In 2000 I met a SA couple living in the UK.
They were both college educated.
They said 80+% of the college classmate3s had left SA.
One of them had an English grandparent so that person could stay permanently in the UK.
The other did not have an English grandparent so that person had to leave after 2 years.
When they ran out of time they packed up, left the bulk of their earning in a UK bank, and traveled the world for a year and a half.
Then they returned to SA.
There was a outreach program going on to have the SA out-pats ‘return to their homeland’, that ‘there was opportunity’ awaiting them.
One got a job right away, one it took over a year to get a job in their field.
There were quota’s in job hires, and so many slots had to be filled by ‘natives’.
Who also didn’t have to work... or even sometimes show up.
Got an email from them about a year later...
They said the outreach program was a load of sh**
All they wanted of them was to bring back the money they had earned elsewhere.
At that time you could not take money you had in SA out of the country.
So, if you brought your hard earned hard currency back to SA, it stayed there.
Now here’s the real kicker.
Both of these people had had summer jobs in the US when they were in college.
They had desperately tried to immigrate to the US.
We wouldn’t take them.
Mexico will; and then let them walk North.