New data shows that working South Africans are contemplating leaving the country. Picture: Unsplash
According to a recent survey by infoQuest/TrendER, a South African online research company, about 5% of working South Africans claim that they are ready to leave the country and have applied for residency in another country.
Most of these workers also revealed that they have been accepted for residence in other countries and will be emigrating soon.
The study interviewed 300 working respondents across the country.
“If we extrapolate this to the actual numbers, 5% of approximately 15 million working South Africans indicates a staggering number of 750 000 South Africans getting ready to leave imminently,” said Claire Heckrath, managing director of infoQuest.
The data revealed that another 14% are seriously thinking about emigrating and have made enquiries or submitted applications, while one in three working South Africans say that they have thought about emigrating but have not taken any action yet.
According to infoQuest’s statistics, about one in two working South Africans are happy to remain in the country and have not thought about leaving.
The online research company said that younger families in the middle-income bracket are more likely to be the ones to emigrate, as are those employed part-time in South Africa, probably spurred on by their need for more secure job opportunities while those in the higher income groups are also less likely to emigrate.
“There is no doubt that the emigration rate is a real concern for South Africa, and sadly the economic pressures, as well as some of the other infrastructure challenges such as load shedding, are making it difficult to promote positivity currently within our country,” said Heckrath.
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