{"id":96613,"date":"2015-08-24T20:34:26","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T18:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=96613"},"modified":"2015-08-24T16:34:52","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T14:34:52","slug":"why-south-african-professionals-are-leaving-and-are-happier-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/96613\/why-south-african-professionals-are-leaving-and-are-happier-for-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Why South Africans are leaving – and are happier for it"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report by InterNations Expat Insider<\/a> shines some light on the profile of South African expats, why they leave the country, and how happy they are abroad.<\/p>\n

South Africa is the 49th top expat destination (out of 64), showing that it is seen more as an expat source country, rather than a destination country.<\/p>\n

Alarmingly, the general profile of the South African expat shows that around half are skilled employees or managers – and a quarter identify as being in top management positions.<\/p>\n

This is far higher than the global average of 11% – a trend also seen in the representation of academic professionals who are leaving – 16% versus the global average of 9%.<\/p>\n

“Many South African respondents stay abroad for at least five years, living comfortably in predominantly English-speaking social circles and top management positions.”<\/p>\n

“The fact that 63% (of these expats) enjoy a higher income than at home is icing on the cake,” the report said.<\/p>\n

According to InterNations, 70% of South African expats are generally satisfied with leaving the country, with only 13% feeling dissatisfied with their decision.<\/p>\n

\"South<\/a>

South Africans abroad (Click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

Why South Africans leave<\/h3>\n

According to the report, personal safety and crime considerations are the biggest push factors.<\/p>\n

The other top leading factors are the country’s high cost of living, as well as the economy and labour market.<\/p>\n

There are also a host of pull factors – things which other countries offer that lure South Africans in – these include a sense of adventure, a better quality of life and typical job-related reasons.<\/p>\n

“South Africans are on average more compelled to move abroad for political, religious, or safety reasons, with 5% indicating this as their most important reason for moving abroad compared to a mere 1% of all respondents,” InterNations said.<\/p>\n

Across all indices and factors covered in the report, South Africa scores poorly, with the only high-ranking category being its leisure options, where it ranks 8th in the world.<\/p>\n

Every other factor, from personal happiness, safety, healthcare, quality of education and cost of living, the country ranks poorly – below 30.<\/p>\n

In early July 2015, emigration became topical as experts and professionals in the emigration industry noted a sharp rise in the number of South Africans interested in moving abroad.<\/p>\n

Immigration lawyer, Chris Watters, told the Cape Argus at the time that inquiries to his practice had gone from approximately one every two weeks to nine or 10 a day since\u00a0January.<\/p>\n

More on emigration<\/h3>\n

Why more South Africans are leaving the country<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 5 reasons to be a proud South African<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

More South Africans want to leave the country<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new report by InterNations Expat Insider shines some light on the profile of South African expats, why they leave the country, and how happy they are abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":94011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10090,26,853],"class_list":["post-96613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-emigration","tag-headline","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96613","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=96613"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96639,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96613\/revisions\/96639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}