1. What is the Come Home Campaign?

The Come Home Campaign is a project of the civil initiative AfriForum which is directed at making a positive contribution to the achievement of the following three aims:

• To assist as many skilled expatriates to return to South Africa as possible;
• To retain and locally involve as many would-be skilled emigrants as possible;
• To engage skilled people still resident in South Africa who have withdrawn mentally and “emigrated” inwardly in the public debate and life once more.

2. Who is involved in the Come Home Campaign?

The “Come Home Campaign” is aimed at achieving cooperation among a wide spectrum of role players for the realisation of its ends. The role players to be involved include non-governmental organisations, large businesses and government departments.

The campaign was launched jointly by the trade union movement Solidarity and the non-profit service organisation, the Company for Immigration. As of 2006 it is being managed by AfriForum, the civil initiative of Solidarity.

Membership of neither AfriForum, nor Solidarity is a prerequisite to being advised or becoming involved in the campaign.

3. Why was the Come Home Campaign launched?

South Africa currently finds itself in a situation in which more skilled persons are leaving than entering the country. This leads to what is known as a “brain drain”. It is estimated that there already are more than a million South Africans living abroad.

The economy of a developing country, such as South Africa, cannot afford the loss of skilled people. This is underscored by the finding in ABSA’s long-term economic forecast, which predicts that the skills loss will seriously impair the country’s ability to achieve the desired growth rate annually. It is clear that drastic measures are needed to increase the skills levels in the South African economy. The return, retention and involvement of skilled South African citizens are of cardinal importance to the South African economy. The launch of the Come Home Campaign was prompted by this necessity.

4. What is the focus of the Come Home Campaign?

A threefold plan has been formulated to achieve the aims of the Come Home Campaign. This plan endeavours to achieve a positive result to each of the three components of the plan, namely:

• The establishment of an Assistance- and Advice Bureau to support skilled individuals who had left the country, but wish to return;
• The creation of more favourable conditions within the country to ensure that skilled people would prefer to live here, instead of emigrating;
• To point out misconceptions about life abroad.

In order to achieve continued success with the abovementioned plan, AfriForum continuously negotiates and discusses the crucial issues in this regard with non-governmental organisations, businesses and government departments.