{"id":305302,"date":"2019-03-16T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T06:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=305302"},"modified":"2019-03-19T09:36:22","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T07:36:22","slug":"south-africas-massive-immigration-problem-dawie-roodt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/305302\/south-africas-massive-immigration-problem-dawie-roodt\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa&#8217;s massive immigration problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For every skilled professional coming to South Africa, eight are leaving.<\/p>\n<p>This was the major finding of an Enterprise Observatory of South Africa (EOSA) report <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/292626\/for-every-skilled-professional-coming-to-south-africa-8-are-leaving\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">released<\/a> <\/strong>in January.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers found that while a large number of white professionals were making the jump, in recent years, the annual number of black professionals leaving South Africa exceeds the tally of professional white emigrants.<\/p>\n<p>The EOSA estimated that between 1989 and 2003, over 120,000 of the 520,000 mainly white emigrants had professional qualifications (one in four) and SA lost 7% of its total stock of professionals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsidering that the 1990 to 2003 emigration of skills continued despite the return of stabilisation under Mandela and Mbeki, one can easily state that at least a similar number of white professional people have left between 2004 and 2018 \u2013 amounting to at least a quarter million of white professionals,&#8221; said Johannes Wessels, director of EOSA.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;(However), the last phase of the Zuma catastrophe as well as the embrace by the ANC of expropriation without compensation have led to an acceleration of skilled emigration &#8211; this time from all race groups.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Damage to the economy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to BusinessTech chief economist at the Efficient Group, Dawie Roodt, said that the number of skilled South Africans leaving the country is a massive problem for the economy.<\/p>\n<p>He said that this has been exacerbated by South Africa&#8217;s current immigration policies and the restrictions on workers trying to enter the country.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;South Africa cannot attract skilled foreigners to come and work in the country,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we talk about skilled foreigners I don&#8217;t just mean guys with PhDs, I also mean plumbers and other trade workers who typically come from other African countries who are also finding it difficult to enter the country.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Without a doubt, we are losing a lot of highly-skilled and normally skilled South Africans of all races.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Roodt said that this was not only due to the country&#8217;s politics, but also due to its poor economy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the end of the day, people with skills want to ensure that they have a financial future in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;However, they also want to feel welcome, safe, and that their children have access to quality education and medical treatment &#8211; and I am afraid this country is facing certain challenges when it comes to those things. &#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/303546\/a-record-number-of-south-africans-have-applied-for-a-second-passport-heres-where-theyre-going\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> A record number of South Africans have applied for a second passport \u2013 here\u2019s where they\u2019re going<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s restrictive immigration laws are making it difficult for the country to draw the skills it desperately needs, says Dawie Roodt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":290474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[1459,2562,13840,26],"class_list":["post-305302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-dawie-roodt","tag-efficient-group","tag-eosa","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305302"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306010,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305302\/revisions\/306010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}