With international migration trends pointing to the increased movement of citizens, SA is being urged to tackle its inadequate labour migration legislation.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in SA is imploring the government to finalise its white paper on international migration, aimed at providing solutions to myriad issues faced by people migrating to the country.
ILO director for Pretoria Joni Musabayana says that while the security imperative is still paramount, countries need to put in place a rights-based, development-orientated migration legislative framework.
While not discounting SA’s developmental agenda to attract migrants with higher skills, he says the management of low-skilled migrants competing with locals to earn a living in areas with the biggest development backlogs — informal settlements — is a huge challenge. "Create instruments that make people official documented migrants, rather than creating a system that forces people underground and make them more vulnerable to exploitation, create even more unfair competition for the locals and therefore increases hostilities between the two groups," he says.
Musabayana says about 99% of migrants in SA are looking for better economic opportunities.
"There is a mismatch between the legislative and governance framework currently in place and the reality. The frameworks conceived in the 1960s, during the period of struggle, made security the number one issue, but these countries are now free and relate freely with one another," he says.
The proposed legislation, which is in its final stages of consultation before it is tabled as a bill, remains weighted towards the security of borders and the management of movement. The Border Management Authority Bill, which was passed in June, is intrinsic to this new approach.
The white paper describes as a "great concern" data pointing to the majority of international migrants being either low-skilled asylum seekers or people granted residence on the basis of relationships, rather than sought-after migrants with critical skills for the promotion of economic growth.
From July 2014 to December 2016, critical skills and business visas accounted for 1% and 3% of all applications for residency.
Michael Kasumba, who works as a lead engineer for a multinational company specialising in water-treatment technology, says that despite being a highly skilled migrant worker, the environment in the country fills him with fear.
My travel fees were funded by my family and, in principle, we face the same disadvantage as any other black South African. But when it comes to promotions to management, I am always left out because I don’t meet the criteria
A Ugandan who qualified for naturalisation, Kasumba says he cannot benefit from employment equity policies meant to deal with racial disparities in the workplace.
"I am classified the same as a white South African, a foreign national in terms of the Employment Equity Act," he says.
"My travel fees were funded by my family and, in principle, we face the same disadvantage as any other black South African. But when it comes to promotions to management, I am always left out because I don’t meet the criteria."
The ILO Convention on Migration for Employment, which SA has not ratified, advocates the nondiscriminatory treatment of migrant workers, including affording them treatment no less favourable "than that which it applies to nationals" on issues including remuneration and other benefits.
Department of Labour deputy director-general Sam Morotoba says SA will ratify the convention after it ensures its ability to enforce compliance and adherence.
The Immigration Act of 2002 stipulates that all labour laws in the country should cover migrants, both regular and irregular, he says.
"If migration is well managed, it does not matter if it’s at the high skills level or low skills level, it can be beneficial to the sending country and the receiving country irrespective of skills levels; it’s just a question of management," he says.
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