Why i fleeing south africa

Decline in living standards 8. Higher earnings potential 9. Prospect for professional It seems the ongoing issues relating to state infrastructure is the main reason why people are now looking to move. Added to this more and more professionals are struggling to secure good career and income opportunities. Robby Hilkowitz, the chairman of Telfed, the Israeli branch of the South African Zionist Federation, believes the pandemic is also a key factor in the recent exodus.

For Ederi, it was simply having thinking time during lockdown that would prove critical. About 15 percent of the respondents questioned said they were likely to leave South Africa within the next five years, with Israel by far their preferred destination. The overwhelming preference for Israel as a destination for emigration — even before the coronavirus had ruled out many other countries — represented a marked shift from previous years, when Australia had been the top choice by far.

Leah Roy, 19, landed in Israel on her own at the end of July and plans to join the army in December. She will be spending the next few months on Kfar Masaryk, a kibbutz in northern Israel, brushing up her Hebrew and getting acclimated to Israeli culture. But it seemed that Israel offered so many more options for someone like me, who was still undecided about what I wanted to study.

Roy, who grew up in an Orthodox home in Johannesburg, left behind her parents, a brother and a boyfriend. What she has learned about South African Jews in this period, she says, is that they tend to be very organized and plan things meticulously.

What is also new, says Amar-Arran, is that prospective immigrants are willing to talk openly about aliyah. Hilkowitz, his colleague at Telfed, expects the wave of immigration to continue into next year, if not longer — a sign, he says, that this is not a passing episode. Judy Maltz Sep. We felt vulnerable living in South Africa, so leaving seemed the obvious thing to do.

The Irvings were among 44, white South Africans who left the country in , more than double the annual figure in But after five years in Sydney and on a farm five hours drive from the city, the Irvings had had "enough of living in a sorted society".

They decided to return home and help tackle some of the challenges that had prompted them to leave South Africa in the first place. Mrs Irving, an architect, is now working with Cape Town officials to help improve Khayelitsha, the country's biggest township.

Someone who also left in the first wave, Angel Jones, was prompted to return on hearing Nelson Mandela reach out to a mainly white South African crowd on a visit to London in I want to put you in my pocket and take you home'," she recalls. I had grown up with so much shame about the colour of my skin, but Nelson Mandela really did change that for a lot of white South Africans.

I knew then that I had to go home. It was the most amazing moment. She came home in , just as many of her friends were packing their bags to leave, and set up Homecoming Revolution which connects the homesick South African diaspora with potential employers back home. The Act also gives refugee permit holders who have been in South Africa for more than five years, the right to apply for permanent residence.

This right is also contained in the United Nations protocol on the status of refugees. But, this has remained elusive. Those who do qualify must first apply for certification from the Standing Committee for Refugees. If they fail, their refugee status permits are withdrawn, leading many to refrain from applying. Thus, security of stay has remained illusive for many refugees.

Some have been stuck at various stages of the asylum procedure for over 19 years. South Africa can take a few basic steps to improve its bureaucracy so that asylum seekers can enjoy their legal rights. The most immediate interventions would be to streamline the workings of its asylum application system and the Refugee Appeal Board. Their technical capacity needs to be improved to cope with the volume of applications. They can work together to share information, exchange skills, offer human rights education and mediate in disputes.

They can help build the capacity of state organs to perform efficiently, and with the necessary empathy. They could also help monitor and evaluate the performance of the bureaucrats. A purely top down model, where the state is solely responsible for implementing refugee policy, is clearly not working well.