South African Migrant Teachers' Decision-Making: Levels of Influence and ‘Relative Deprivation’

Abstract

South Africa entered the international labour market on becoming a non-racial democracy in 1994. The transnational migration of teachers from South Africa to developed countries such as the UK reflects international labour trends, with professionals from developing countries in the global south migrating to gain better professional and lifestyle prospects to countries in the global north. This article examines the process of decision-making when teachers leave South Africa to teach in the UK and when they return home. It focuses on the period from 2001 to 2008, during the height of teacher recruitment from South Africa to the UK, using empirical evidence from a study undertaken to examine the nature of South African teacher migration.1|Decisions to migrate internationally were influenced by a host of factors from the micro- to the meso- and macro-level that collectively influenced teachers to leave South Africa. I draw on Stark's concept of ‘relative deprivation’ and extend it to...