'My coming to South Africa made everything possible': The socio-economic and political reasons for migrant teachers being in Johannesburg

Abstract

Teacher migration is a phenomenon thatgained international momentum more than eighteen years ago. South Africa was one of the developing countries within theCommonwealth which weregreatly affected by the loss of homegrown skills in respect toteacher emigration to the United Kingdom. In the past ten years, however, South Africa hasattractedteachers from neighbouring countries. Whilst there have been some studies on migrant teachers in South Africa, research on migrant teachers in primary schools isa neglected area. This paper reports on some of the findings ofa qualitative teacher immigration study undertaken in Johannesburg which focussed on primary school teachers. The paper explores the economic, political,and social reasons for migrant teachers teaching in Johannesburg. The push and pull theory of the seminal scholar, Lee (1966) and Bett’s (2010) insights into survival migration and chain migration provide the theoretical dimensions for thispaper. Primary school teachers fromboth public and private schools participated in this research anddata was generated through interviews and focus group discussions. Migrant teachers selectJohannesburg, South Africa as asurvival strategy for a range of economic, political and social reasons. Primary schools in Johannesburg have been overcomingtheir teacher shortages with thisinflux of migrantteachers,benefitting from this brain gain.