Exaggerating diaspora numbers
ZIMBABWE has always experienced intermittent waves of emigration.
THE first wave was between the 1960s and 1970s when hundreds of people fled political instability and the war. Many left as political refugees or for military training, or as students.
They went to countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, the then-Soviet Union and China, among many other countries.
The late 70s to 80s witnessed massive migration of mostly white people who were fleeing the prospect of majority rule, mostly to South Africa, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
The next big surge came in the 2000s following the Land Reform Programme, which saw locals leaving the country for various destinations. Many chose to settle in hitherto unknown and exotic destinations like the Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Falkland Islands.
It was also during that time that destinations such as Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the Middle and Far East became popular among locals. There is almost no region in the world where Zimbabweans are not represented.
It was reported in the press that a Zimbabwean man recently founded his very own country in the Pacific Ocean, which he calls the United Republic of Delvin.
However, there has been a lot of exaggeration and blatant lies in the media about the number of Zimbabweans who have left the country. Unsubstantiated statistics put the numbers of Zimbabwean emigrants anywhere up to 10 million, with the bulk — four million — said to be in South Africa, and between one to two million being in the UK. Official statistics are dismissed or ignored. It does not occur to them that migration and population studies are well-defined fields of scientific study. It is as if census enumerators are totally oblivious of the presence of undocumented migrants. ZimStat data on emigration puts the number of Zimbabweans living abroad at 908 911 — far less than the reported millions. There are approximately 16 225 Zimbabweans living in Canada, while the Zimbabwean diaspora in Australia is estimated at 39 740, as confirmed by the Australian embassy in Harare. Conversely, there are only 5 614 Zimbabweans in New Zealand and about 112 000 locals living in the UK.
This number could be revised to account for the approximately 20 000 who emigrated there this year. The United States hosts between 30 000 and 50 000 Zimbabweans.
These are not Wikipedia statistics, but official data from the governments of those countries. Unsubstantiated numbers extrapolated through guesswork do not count as valid statistics. It is, however, the number of Zimbabweans living in South Africa that deserves special mention. According to ZimStat, there are 773 246 Zimbabweans living in South Africa.
About 461 293 of them are men and 311 953 women. Only 178 000 Zimbabweans living and working there are permit holders.
Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) says there is a total of 3,95 million foreign nationals living in that country, including both documented and undocumented migrants.
So dire is the false information about the population statistics of foreign migrants that Stats SA issued a statement to try and correct the erroneous interpretations and misuse of their data. Their report had been contorted to saying there are four million undocumented foreigners living in SA. Even normally credible sources are often guilty of publishing falsehoods about SA migrant population statistics and this only feeds xenophobic sentiment.
Zimbabweans themselves like to exaggerate their own importance and inexplicably plump their own numbers to four million, despite Stats SA denying and dismissing it.
The official figures are derived from four population censuses conducted in South Africa in 1996, 2001, 2011 and 2021. While individuals are asked about their country of birth, Stats SA says it does not ask about their documentation status.
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