{"id":647249,"date":"2022-11-29T12:59:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T10:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=647249"},"modified":"2022-11-29T13:05:53","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T11:05:53","slug":"this-south-african-city-just-ranked-as-the-worst-in-the-world-for-expats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/647249\/this-south-african-city-just-ranked-as-the-worst-in-the-world-for-expats\/","title":{"rendered":"This South African city just ranked as the worst in the world for expats"},"content":{"rendered":"

The InterNations Expat Insider for 2022<\/a> has ranked Johannesburg as the worst city in the world for expats to settle in.<\/p>\n

The annual ranking is based on a survey run by InterNations, polling expats on their views of various destinations across five topical indices: Quality of Life, Ease of Settling In, Working Abroad, Personal Finance, and Expat Essentials.<\/p>\n

For 2022, a total of 11,970 expats participated in the survey, representing 177 nationalities and living in 181 countries or territories.<\/p>\n

For a country to be listed in any of the indices and in the overall ranking, a sample size of at least 50 survey participants per destination is required. In 2022, 52 destinations were ranked, with South Africa sitting at 46th overall.<\/p>\n

Safety and security are the biggest worries for expats living in South Africa, InterNations said, with a strained job market and bleak career prospects adding to the negatives. The country also lands in the bottom three for political stability (51st), with 43% of expats rating this factor negatively, compared to just 15% globally.<\/p>\n

However, South Africa has some wins with an affordable housing market and good leisure and social activities – despite bureaucracy getting in the way of the former, and a generally unfriendly position on foreigners hampering the latter.<\/p>\n

In the cities ranking, two South African cities were included in the ranking of 50: Cape Town, which ranked 32nd on the overall list, and Johannesburg, which ranked stone last at 50th.<\/p>\n

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Johannesburg<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Johannesburg is the world\u2019s worst city for expats and is outperformed by Cape Town in all respects,” InterNations said, adding that it performed poorly across all indices.<\/p>\n

The city ranked as the worst city worldwide in the Quality of Life Index (50th), with expats reporting extreme unhappiness with the affordability (25% unhappy vs. 15% globally) and availability (39% vs. 17% globally) of public transportation.<\/p>\n

Close to three in five (59%) do not find it easy and safe to get around by foot and\/or bicycle (vs 13% globally) \u2014 32% even describe it as extremely unsafe – eight times the global average (4%).<\/p>\n

“The city ranks last worldwide for both this factor and personal safety in general: 62% do not feel safe in Johannesburg, compared to 9% globally,” InterNations said.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

In the Working Abroad Index, Johannesburg ranks 49th, only ahead of Istanbul (50th).<\/p>\n

Expats rated the local job market (38% unhappy vs 27% globally) and their personal career opportunities (29% vs 22% globally) negatively, and about a quarter (24%) say that moving there has not improved their career prospects (vs 18% globally).<\/p>\n

“Since expats in Johannesburg also tend to be dissatisfied with their job security, the state of the economy, and their work-life balance, it is no surprise that 24% are unhappy with their job in general,” the group said.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, while only a slightly above average share of expats feel they are not paid fairly for their job (22% vs 20% globally), results in the Personal Finance Index (47th) look much worse.<\/p>\n

Expats are unsatisfied with their personal finances (41% unhappy vs 21% globally), and 44% say that their disposable household income is not enough to lead a comfortable life (vs. 28% globally). Johannesburg ranks last worldwide (50th) for both factors.<\/p>\n

The one bright side, InterNations said, is that at least housing is affordable, according to 46% of expats (vs 39% globally), which is one reason why Johannesburg still lands in 36th place in the Expat Essentials Index.<\/p>\n

“On the other hand, expats rate the availability of administrative\/government services online negatively (41% unhappy vs 21% globally), and 34% struggle to open a local bank account (vs 21% globally).”<\/p>\n

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Cape Town<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cape Town’s performance in the ranking is, by comparison, far better – though the city is still not ranked particularly highly overall.<\/p>\n

InterNations’ headline takeaway from Cape Town is that it’s a great place to make friends, but not for building a career.<\/p>\n

“Cape Town even makes it into the top 10 of the Ease of Settling In Index, ranking ninth,” it said.<\/p>\n

Expats describe the local residents as generally friendly (74% happy vs 66% globally) and find it easy to make friends with them (50% vs 42% globally).<\/p>\n

“In fact, expats in Cape Town are happiest with their social life, with the city ranking first: 64% rate this factor positively (vs 56% globally), and 42% are even completely satisfied (vs 23% globally),” InterNations said.<\/p>\n

Cape Town also ranks favourably in the Leisure Options subcategory – but like Joburg, falls when looking at quality of life, travel and transit and safety and security.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“(Expats) are unhappy with the availability of public transportation (47th), and 39% do not find it easy or safe to get around on foot and\/or bicycle (vs 13% globally). What is more, 38% are worried about their personal safety in general, which is more than four times the global average (9%),” the group said.<\/p>\n

Cape Town ranks 44th in the Working Abroad Index, even landing in second-to-last place worldwide in both the Career Prospects (49th) and the Salary & Job Security (49th) Subcategories.<\/p>\n

Close to half the expats (46%) are unhappy with the local job market (vs 27% globally), and 20% say that moving to Cape Town has not improved their career prospects (vs 18% globally). Additionally, they worry about their job security (33% unhappy vs 20% globally) and rate the state of the economy negatively (51% vs 17% globally).<\/p>\n

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Read: Joburg launches its big move away from Eskom and load shedding<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Expats aren’t keen on settling in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":643961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,12280],"class_list":["post-647249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-internations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647249","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=647249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":647275,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647249\/revisions\/647275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}