These are the top countries South Africans are emigrating to
American think tank, Pew Research, has released a new report on the origins and destinations of the world’s migrants from 1990-2017.
The data is based on international migrant data published by the United Nations. The United Nations uses a taxonomy of nations and territories and classifies migrants born in territories as international migrants, even if their citizenship is different from their territory of birth.
According to the United Nations Population Division, an international migrant is someone who has been living for one year or longer in a country other than the one in which he or she was born.
This means that many foreign workers and international students are counted as migrants. However, tourists, foreign-aid workers, temporary workers employed abroad for less than a year and overseas military personnel typically are not counted as migrants.
Migration
When looking at South Africa’s data, Pew Research found that at least 900,000 people born in South Africa were currently living in other countries in 2017.
For these South Africans the United Kingdom was the destination of choice, with 210,000 migrants as of 2017.
However, it was closely followed by Australia (190,000) and other popular countries including the USA (100,000) and New Zealand (60,000).
| 2017 rank | Country | Migrants |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | 210 000 |
| 2 | Australia | 190 000 |
| 3 | United States | 100 000 |
| 4 | New Zealand | 60 000 |
| 5 | Canada | 50 000 |
| 6 | Angola | 40 000 |
| 7 | Botswana | 40 000 |
| 8 | Chile | 20 000 |
| 9 | Zimbabwe | 20 000 |
| 10 | Germany | 20 000 |
| 11 | Netherlands | 10 000 |
| 12 | Swaziland | 10 000 |
| 13 | Israel | 10 000 |
| 14 | Portugal | 10 000 |
| 15 | Mozambique | <10 000 |
| 16 | Ireland | <10 000 |
| 17 | Malawi | <10 000 |
| 18 | Switzerland | <10 000 |
| 19 | Namibia | <10 000 |
| 20 | Greece | <10 000 |
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