Home Affairs: DA supports CDE call for migration policy development

The Democratic Alliance fully supports the recommendations made in the report released this week by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), "Skills, Growth and Borders", and the call for the development of a migration policy that will be beneficial to the country we call home.

The DA has proposed a parliamentary debate on the issues that should inform such a policy. The proposal has yet to be taken up by the ANC. We note that the Minister has stated that she will comment on the CDE report once she has had time to study its content. We call on her to utilise this opportunity to formally open a consultative process towards a holistic and workable policy on migration.

The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs has just returned from Windhoek, where she attended the SADC "Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa" ministerial conference. Although we welcome South Africa's participation, we find it unfortunate that SADC has prioritised the free movement of people within the region, "as a stepping stone towards free movement of persons in an eventual African Economic Community".  The focus of the debate should not be localised. It should, in fact, be global.

The Minister has tabled both the Refugees Amendment Bill and Immigration Amendment Bill in Parliament. She has argued that the amendments these Bills contain are necessary to address shortcomings in the current systems.

However, the Immigration Bill, in particular, goes much further than this: it seeks to dramatically alter the migration regime, with potentially devastating consequences for the South African economy. The harnessing of skills from outside of South Africa will be rendered far more difficult should the provisions of this Bill be enacted. South Africa can ill afford this.

For example:

• South Africa currently has a quota system, allowing highly skilled persons to enter the country with relative ease. The quota list is highly flawed (doctors, for instance, are not included), and is outdated. The Department cannot administer one list, and now proposes that three such lists should exist: business prescribed to be in the national interest, skills or qualifications determined to be critical, and sectors to be determined for the issue of corporate permits.
• The Exceptional Skills work permit will be abolished, thus obstructing the opportunity for persons not falling within any of the three categories mentioned above to seek work or to establish businesses in South Africa.
• No effort has been made to facilitate the recognition or utilisation of the skills that spouses of migrants might possess.
• No avenue is provided to accommodate economic migrants, who form the vast majority of South Africa's asylum seekers, and often have considerable skills and experience which might well benefit our economy.

Far-reaching changes are ill advised in the absence of a well-informed migration policy. When questioned by the DA on this during a portfolio committee meeting, the Director-General, Mr Mkuseli Apleni, stated "We are in the process of consulting with COSATU and BUSA on a new migration policy, but it is just making things difficult for us."

The DA submits that the Department is making things difficult for themselves. It is largely as a result of their inability to manage migration, both formal and informal, that suspicion of foreigners arises and that South Africa suffers dire skills shortages.

The Director-General also stated that the Department aims to attract 50 000 skilled people to the country per annum. He will certainly need the help of institutions outside of his own Department to achieve this goal.

He would do well to read Ann Bernstein's excellent CDE report, and take cognisance of her comments, particularly: "Developing such a policy will not be easy ... This debate has to happen urgently, however; it has to be honest, open, and well-informed. The status quo is too damaging to be allowed to continue..."

The DA will continue to utilise every mechanism at its disposal to pursue the need for a well-informed migration policy. As the CDE report correctly states "For nearly ten years, in response to mounting evidence of South Africa's growing skills shortage, the government has been promising to improve the systems under which skilled immigrants enter South Africa. If we are serious about achieving a much higher growth rate, a bold and determined new approach on this issue is vital."

Statement issued by Annette Lovemore MP, Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, November 19 2010

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