Abstract
Even though South Africa is best known as a destination for migrants, it is also an important global migration source country, with over 750,000 South Africans living abroad. Attempts to situate South African emigrants within the broader context of the large and growing global literature on diaspora engagement and development are comparatively rare. This chapter argues that there is such a thing as a South African diaspora and seeks to understand its character, practices, and attitudes, its fragmented nature, its linkages with South Africa, and its actual and potential return behavior. The chapter provides an analysis of the formation of the global South African diaspora and then examines the case of the South African diaspora in Canada, showing that the majority are antagonistic towards the South African government and the idea of being involved in diaspora activities that would promote development. The final section examines the attitude of the South African government towards diaspora engagement and argues that although the government is supportive of the AU’s position on engaging the African diaspora in development, it does very little to court its own diaspora.
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Notes
- 1.
Stephen Castles and Raúl Delgado Wise, “Introduction.” In Migration and Development: Perspectives from the South, edited by Stephen Castles and Raúl Delgado Wise, 1–13. Geneva: IOM, 2007.
- 2.
Abel Chikanda, Jonathan Crush, and Margaret Walton-Roberts, eds., Diasporas, Development and Governance. New York: Springer International Publishing, 2016.
- 3.
Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda, Wade Pendleton, Mary Caesar, Sujata Ramachandran, Cassandra Eberhardt, and Ashley Hill, Divided Diasporas: Southern Africans in Canada. Waterloo: Southern African Migration Programme and Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2013.
- 4.
Amarnath Amarasingam and Ahila Poologaindran. “Diaspora, Development, and Intra-Community Politics: Sri Lankan Tamils in Canada and Post-War Debates.” In Diasporas, Development and Governance, edited by Abel Chikanda, Jonathan Crush, and Margaret Walton-Roberts, 49–64. New York: Springer International Publishing, 2016.
- 5.
Ibid.
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- 7.
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- 8.
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- 9.
John Frazier, Joe Darden, and Norah Henry, eds., The African Diaspora in the United States and Canada at the Dawn of the 21st Century. Binghamton: Global Academic Publishing, 2009.
- 10.
Crawford, Bye the Beloved Country?; Eric Louw and Gary Mersham, “Packing for Perth: The Growth of a Southern African Diaspora.” Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 10 (2001): 303–333; Johann Van Rooyen, The New Great Trek: The Story of South Africa’s White Exodus. Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 2001.
- 11.
Louw and Mersham, “Packing for Perth”; Stephen Rule, “A Second-Phase Diaspora: South African Migration to Australia” Geoforum 25 (1994): 33–39.
- 12.
Jonathan Marks, Expatriate Professionals as an Entry Point into Global Knowledge-Intensive Value Chains: South Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004; Jonathan Marks, “South Africa: Evolving Diaspora, Promising Initiatives.” In Diaspora Networks and the International Migration of Skills: How Countries Can Draw on Their Talent Abroad, edited by Yevgeny Kuznetsov, 171–186. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006; Jean-Baptiste Meyer, “Network Approach Versus Brain Drain: Lessons from the Diaspora.” International Migration 39 (2001): 91–110; Jean-Baptiste Meyer and Jean-Paul Wattiaux, “Diaspora Knowledge Networks: Vanishing Doubts and Increasing Evidence.” International Journal on Multicultural Societies 8 (2006): 4–24.
- 13.
Helena Barnard and Catherine Pendock, “To Share or Not to Share: The Role of Affect in Knowledge Sharing by Individuals in a Diaspora.” Journal of International Management 19 (2013): 47–65; Crush et al., Divided Diasporas; James Forrest, Ron Johnston and Michael Poulsen, “Middle-Class Diaspora: Recent Immigration to Australia from South Africa and Zimbabwe.” South African Geographical Journal 95 (2013): 50–69; Alvaro Morcillo-Espina, Pierce King and Eric Louw, “White, African and Diaspora? The Case of South African Expats and Returnees.” Unpublished Report. Princeton NJ: Princeton University, 2014; Sujata Ramachandran, “Benevolent Funds: Philanthropic Practices of the South African Diaspora in Ontario, Canada.” In Diasporas, Development and Governance, edited by Abel Chikanda, Jonathan Crush, and Margaret Walton-Roberts, 65–82. New York: Springer International Publishing, 2016.
- 14.
Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda and Wade Pendleton, “The Disengagement of the South African Medical Diaspora in Canada.” Journal of Southern African Studies 38 (2012): 927–949.
- 15.
Sally Peberdy, Selecting Immigrants: National Identity and South Africa’s Immigration Policies, 1910–2008. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2009.
- 16.
Crush, “The Global Raiders”; Crush and Pendleton, “Brain Flight”; Robert Mattes and Wayne Richmond, “The Brain Drain: What do Skilled South Africans Think?” In Losing Our Minds: Skills Migration and the South African Brain Drain, edited by Jonathan Crush, 9–35. Migration Policy Series No. 18. Cape Town: Southern African Migration Project (SAMP), 2000.
- 17.
Van Rooyen, The New GreatTrek; Christine Winbush and Rachael Selby, “Finding Home: South African Migration to New Zealand.” Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work 27 (2015): 46–58.
- 18.
Crawford, Bye the Beloved Country?; Van Rooyen, The New Great Trek.
- 19.
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- 20.
Kjartan Páll Sveinsson and Anne Gumuschian, Understanding Diversity: South Africans in Multi-Ethnic Britain. London: Runnymede Trust, 2008.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
Australian Government, Community Information Summary South Africa-Born. Melbourne: Department of Immigration and Citizenship, 2010.
- 23.
Sveinsson and Gumuschian, Understanding Diversity.
- 24.
Crush et al., Divided Diasporas.
- 25.
Australian Government, Community Information Summary.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
US Census Bureau. Census 2000 Table DP-2. Profile of Selected Social Characteristics: 2000 Geographic Area: United States. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau, 2000b.
- 28.
Australian Government, Community Information Summary.
- 29.
Crush et al., Divided Diasporas.
- 30.
Dilip Ratha et al., Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook. Migration and Development Brief 23. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014.
- 31.
Crush et al., Divided Diasporas.
- 32.
Association for Higher Education and Development (AHEAD), Enabling Diaspora Engagement in Africa: Resources, Mechanisms and Gaps—Case Study: Ethiopia. Ottawa: AHEAD, 2007; Kwadwo Konadu-Agyemang, Baffour Takyi and John Arthur, The African Diaspora in North America: Trends, Community Building and Adaption. New York and Toronto: Lexington Books, 2006; Wisdom J. Tettey and Korbla P. Puplampu, eds., The African Diaspora in Canada: Negotiating Identity and Belonging. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2005.
- 33.
Crush et al., “Disengagement of the South African Medical Diaspora in Canada”; Jonathan Crush, “South Africa as Dystopia: Diaspora Views from Canada.” Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 51 (2013): 189–209.
- 34.
William Martin, South Africa and the World Economy: Remaking Race, State, and Region. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2013; Nicoli Nattrass and Jeremy Seekings, “‘Two Nations’? Race and Economic Inequality in South Africa Today.” Daedalus 130 (2001): 45–70; Jeremy Seekings and Nicoli Nattrass, Class, Race and Inequality in South Africa. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005.
- 35.
Crush, “South Africa as Dystopia.”
- 36.
Respondent No. 32.
- 37.
Respondent No. 423.
- 38.
Respondent No. 21.
- 39.
Respondent No. 67.
- 40.
Respondent No. 66.
- 41.
Respondent No. 16.
- 42.
Respondent No. 33.
- 43.
Respondent No. 83.
- 44.
Respondent No. 84.
- 45.
Respondent No. 165.
- 46.
Crush et al., Divided Diasporas.
- 47.
Respondent No. 454.
- 48.
Respondent No. 200.
- 49.
Respondent No. 285.
- 50.
Ramachandran, “Benevolent Funds.”
- 51.
“Good Riddance, Mandela Tells Them Where to Go.” Business Day, September 25 1998.
- 52.
Mercy Brown, David Kaplan and Jean-Baptiste Meyer, “The Brain Drain: An Outline of Skilled Emigration from South Africa.” In Destinations Unknown: Perspectives on the Brain Drain in Southern Africa, edited by David McDonald and Jonathan Crush, 99–112. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa, 2002; Mattes and Richmond, “The Brain Drain”; Christian Rogerson and Jayne Rogerson, “Dealing in Scarce Skills: Employer Responses to the Brain Drain in South Africa.” In McDonald and Crush, Destinations Unknown, 73–98.
- 53.
Jonathan Crush et al., Brain Drain and Regain: The Migration Behaviour of South African Medical Professionals. Migration Policy Series No. 65. Cape Town: Southern African Migration Programme (SAMP) and Waterloo: International Migration Research Centre (IMRC), 2014.
- 54.
Margaret Blunden, “South-South Development Cooperation: Cuba’s Health Programmes in Africa.” International Journal of Cuban Studies 1 (2008): 32–41; Daniel Hammett, “Cuban Intervention in South African Health Care Service Provision.” Journal of Southern African Studies 33 (2007): 63–81; Daniel Hammett, “Physician Migration in the Global South between Cuba and South Africa.” International Migration 52 (2014): 41–52.
- 55.
Jonathan Crush and Belinda Dodson, “Another Lost Decade: The Failures of South Africa’s Post‐Apartheid Migration Policy.” Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 98 (2007): 436–454.
- 56.
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). “Towards Unity and United Action by Africans and the African Diaspora in the Caribbean for a Better World: The Case of South Africa.” Conference Report. Pretoria: Africa Institute, 2005.
- 57.
Ibid.
- 58.
Keynote Address by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, at the African Union-African Diaspora in Europe Regional Consultative Conference, Paris, France: September 11–12, 2007.
- 59.
African Union (AU), “Declaration of the Global African Diaspora Summit.” African Union, Sandton, Johannesburg, May 25, 2012.
- 60.
“Opening Remarks by the President of the Republic of South Africa, HE Mr. Jacob Zuma, on the occasion of the Opening Session of the Global African Diaspora Summit, Sandton Convention Centre” Sandton, South Africa, 2012.
- 61.
Interview with Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba, Pretoria, 2015.
- 62.
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- 63.
Verwey and Quayle, “Whiteness, Racism, and Afrikaner Identity.”
- 64.
Crush, “South Africa as Dystopia.”
- 65.
Ramachandran, “Benevolent Funds.”
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Crush, J., Chikanda, A. (2017). Mutual Antagonisms: Why the South African Diaspora and the South African Government Do Not Engage. In: Mangala, J. (eds) Africa and its Global Diaspora. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50053-9_12
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