Expat Insider 2015 Survey Reveals: Expats in South Africa Plagued by Safety Concerns
Expats moving to South Africa worry about safety, but appreciate the good availability of childcare and education
ATP- Arab tourism portal- Once more, Ecuador tops the list of the best places to live abroad in the InterNations Expat Insider 2015 survey, which is with more than 14,000 respondents one of the most extensive studies ever conducted to explore the general living situation of expatriates.
As opposed to well-ranking, exotic destinations such as New Zealand, Thailand, Panama, and Australia, South Africa is among the bottom 20 countries for the overall country ranking. The country is, however, found in the top 20 when it comes to family life abroad and does particularly well with regard to the availability of childcare and education, where it holds eleventh place out of 41 countries, according to the InterNations survey.
Ecuador, Mexico and Malta: Everybody’s Darlings
The InterNations Expat Insider 2015 survey ranks countries by different factors such as the quality of life, personal finance, working abroad and making friends. In most of those categories Ecuador takes a leading position. For example, a stunning 94 percent of the foreigners in Ecuador are pleased with local leisure options, while 91 percent are satisfied with the local costs of living.
Mexico has won the hearts of many expats with friendly people, beautiful beaches, and tasty cuisine. Over four out of five expats say that getting used to the local culture is generally easy and over 90 percent appreciate the friendliness of the local population as well. Also, almost every single respondent likes the weather in Mexico — which is generally one of the four most common considerations when it comes to moving abroad.
Expats say that Malta is the best destination for working abroad. Job satisfaction is high and two-thirds of respondents or more are happy with their career prospects, work-life balance and working hours. Malta is also popular for its ease of settling in: 73 percent find it easy to make new friends.
South Africa: Not Safe Enough for Expat Tastes?
Expats planning to move to South Africa take many things into consideration, but personal safety and crime are at the top of their list: just over half of the survey respondents thought about this before moving, compared to less than one-third of expats worldwide. Around two-thirds of respondents in South Africa indeed rate their personal safety negatively. As such, South Africa does worse than several other African countries, such as Kenya (59 percent), Mozambique (39 percent), Tanzania (29 percent), and Uganda (23 percent).
While South Africa has quite good results concerning the availability of childcare and education options — the majority of expat parents rate these factors positively — their worries regarding safety are also an issue here: Over one-third of expats raising children in South Africa find there is room for improvement when it comes to their children’s health and safety, compared to only 11 percent worldwide.
In light of these results, it might be a cold comfort that foreign residents do, however, appreciate the leisure activities that the beautiful country has to offer — South Africa ranks among the global top ten here — as well as the quality of its natural environment: 85 percent rate the latter favorably.
South Africans Abroad: Headed to the UAE, Mozambique and Germany
The UAE and Mozambique are relatively popular destinations for South African expats, with eight percent and six percent, respectively, moving there compared to five percent and one percent of all respondents living in these countries. Germany is the third most popular destination, with five percent of South African respondents currently living there.
Like their expat counterparts in South Africa, 62 percent of South Africans abroad were thinking about personal safety and crime before their move. This is quite a large disparity compared to the global average, which is only 32 percent.
Once abroad, South Africans rate their own personal safety, as well as the health and safety of their children, very positively (83 percent and 85 percent, respectively). Aside from safety concerns, South African expats think mostly about the local cost of living (31 percent) and the economy and labor market (30 percent) before moving abroad.
Top Managers and Academics
South Africans abroad seem rather industrious with 63 percent now enjoying a higher income than they would at home. About half of the expats earn their living as employees or managers with one-quarter of them holding top management positions. A further 16 percent of all expats from South Africa work as teachers, academic staff, or researchers, compared to the global average of just nine percent.
