I want to emmigrate from South Africa, but where should I go?

Question

Hello. My husband and I have recently decided it is time for us to move from South Africa, we’re just not sure where we would like to go. We have 3 children, 2 sons who are 14 and 17, and a daughter who is 16. We are finding life to frightening here now. We live in Cape Town, but we also keep homes in Paarl and Wilderness. All of our homes have been broken into, even though we have them severely protected. My daughter was home alone one evening when she noticed someone in the protected yard. She called SAPS and thank god the police got there in time. And then a few months ago my husband and I had our car hijacked by gunpoint at a stop light on our way home from the supermarket. We are really becoming concerned with the crime and want our kids to be somewhere where they can be safe and not having to be on high alertness all the time. We want to live somewhere nice, clean and safe with good education and jobs available. My husband and I both work in the medical field. He is a Neurosurgeon and I am an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist. We are particularly considering Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, but are also interested in Ireland, Canada, and the US. We are also open to other suggestions. Can you suggest somewhere? Specifically, could you suggest a country and then some cities that meet or expectations? We would specifically like to be in an area with some other South African expats. We would also like an area that is more liberal minded, as my oldest son came out as g*y last year. We also enjoy living near a large city, but are also able to keep property in a small town or the countryside for vacation and occasional weekends. And we also want an area with excellent private schools to enroll our children in. Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

Canada is always in need of good doctors. You might be well advised to check out the immigration rules and laws in the various countries you are contemplating. I have put the URL for Canada's below but there are several other sites that may also be of help. Go to a Canadian version of the search engine and put in Immigration law and you will get pages of associated sites. Canada has already welcomed a lot of S.A. doctors so you might try to find some of them over here and ask them also.

About our weather - yes it is cold in the winter but we have central heating!! I was born here and I can honestly say that the coldest winters I have ever experienced were the ones I spent in South Africa with no central heating.  You'd love it here!

Answer 2

I would suggest Stockholm, Sweden. They're very liberal and accepting there, and your son would not be descriminated against nearly as much as in any of the other countries you mentioned. Crime is not much of a problem either, and the public education and health care is great. I don't know about private schools though. And if you're rich and want to keep all your money, the tax rates are high.

The US is not very accepting to g**s, but it's probably better than South Africa. There are good private schools and lower tax rates here, however, and crime is moderate. Also, if you're a doctor in a specialty, you can make a ton of money because of the health care sytem, which by the way is the most expensive.

The UK, Australia, and Ireland would be good choices too. They're fairly liberal and have better climates. Ireland is especially beatiful and pretty laid-back, and it never gets too cold or hot. Dublin would be a good place to live.

Canada is similar to Sweden, but they speak English. The Toronto area would be a nice place to live, but of course it's cold.

I have no idea about New Zealand. It's probably a lot like Australia.

Answer 3

I live in Canada and I love it.

Pros: Canada is very cozy, friendly place.  Almost everyone is welcoming and helpful, and our three largest cities Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are sort of melting pots of immigrants from around the world.  If you are looking for places where people of different descent are welcome, Toronto and Vancouver are English-speaking cities with greatly varying ethnic groups.  Montreal is similar, but with a harsher climate and French as it's primary language.   All of Canada has long, harsh, Russian-like winters except for the southern Pacific coast, where Vancouver, British Columbia is situated.  I believe that Vancouver also has large networks of people of all sexual orientation, as well as entire communties of immigrants from around the globe.  It is a rapidly growing and promising city, and is a few hours away from the US border.  Vancouver is probably Canada's most Liberal and modern city, and is advancing towards green lifestyles faster than the rest of the country.  Unfortunately, I am fairly young and do not know much about our Healthcare system.  If you would like to find opportunities for jobs, you should look into that yourself.

Cons: Apart from large cities and populaces, Canada is rather mono-cultural.  As I mentioned before, the climate is very harsh except for souther British Columbia.  Public schools have disappointingly simple courses, and much of the work leaves you not totally prepared for the real world.  I think that you can find private schools and academies all across the country, where the work is much more advanced, but once again, you should also look into that yourself.  On the other hand, studies show that we have some of the best Universities and Colleges in the world.

I hope this was helpful.  I may have been misguided or mislead on some of my claims, so you may want to look into them yourself if you are skeptical.

Good luck!