South Africa, as the most industrialised country in the southern portion of Africa, is experiencing a rapid influx of foreign nationals. These individuals, originating from countries outside South Africa, are becoming an increasingly influential part of the country's social and economic fabric.
Coming from diverse countries, and as a multicultural unit, they have become an addition to the already underperforming multicultural society that South Africa has become, with additional challenges beyond language barriers and cultural misunderstandings. However, this has also created new multicultural markets and other essential competence conurbations, which cater to the diverse needs and preferences of different cultural groups, characterised by autonomous and niche value chains, and an undergirding political economy.
Regarding competence — skills, knowledge and attributes — foreign nationals who migrate to another country bring the potential to change their lives. This often enables them to make a valuable contribution to their host country. As a substratum community, they can be innovative and enhance the economy and intellectual capacity of the “host” country. In Sadc, apart from South Africa, where the postcolonial benefits arguably represent an experiential learning education system, those regarded as foreign nationals have proved to be assets to the economy, where it is most needed.
Essentially, Africans of Bantu language descent, as well as foreign nationals, share commonalities with their counterparts within the borders of South Africa. Operating as a multicultural consumer bloc, their dispersed buying power has started to consolidate as a value chain, a distinct political economy and a spending community. There is little to no focus on foreign nationals as one of the most significant and untapped business opportunities for companies and brands doing business in South Africa.
In virtual terms, we may be witnessing the emergence of the tenth virtual province, which will spatially encompass all nine physical provinces, to co-ordinate the various foreign nationals in our cities and elsewhere.
Consider the proliferation of new, yet efficiently distributed, brands that are competing with the dominant South African brands imported through foreign nationals' supply chain networks. In cultural terms, there are media and entertainment opportunities that have yet to be explored based on the emerging market for multicultural content, which connects regions of origin and communities of foreign nationals. Regularisation into economic citizenship of South Africa, especially the financial services sector and critical lifestyle insurance, such as medical aid, are opportunities that do not appear to have been deliberately considered.
The absence of deliberate marketing resources targeting foreign national communities is generating opportunity costs. There are millions of rand left on the table, where remittance money is growing exponentially. The integrated character of the Sadc region's market dictates an in-South Africa focus on the niche foreign nationals market.
On the ground in townships and settlements across the country, the lives of foreign nationals are shaping South African culture every day. The culture of foreign nationals, including those from other regions, such as Europe, has evolved significantly since they arrived years ago, and this evolution is accelerating for those from Africa north of the Limpopo River. The successful integration of foreign nationals hinges on truly understanding who they are as individuals and a community. The extent to which they become part of 'we the people' in the preamble of the South African constitution depends on 'we the people' already defined therein.
It is the messaging in marketing, rather than the translation, that will define penetration in this growing and cash-liquid foreign nationals market. The effort should differentiate between reaching and connecting to the foreign nationals' market. South Africa is now officially a terrain of multicultural marketing and messaging. The entire communication and marketing industry is due for transformation, which includes political rhetoric management and spin doctoring.
Growth into a bigger Africa will reward companies with the courage to break away from old paradigms and fully embrace the new reality of the foreign national marketplace. The facilitation of intra-African trade and economic integration across the continent is a function of how foreign nationals' markets are treated as microcosms or abstractions of the greater realities of the African market. It cannot be normal that mainstream South African platforms have no dedicated spaces to articulate the joys and fears of this growing sector. In virtual terms, we may be witnessing the emergence of the tenth virtual province, which will spatially encompass all nine physical provinces, to co-ordinate the various foreign nationals in our cities and elsewhere.
Expatriates, when properly regulated, have economic benefits to a host country. They bring specialised skills, knowledge and attributes valuable to the productivity demands of the local economy. As a society, we should always contextualise our assessment of acculturation with them as a specific category of people that are now part of our reality. Their visibility cannot be ignored; they can no longer be othered. As a distinct part of 'the people', they have become a significant voter and are now voted for by the people. The South African version of the Obama moment has already been experienced in local government, as well as among second- or third-generation foreign nationals. In colonial border terms, a foreign national president of South Africa is a reality no force can stop; the GNU cabinet has already arrived.
South Africa needs a different hypothesis and a theory of change for all foreign nationals, especially those of African origin. The brute truth is that they have a significant role in the political economy and are fully enfranchised as economic citizens, because they buy and sell goods and services. They have become thought leaders and cultural influencers. Already, there is a marked increase in the number of foreign national graduates and deserving executives.
Their political participation and power are set to increase, considering the crabs-in-a-bucket behaviour of local leaders; they are ready to close the leadership gaps. Stereotypes about people of foreign national origin are often based on limited, outdated information, but tend to be perpetuated by media and marketing inertia. As the national dialogue process unfolds, it would be prudent for those who frame the thematic areas of discourse to invest considerable energy in the significance of foreign nationals in shaping the future of South Africa.
As we look to the future of South Africa, there is one thing we know for sure: the reality of regional urbanisation, including where decent jobs are created, will fundamentally change our perceived composition as a so-called South African non-foreign national society. This might be as high as the impact of technology on our lives as ‘people’ and fundamentally transforming our society and altering our reality. Believing it is reversible is tantamount to choosing not to survive reality and be creative about how to make the best out of it.
• Dr FM Lucky Mathebula is head of faculty, People Management and founder of The Thinc Foundation, a think-tank based at the Da Vinci Institute
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail opinions@timeslive.co.za
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