LESS THAN A QUARTER SA PROFESSIONALS THINKING ABOUT RETURNING HOME: SURVEY

A group of South African expatriates protest outside the New Zeland parliament to high light the plight of their homeland as well as to call on the New Zealand government to speed up the immigration process for their relatives still in South Africa, and provide aid those affected by the rioting and looting. Picture: Giordano Stolley – IOL

Tue 10 October 2023:

Less than a quarter of South Africa’s skilled professionals are reportedly considering moving back, which does little to improve the country’s efforts to stem the departure of highly qualified workers, IOL reported.

According to the Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Academy’s poll of South Africans living overseas, up to 25% of respondents said they would “definitely not” be going back.

Only 19% of respondents indicated they were confident about their chances of returning to Mzansi, which was much more worrying than the 43 percent who said they were still unsure.

The main destinations for South African emigrants were according to statistics in developed countries such as the UK, the US and Australia.

The survey conducted through an online poll during September highlighted that a new generation of highly educated professionals were leaving the country in search of better wages and conditions for working.

One of the biggest reasons cited by the 948 South Africans who participated in the survey for choosing to live abroad was said to be better job prospects.

Of the sample group who were either live abroad or had lived abroad in the past, revealed that nearly 40% went overseas in search of better opportunities.

“Even if there are job opportunities, the money they offer is absolutely laughable. Not to mention how time-consuming it is. My degree taught me a lot and it helped me be a better teacher, but it didn’t help me find work in my own country,” commented one of the respondents.

While only 7.8% of those surveyed cited the high cost of living domestically as their reason for moving abroad, this suggested that South Africans may not be grappling with the cost of living as much as some politicians had feared, but they were aware that more lucrative and stabler pastures may be offered overseas.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

______________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent