Andrew Stegmann

SA citizens need more visa-free deals to up global ranking

Cape Town – South Africa, which ranks 89th out of 161 on a new index that measures the quality of a nationality, should improve visa-free travel status for its citizens to increase its ranking.

That’s the message from Henley & Partners SA spokesperson Sandra Woest, who spoke to Fin24 about the release of Henley’s Quality of Nationality Index (QNI), which is the world’s first index to rank the quality of nationalities worldwide.

It explores internal factors (40% of index) like the scale of the economy, human development, peace and stability as well as external factors (60% of index) like visa-free travel and the ability to settle and work abroad without cumbersome formalities. It is these facts, Henley explains, that make one nationality better than another in terms of legal status in which to develop its citizens talents and business.

Germany tops the ranking, with the UK ranked at 11 and the US at 28. The Democratic Republic of Congo lies at the bottom of the list, with Afghanistan and the Central African Republic the lowly runners-up.

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Andrew Stegmann

Asylum seekers flock to SA as country battles unemployment

Cape Town – In the midst of staggeringly high unemployment figures, South Africa hosted more asylum seekers than any other country in the world at the end of 2015, according to a report by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

In the first quarter of 2016, unemployment rose to 26.7%, from 24.5% in the fourth quarter of last year. This translates to more than 5 million people in South Africa who are actively seeking employment. The figure excludes millions of job seekers who have given up looking for work. If this group is added to the unemployment figures the rate would be close to 37%.

The report showed that the number of asylum-seekers at the end of 2014 in South Africa is now estimated to be 1 057 600. Although there hasn’t been a comparable increase in 2015 – the number of new applications in 2015 was relatively low at 62 200 – there was a statistical adjustment in reporting asylum-seeking figures that means that South Africa hosted more asylum-seekers than any other country at the end of 2015.

According to the UN report, more than half (54%) of all refugees across the world came from just three countries – the Syrian Arab Republic (4.9m), Afghanistan (2.7m) and Somalia (1.1m). South Africa currently hosts 41 500 Somali refugees.

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Andrew Stegmann

SA loses foreign language learners to Australia, New Zealand

Despite overseas arrivals to South Africa showing a 16% increase year on year for the first quarter of this year, there was a 10% drop in students coming to study English in South African language schools in the first few months of 2016. At least two schools in Cape Town are alleged to have closed down due to declining student numbers. Meanwhile, countries including Australia and New Zealand are seeing an increase in arrivals from English language learners.

The decline is being attributed to the implementation of the new immigration laws that consider current accreditations held by schools teaching English as foreign language (EFL) as insufficient to obtain study visas for students.

In 2015, EduSA – the national association of quality English language centres in South Africa – reported that 7 336 students visited South Africa. Year to date, the number of students has dropped by a confirmed 10% and, more concerning, it is still dropping.

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Andrew Stegmann

What Brexit Means For Africans, And How South Africans Living In UK Could Swing The Vote

Depending on who you ask, the U.K.’s possible exit from the European Union could mean more direct trade for Africans, better incentives for African farmers, renegotiated economic agreements for African trading blocs.

South Africans living in Britain could be the swing vote.

The U.K. should be able to secure its own trade deals with African countries, says James Cleverly, a pro-Brexit Tory MP who says European Union policy in Africa is “morally repugnant,” HuffingtonPost reported.

“The E.U.’s tariff regime disincentivizes exactly the kind of investment that Africa needs to lift itself out of poverty and aid dependency,” said Cleverly, whose mother is from Sierra Leone. “I cannot understand how anyone who is African, or of African heritage, or who cares about Africa and her people, or cares about anyone trapped in poverty in the developing world, can, with a clear conscience, allow this situation to persist.”

Remain campaign MPs Chuka Umunna and Sam Gyimah disagreed with Cleverly and dropped names to bolster their argument.

 “Trying to hijack the fight against poverty to push an anti-E.U. agenda really is a new low for the chaotic and desperate leave campaign,” they said, according to HuffingtonPost. “Inside the E.U., Britain is a more powerful force in spreading equality and justice in the world. It magnifies our spending power and increases British influence. That’s the opinion of the former U.N. head of humanitarian relief, the chair of World Wildlife Fund … and many more.”

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