How foreigners succeed

SUGGESTS IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO SACRIFICE, DESPERATION Researcher says ‘radically different’ attitude toward work holds the key.

Most foreign nationals seeking a better life in South Africa make it through hard work and sacrifice, according to a report by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) released yesterday.

“South Africa’s Immigrants – Building a New Economy”, reveals foreigners find an improved life that was denied them in their own countries.

IRR’s Rian Malan said his research showed how most migrants succeed locally, sometimes through good business acumen and an ability to start from scratch and move up.

Political repression or wars, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, pushed its citizens to South Africa, whose relatively strong economy was attractive to them.

Malan used three case studies of Somalis taking over spaza shop businesses in townships, Zimbabweans waiting tables and managing restaurants in Johannesburg and the mushrooming of trading in the Johannesburg CBD started by Ethiopians at a time when municipal authorities neglected the inner city.

The immigrants’ strong networks ensured their fellow countrymen also accessed opportunities when they arrived in the country. They also have to start at the bottom and sometimes work for their already successful countrymen just for meals “until they had paid the debt”, and then start earning to work their way up, the report showed. “The stories raise questions about the truth of these beliefs [on immigrants],” Malan said. “All are black, using the definition favoured by Pan-Africanists. “As such, they must face exactly the same forms of discrimination as black South Africans, and many additional obstacles besides rampant xenophobia, a banking industry that is unwilling to open accounts for them and a government that denies them all manner of benefits available to black South Africans.

“And yet, foreigners make it here. Some of the stories told here might convey the misleading impression that all migrants are pulling R20 000 a month as waiters in posh restaurants, or buying inner-city buildings with suitcases full of cash.

“These are exceptions. But the literature demonstrates that foreigners are more likely to be working than South Africans and in the few cases where data is available, earning more than their local counterparts.”

He said immigrants achieved in a foreign country because of their “radically different” attitude toward work, born out of desperation.

According to Malan, it was not too late for the SA government to listen to what immigrants had to say and the lessons they might have in terms of starting from scratch. – ANA