[imagesource: Dries Buytaert]

Yep, the brain drain is still steadily dripping Saffas into the UK, Australia, and the US – the much-favoured destinations for South African émigrés – despite some reports suggesting that our emigrants are returning.

There is actually evidence to suggest that the ‘brain regain’ claims in SA are overly optimistic.

Stats SA’s long-awaited Migration Profile Report for South Africa: A Country Profile 2023 was finally released last week, per The Daily Maverick, showing that SA has lost almost a million citizens to emigration since 2000.

Based on the latest census data, as well as data from household surveys, academic research, the World Bank, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Unesco, the SA Police Service and the departments of Home Affairs and Basic Education, the report was funded through the European Union’s Southern Africa Migration Management Project.

The country’s first migration report shows the brain drain is significant and long-lasting, as reflected in the declining numbers of South Africans returning to our shores in the past decade.

Estate agencies, tax practitioners and international moving companies have cheerily claimed that South Africans were returning to the country of their birth in droves, but it turns out that the grass remains greener on the other side. Even if biltong is more expensive there and the weather more miserable.

501,600 South African citizens resided abroad in 2000, and by 2010, that number had increased to 743,807. Then, by 2020 their numbers had reached 914,901, according to the latest available data from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Europe is the most appealing region for residence, attracting 39,3% of migrants. North America’s share is at 18.1%; Oceania 29.9%; Asia 2.2%, and Latin America and the Caribbean 0.3%.

Since 2000, the number of South Africans in the UK has grown from 136,720 to 247,336; Australia from 80,650 to 199,690; and the US from 65,171 to 117,321. New Zealand has heaps of SA emigrants, with their numbers increasing from 25,359 to 73,846, while Canada – popular with healthcare professionals and other highly skilled immigrants – also saw a rise from 36,949 to 48,093.

Meanwhile, between 2011 and 2022, a sharply declining number of South Africans came back to give the country another try.

In 2011, 45,866 citizens returned, but by 2022, the returns had dropped to 27,983.

Where Saffas are returning has also changed in recent years. Whereas a lot were happy to set up in Jozi again – in 2011, Gauteng saw the highest number of returnees with 17,684 (38.6% of the total) – by 2022, that number had dwindled to 7,447, just 26.6% of the total.

The Western Cape remains the most popular destination, seeing a sharp rise in returnees (from 23.3% in 2011 to 35% in 2022), despite a slight decrease in absolute numbers.

[source:dailymaverick]