Immigrants employ almost half their total numbers (12 per cent of them are employ‐
ers, employing an average of almost four people each); close to half again are South
African employees.38
However, a 20% unemployment rate could mean that more than 300,000 Zimbabwean
migrants are eking out desperate existences in South Africa. Many more who are self
employed barely make ends meet, and whether employed or not, migrants face barriers when
trying to access health care or education for their children, which makes life harder for them
than for unemployed South African citizens.39 A recent report showed that almost 30% of
migrants report problems with gaining health care, and 45% of Zimbabwean children fail to
access schooling.40 In addition to this, they may face harassment and xenophobia from
officials and from their neighbours.
The CDE report reaches three main conclusions:
Immigration into South Africa is likely to continue and escalate.
Most migrants make a positive contribution and this needs to be capitalised on, which
can only be done if South Africans can see that migrants are being properly factored
into city plans and policies, and that there is border management.
Popular fears and misconceptions about migrants need to be taken seriously, as they
are not blind prejudices, but local versions of universal and understandable fears.41
38 CDE, ibid: Executive Summary page 6: italics and bullets added.
39 SPT, Gone to Egoli, 2009, established that many Zimbabweans in the diaspora fail to remit goods or money,
and that this failure to survive economically has worsened among South African migrants in the last few years,
possibly pointing to a saturation in job markets and over burdening of established migrant family networks in
South Africa.
40 Consortium of Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA); Protecting refugees, asylum seekers and
Immigrants in South Africa; Johannesburg, 2008.
41 CDE, ibid, page 8: bullets added.
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