Immigration applications to Australia and Britain are increasing as South Africans fear they face an uncertain future.

Headlines are dominated by power cuts, soaring electricity tariffs, increasing petrol prices, increasing interest rates and rampant crime.

The UK and Australia remain the most popular destinations for South African migrants, and figures from the high commissions for both countries confirm the numbers are on the increase.

Ed Bossley, the deputy director of visa services for the British High Commission, said they had had about 200 more applications this year than last.

But he stressed that the figures seen by the consulates were not an accurate reflection of the number of South Africans living in the UK, and could be much higher.

“South Africans enter the UK under various other categories of our immigration rules that can eventually lead to permanent settlement. These include a long-term work permit holder or a highly skilled migrant,” explained Bossley.

South Africans who fell into these categories and who were already in the UK would lodge their applications with the Home Office there and so the South African consulates would not have these figures.

In addition, many South Africans had the right to live in Britain because of ancestry, and did not need to apply to go there.

Permanent residence applications were typically lodged by those seeking to join relatives or spouses in the UK.

Assessing these, the high commission needed to be satisfied that the relationship was genuine and that the sponsor in the UK could afford to “financially support and accommodate their relative in the UK without any recourse to public funds”.

The South African department of Home Affairs has not published emigration statistics since 2003, but research agencies have used other resources for their own estimates.

The South African Institute of Race Relations released a shocking report claiming that skilled white men were flocking to the United Kingdom.

The institute used Statistics South Africa’s mid-year population estimates, which they garnered from the national census, comparing figures for 1995 and 2005.

The institute said about 800 000 white South Africans had left the country, mainly economically active white men between 25 and 35.

The Australian High Commission said emigration application figures were higher last year than in 2006. More than 5 000 South Africans applied to emigrate to Australia between 2006 and last year.

On the other hand, the Homecoming Revolution, the organisation encouraging South African expats to come home, said more South Africans were inquiring about returning - as many as 10 inquiries in a week. 

The organization’s director, Martine Schaffer, said in other countries migrants often faced many of the same problems they would encounter in South Africa.

Source: Dated March 30 2008