Assessing labour immigration in South Africa

PRETORIA (ILO News) - This seminar is a kick-off event of the project “Assessing the economic contribution of labour migration in developing countries as countries of destination”, supported by the European Union.

This project aims at not only assessing the economic impact in the ten partner countries in isolation, but also at sharing experiences and knowledge among developing countries. An earlier seminar was held in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, and seminars will be conducted soon in Rwanda.

About 3.7% of South Africa’s total population (2010) are immigrants. This seminar will serve as a platform for dialogue on the importance of labour immigration and its linkage to development. It is aimed at identifying key stakeholders, research priorities, available data sources in South Africa as well as knowledge gaps.

The event includes interactive sessions on the immigration policy framework in South Africa and research on the economic impact of immigration in the country and will conclude with a session on the implementation of the project. Speakers will represent several ministries and government agencies, workers’ and employers’ associations, and academics, including:

• Mr. Nkosi Sango Patekile Holomisa, Deputy Minister of Labour
• Mr. Pali Lehohla, Statistician-General, Statistics South Africa
• Mr. Roeland van de Geer, Ambassador, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to South Africa
• Mr. Vic van Vuuren, Director, ILO Decent Work Team for Southern and Eastern Africa and Country Office, Pretoria

The event will take place on 23 June 2015 at GCIS, (Tshedimosetso House, 1035 Frances Baard Street Corner Festival Street, Hatfield, Pretoria). Requests for interviews with our experts should be directed to the OECD Development Centre’s Press office (email: [email protected]; tel: +331 45 24 82 96) or the ILO Pretoria office (Ms. Aurelia Segatti, email: [email protected]‎; tel: +27 81 270 2509).

Attention Media: The media is invited to attend the “Opening and welcome remarks” scheduled for 9:00 - 9:30 am. Interviews with organisers and participants may be available before or after the workshop. The workshop will be held from 9am to 4:30pm on the 23rd of June.