Over a million South Africans have left the country since 1990 – IRR is finding out why

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has invited South Africans abroad to participate in its Diaspora Survey as a means of better understanding – and addressing – their reasons for leaving in the hope of motivating people to stay.

A growing number of South Africans abroad are being reached by the Diaspora Survey, which is being conducted via a Google-based form.

The United Nation’s International Migrant Stock data shows that 1,005,800 South Africans left the country after 1990, 107,500 of them in the last six years.

Says IRR Strategic Engagements Manager Makone Maja: “The goal of this campaign is to make South Africa a place worth coming to, and one where trips to the airport are marked with messages of ‘welcome home’ rather than ‘we will miss you’. Unfortunately, most of the responses so far underline why the latter sentiment is the more common one.”

Key questions in this survey include:

• When did you emigrate from South Africa?
• What was your main reason for leaving South Africa?
• Have you considered moving back to South Africa?
• What worries you most about the state of South Africa today? (Options include jobs and economic growth, crime and safety, corruption, service delivery failures, education failures and skills shortages, race relations and “other”.)

Concludes Maja: “This conversation is more than just about a shrinking tax and skills base, even though those are important metrics to consider. It is also about building a South Africa in which all citizens feel they belong, whose future they can contribute their talents to, and in which they can successfully build a future for themselves and their families.”

Media contact: Makone Maja, IRR Strategic Engagements Manager Tel: 079 418 6676 Email: makone@irr.org.za

Media enquiries: Michael Morris IRR Head of Media Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za