Survey Shows Over Half of South Africa's Graduates Considering Emigration
A survey in South
Africa shows more than half of graduates are considering moving to another
country because of few opportunities at home. Business Unity South Africa,
which represents the private sector, says they are seeing the lowest levels of
confidence in the country's future since World War II.
The survey was
conducted by the Social Research Foundation which calls itself a start-up think
tank. Its director Frans Cronje dismissed social media criticism, which said it
is funded by the main opposition Democratic Alliance Party.
Cronje says they are
privately funded and not affiliated with any organization. He says his
pollsters surveyed just over 3,000 people.
"On the question of
emigration, what it identifies is that roughly a quarter of adult South
Africans are considering emigration and that figure rises pretty steeply as you
go to the top echelons of the skills base," he said. "So, university
graduates figure comes in at around 50 percent and also top earners.”
Cronje says the
emigration figures are in line with other public opinion research the
foundation has recently conducted.
"And this is all very
consistent with broader public opinion based on South Africa, which shows that
in response to tough economic circumstances and an increasingly troubling
outlook towards the political future of the country, levels of concern about the
long-term future have hit rates that I haven’t seen in 20 years of doing this
stuff.”
Joshua Jacobs has been
looking for a job since graduating from college last year. He is considering
emigrating to Vietnam or South Korea to teach English, even though it is not
what he studied.
"It’s quite dire at the
moment. It doesn’t look like there’s an opportunity,” said Jacobs. ”I have a
few friends who have already gone over and, based on what they are
experiencing, it seems like way more viable than being here.”
Jacobs says he studied
for three years and graduated with a degree in human resources management last
year.
"I’ve been looking more
or less in my field, but no luck there,” he said. "It is a weird position that
I’m in. Because when I started studying, the market was a bit better in terms
of HR, whereas now it doesn’t seem like there’s the same opportunities. The
ones that there are, the pay has decreased and the experience needed has now
increased.”
Bonang Mohale,
president of Business Unity South Africa, says he thinks it’s regrettable when
a country cannot hold onto the future workers in whom it’s invested so much.
He asks, what will
happen if graduates leave in droves?
"The economy is already
on its knees. It will further exacerbate the condition.”
The Social Research
Foundation is planning follow-up research.
VOA
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