Official approach to immigration hampers growth — and looks set to worsen
New skills list and bill on international migration suggest yet more restrictions, which will block foreign direct investment and skills flows
With a new bill on international migration expected to be available for comment in March 2019 and a new critical skills list intended to be implemented the following month, would-be immigrants to SA and foreigners already living in the country are already getting a worrying preview of what these new rules may mean. Department of home affairs officials, who are notorious for applying their own interpretations of immigration law, now appear to be pre-emptively clamping down on immigration across the board. The increase in unlawful rejections of visa applications could be a sign that the department is moving to apply restrictive new policies, in effect blocking a great deal of foreign direct investment and skills flows to the country. Stakeholders across immigration and business are voicing increasing concern about the potential impact the draft bill and critical skills list may have on efforts to grow the economy. Efforts are under way to form a multisectoral task team under the auspi...
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