'Cape faces double migrant burden'

An influx of foreigners into urban areas presents Cape Town with the "double burden" of an ageing population and an intensified need for sustainable job creation.

The majority of the province's "non-citizen" population is split between young African men looking for work and elderly Europeans. Their impacts are emphasised because 80 percent of these people are concentrated in the city.

These are findings of an HSRC report, "The State of the Population in the Western Cape Province", released on Friday.

The report defines non-citizens as "foreign-born persons" living in South Africa without legal citizenship.

The report also found the Western Cape - with the lowest fertility rate in the country - to be the county's fastest growing province, mainly due to its absorption of more than 3 300 migrants a month.

With a long history of European migration and past policies strongly favouring "pro-white immigration", the Western Cape was a "preferred destination for the white (immigrant) population" to the other provinces, Ravayi Marindo, manager of the department of social development's Western Cape Provincial Population Unit, said.

Her report speculates that the province's distance from mines and borders with neighbouring countries accounts for "smaller numbers of black African foreign-born persons and non-citizens".

Crime is another challenge brought about by these patterns as "a large number of young male adults may also become a liability if they are unemployed, as they may be absorbed into illegal activities".

Marindo said: "In terms of sustainable provision of services, the Western Cape needs to plan for the creation of more jobs, since the province is attracting young male immigrants in search of work. (And) the fairly substantial number of old age immigrants and retirees might require the provision of more services for the elderly."

The report did not include illegal immigrants, for whom there was no data.

An estimated 5.3 million people live in the Western Cape, and between 2001 and last year the population grew at double the national rate of 1,3 percent.

But while the Western Cape has the highest average life expectancy of all the provinces, it shares the unfortunate national trend of higher death rates associated with HIV/Aids.

- Cape Times
- Picture Thom Evans - Burden