SA government is doing (if they are doing anything at all) to attract/retain talent.

Most likely Canada if I can make things happen. My reason to seek emigration isn't really because of load shedding and other SA issues (crime, corruption, etc.); every country has its fair share of problems, and I think that emigration is tougher than people make it out to be. I guess I feel like exploring a bit, and I don't have strong reasons to stay anymore (or at least the reasons I once had are not valid reasons anymore). I have been saving up money for the last year and a half, so I have just enough for myself, hahaha.
 
JuliusSeizure said:
Well, yes. Some countries are having population shortages so will welcome people but this could change depending on the development of AI and remote jobs.

Any countries you have in mind?
Click to expand...

China has a population issue. The need more younger people to work. But I don’t think their immigration process is easy.
 
Priapus said:
Highly skilled people have been leaving for decades and an article like this comes up every few years.
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If you total all the migration in all the articles, it would probably exceed population of South africa. Considering we still have 55 million seffricans+ 3 trillion zimbabweans, that must be quite something of a migration.
 
JuliusSeizure said:
I think China's process to work there is actually easier than most countries. The issue is that you can't plan on settling there as you have to move out once your work VISA ends. Most people go there to make money but not settle long-term.
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Learning Chinese is not the top of the alluring option for me, personally speaking. :cool:
 
JuliusSeizure said:
I think China's process to work there is actually easier than most countries. The issue is that you can't plan on settling there as you have to move out once your work VISA ends. Most people go there to make money but not settle long-term. If you are young, have no baggage and want to try something different, I'd say go for China. Low cost of living and they pay foreigners good salaries.

If you have a family, it's not recomended.
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Oh, I didn’t know you couldn’t settle there. Seems a bit silly.
 
surface said:
Learning Chinese is not the top of the alluring option for me, personally speaking. :cool:
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Well, for a lot of foreigner centred jobs in China, you don't need Chinese. Knowing Chinese does help a lot though as you will be functionally illiterate if not and will need someone to help you get around and with paperwork.
 
surface said:
If you total all the migration in all the articles, it would probably exceed population of South africa. Considering we still have 55 million seffricans+ 3 trillion zimbabweans, that must be quite something of a migration.
Click to expand...

Our birth rate is high. We are adding 1 million people a year to the population on average. Where countries like the UK with a net migration of 600k, their population grows around 200k to 300k per year. Or 0.34%

So even if a million people leave a year from SA - our population won’t decline that much due to huge birth rate.
 
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