This statistical release on Documented immigrants in South Africa, 2013 (P03051.4) presents information on immigrants into South Africa that were issued with temporary and permanent residents permits in 2013. The data source for this annual release is derived from data generated by the Department of Home Affairs on the issuance of temporary and permanent residence permits. Statistics South Africa analyses these data to produce information on the annual flow and other characteristics of documented immigrants in South Africa. The results on the number; types and category status of the permits; nationality; and the age structure of the 2013 recipients of both temporary and permanent residence permits are presented in this statistical release. Extracts from the report are presented below.

Temporary residence permits

The number of temporary residence permits (TRPs) issued increased from 106 173 in 2011 to 141 550 in 2012 and decreased to 101 910 in 2013. The fluctuations in the approved permits per year are largely a reflection of the processing procedures and regulations in place at the time of considering the applications. Despite the changes in the numbers per type of permit and the total number of permits issued, the pattern of types of permits remained virtually the same. The distribution indicates that the highest proportion of permits were issued for visitors’ (32,6%) followed by work permits (23,6%).

The ten leading overseas countries were: India (17,0%); China (14,9%); Pakistan (12,5%); Bangladesh (8,8%); UK (8,4%); Germany (5,1%); USA (4,0%), Thailand (2,9%), The Netherlands (2,3%) and France (2,1%). These countries together represent 78,0% of the total recipients from overseas countries. Zimbabwe (33,8%); Nigeria (18,3%); DRC (5,0%); Lesotho (4,9%); Angola (4,6%), Ghana (3,5%); Malawi (3,1%); Cameroon (2,5%); Zambia (2,3%) and Congo (2,3%) were the ten leading countries from the Africa region. Recipients from these countries combined received 80,3% of all the temporary residence permits issued to nationals from Africa

Overall, a relatively high large proportion of the overseas nationals received visitors’ (34,1%), work (30,0%) and relatives’ (22,6%) permits. Only 6,4% and 2,6% of the overseas recipients were issued with study and business permits respectively. All the overseas sub-regions had visitors’ and work permits as their first and second highest proportion of permits with the exception of Asia and Australasia. Considering the permit recipients’ distribution pattern for overseas region with its ten leading countries, the proportion of China recipients’ of work permit was quite high at 60,3%, while India had 41,2% of her recipients with work permits.

The results on Africa’s recipients showed a number of similarities. A large proportion of the Africa recipients were given visitors’ (31,2%) and relatives’ (24,0%) permits. Nearly one in four of the recipients each were issued with study (22,2%) and work (18,3%) permits. North Africa (21,8%) and SADC (21,1%) had the highest proportion of their recipients with work permits. Study permits were more prominent among East and Central Africa (27,3%) and SADC (24,5%) recipients compared to the West Africa (14,7%) and North Africa (13,6%). Furthermore, a relatively high proportion of recipients of business permits was observed among recipients from East and Central Africa (3,6%). Work permit was ranked first only among Zimbabwe recipients (30,8%); only 3,4% of permits to nationals from Lesotho were for work.

The allocation of work permits was less widespread among the 2013 recipients. Hence the ten top countries received 78,0% of the 24 027 work permits leaving only 22,0% to be shared among the remaining countries. Moreover nationals from only three countries [Zimbabwe (24,2%), China (17,2%) and India (13,4%)] received 54,8% of the permits. Five of the ten countries were from the Asia sub-region whereas UK and Germany were the only country from Europe; Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ghana were the three countries from the Africa region.

Nationals from the top ten countries received a total of 79,3% of the 1 911 business permits issued in 2013.The ten leading countries were made up of four from Asia; three from East and Central Africa; one from West Africa, one from SADC region and one from Europe. Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and India nationals together received 47,9% of the permits. Nationals from Ethiopia, Cameroon and Kenya received 10,7% of the permits. Nigeria and UK recipients were given 16,6% and 2,4% of the permits respectively.

Permanent residence permits

In 2011, a total of 10 011 permanent residence permits (PRPs) were approved and these decreased drastically to 1 283 in 2012 and then increased to 6 801 in 2013. The huge fluctuations in the approved permits per year are mainly due to the processing procedures and regulations in place at the time of adjudicating of the applications.

The distribution of the category status of the temporary residence permits (TRP) used to apply for the PRP shows that more than half (58,3%) of the issued permits were acquired using the relatives’ category status. Work and refugee statuses were used by 31,6% and 5,5% respectively. Business and finance as well as retired persons’ category statuses were used in less than 5,0% of the applications respectively. There were 2 245 (33,0%) permits issued to nationals from the overseas region and 4 555 (67,0%) issued to those from Africa.

Most of the 2 245 nationals from the overseas region received their permanent residence permits based on relatives’ (60,4%), work (29,0%), business and finance (4,7%) and retired persons’ (5,7%) category statuses. China (46,2%), India (38,4%), and Bangladesh (25,5%) showed a relatively high proportion of recipients that obtained the permit based on work category status. Similarly, Italy (13,2%), South Korea (12,8%) and Bangladesh (12,7%) had relatively high proportions of recipients that used their business and finance category status to obtain their permit.

With respect to the pattern observed from the leading African countries, generally more permits were issued based on relatives’ category status. Work category status was used by 34,4% of the recipients from SADC and the West Africa sub-region. The proportions that used work category from North Africa and East and Central Africa were 29,5% and 25,8% respectively. Unlike their counterparts from overseas countries, recipients from African countries seldom obtained their permits based using the business and finance category status. The proportions of recipients with business and finance category status were relatively low (less than 10,0%) in each of the Africa sub-regions even though North Africa (7,7%) and East and Central Africa (5,7%) had higher proportions. Ethiopia (22,6%) was the only country with a relatively high proportion of recipients who used their business and finance category status.

There were five African countries among the ten leading countries for work category status. These countries were: Zimbabwe, Nigeria, DRC, Cameroon and Kenya. Together these countries received 58,3% of the 2013 permits based on work category status, with Zimbabwe alone receiving 40,0%. China and India nationals both were issued with a total of 21,7% whilst the Pakistan recipients were given 2,1%. The only two European countries, Germany and the UK received 1,8% and 1,7% respectively.

A total of 74,4% of the permits based on business and finance category status went to recipients from the top ten countries. Nationals from China received 17,6% whilst those from Ethiopia received 11,9% and Cameroon and Germany each received 8,0% of the permits. Nationals from the three countries in the Africa region namely Ethiopia, Cameroon and Nigeria received 11,9%; 8,0% and 6,3% respectively.