South Africa is suffering from a ‘brain drain’, or loss of its professionals – but how serious is the problem and what effect is it having on the homeland? This study attempts to assess the number of emigrants and the skills being lost, and asks whether the loss is permanent.

Skills loss due to emigration has recently become a high-profile public policy issue in South Africa. A major, unresolved question is the actual scale of the problem and its impact. There has been growing suspicion that South Africa’s official emigration data, SSA, significantly underestimate the number of South Africans leaving the country to settle abroad. This report by the University of Cape Town attempts to assess the true extent of emigration by examining data from the recipient countries. In order to begin to quantify the shortfall in South African statistics, this research compares the data from SSA with statistics from the five major recipient countries of South African emigrants – the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

By definition, the brain drain is not simply a question of absolute numbers. The skills profile of emigrants is also an important determinant of the impact on a country and economy. SSA give no precise information on the skills South Africa is losing, nor in what quantity. However, most of the major destination countries collect data on the skills of immigrants by country of origin. This data can be used to generate a picture of the occupational categories most affected by emigration from South Africa.

Finally, there is an assumption in much of the debate that the brain drain represents a permanent loss of skills to a country’s economy and development. This would require that emigrants retain no backward linkages, or that emigrants who have resettled elsewhere are not interested in contributing to their country of birth if the right opportunities are made available.

The analysis clearly shows that:

• The South African brain drain is much more significant than the official figures suggest.
• The South African diaspora represents a well-trained, capable, uniquely highly-skilled pool of individuals.
• Most emigrants are located professionally in occupations that are in demand domestically.
• There is a tendency for the professional emigrants to acquire further post-graduate training abroad.

The research has the following implications regarding policy:

• The country needs to improve its methods of data collection on emigration and, if possible, build in a systematic comparison with data that can easily be obtained from recipient countries.
• Contrary to popular opinion, emigration does not necessarily mean that the skills and expertise of these emigrants are lost permanently to South Africa.
• Opportunities exist for the country to make use of the skills of expatriates even while they reside abroad.
• The SANSA network, which aims to connect professional South Africans abroad with their South African counterparts, is a first step towards mobilising South Africa’s diaspora and countering the damaging effects of the brain drain.

Source(s):
‘Counting Brains: Measuring Emigration From South Africa’, Migration Policy Brief No. 5, by Mercy Brown, David Kaplan and Jean-Baptiste Meyer, 2001

id21 Research Highlight: 1 July 2003

Further Information:
Mercy Brown, David Kaplan and Jean-Baptiste Meyer
Development Policy Research Unit
University of Cape Town
Cape Town
South Africa

Contact the contributor: dkaplan@dti.pwv.gov.za

Contact the contributor: mercy@lrs.org.za

Contact the contributor: jmeyer@mpl.ird.fr

University of Cape Town, South Africa

Other related links:
SciDevNet focuses on the the emigration of highly skilled personnel

'Brain Drain: how to benefit from expatriates skills?' from the IRD

'How Extensive Is the Brain Drain?' from the IMF

'Education in Africa: The Brain Drain' from the Africa Journal