Not that many in the UK

A study conducted by Dr Robert Crawford of King's College, claims there are only about 550 000 South Africans in the UK. Dr. Crawford has conducted similar studies on New Zealanders and Australians. The findings were presented at Monash University in Johannesburg today. He used census data, national insurance registrations, British entry/exit data and South African emigration data amongst other sources in his research. He found that South Africans stuck to their own community, more than any other group living abroad, and that anglophone South Africans are mostly in south-west London, Afrikaners in the east and south-east, blacks in the east, and Jews in the north. In 1998, 11 000 of the 26 000 South African workers in Britain were professionals. Ten years later, it is 29 000 of 80 000 workers. From 1995 until now, there have been close to 20 000 South African registered health workers in the UK. According to Crawford's research, the South African government says that about 200 doctors leave the country for the UK each year. Two-thirds to three-quarters of South Africans entered Britain on two-year working holiday visas. The UK has reduced the work period of the two-year working visa to one year. The UK has signalled it will make its working holiday visa scheme only accessible to those countries that have a reciprocal working holiday visa arrangement, something South Africa doesn't have.