Before I'd even started packing for my trip to South Africa, the latest wave of xenophobic protest had already made global headlines. I didn't know what to expect on arrival. All I'd heard from my South African friends and family back home was that "everyone" seemed to be moving to South Africa.
On a full flight from Istanbul to Cape Town, I was seated next to a heavy-set Turkish man in his thirties, maybe. My first thought about Munir* was that he was wearing more gold than the tourist advisory would recommend, given the destination.
With a friendly face and approachable demeanour, we struck up a conversation; I asked what had brought him to South Africa. Munir explained that eight years earlier he'd moved to Mozambique to help his uncle run a fast-food store, and before long the family had joined him from Türkiye. He went on to open a couple of fast-food outlets of his own, along with a small construction business. Both were going well enough that he'd been able to apply for a Financial Independence Permit for South Africa. The main pull factor to move from Mozambique to South Africa was the standard of education on offer for his two school-age children.
Cape Town CBD at the foot of Table Mountain, seen from Bloubergstrand.
Munir explained that South Africa offered significant opportunity for start-ups and small business, with a low cost of entry, affordable labour, and limited competition across most sectors, relative to other westernised, "first world" countries.
Four years into life in South Africa, Munir and his family were only months away from permanent residency, having already purchased a home in upmarket Claremont, a southern suburb of Cape Town. Munir spoke with unhindered certainty that South Africa could be their forever home, warmly describing how welcoming Africans of all backgrounds had been, and how much he loved the lifestyle and the diversity of people and cultures.
These stories of people relocating to South Africa are nothing new to me. My own grandfather was British. He and his brother settled in Cape Town permanently after WWII. Growing up in South Africa, I came across many expats, some close to me, who had similar stories of struggle in Europe only to flourish after arriving in South Africa. Saying this, it was interesting to hear directly from people such as Munir that this was still happening in 2026.
Over eleven days in Cape Town I travelled mostly by bus, train, and Uber, getting a feel for how people on the ground move and interact with one another. The demographics had clearly shifted since my last visit: noticeably more Africans from elsewhere on the continent, and a striking number of arrivals from everywhere else, mostly Europeans, but really every corner of the world was represented. At times you hear so many different languages being spoken your head spins.
A cross-section of Cape Town on the morning commute.
Taking an Uber most days, I made a point of talking with the drivers. None were local. They came from Zimbabwe, Malawi, DRC, and Somalia, among others; some had been in the country for many years and were raising children. One man from Malawi told me he'd managed to buy property and had made South Africa his forever home. Another, from Zimbabwe, was close to finishing building a home on a plot of land he'd bought years earlier; he'd also put his son through university, all on an Uber driver's income and a few side hustles on the go. The common thread among these expats: visas and documentation moved painfully slowly, but if you could afford to hire the right migration experts, you could get what you needed done in a fraction of the time. None wanted to return home while they were of working age.
The Cape Town line via Claremont, where Munir and his family bought a home.
In the well-heeled suburb of Camps Bay, I caught up with an old work colleague from my London days who worked in design and strategy. James* moved back to Cape Town well over a decade ago and started a family with his European wife, building a working base for local start-ups and financial-services businesses. He was certain South Africa had a bright future, and confident they'd never leave, not that he had a choice, he joked; he'd never get his wife to agree to move back. Another old London friend who migrated to Cape Town now earns significantly more at a local financial services business than he could command in London, which made staying in South Africa that much easier a choice.
Camps Bay, where James built his life after moving back from London.
I stayed in Sea Point, not far from the city centre, a fascinating mix of people from around the world, anchored by a large local Jewish community, with sizeable German, British, and West African populations among others living on the Atlantic Seaboard, as it's known. I found this busy area, with its connectivity and proximity to vibrant areas, a fantastic place to stay, and would recommend it to anyone visiting Cape Town on their way to the Winelands, Garden Route, Karoo, or elsewhere.
Lion's Head watches over every street on the Atlantic Seaboard.
The consensus among the expats I met was that South Africans are warm, kind, open, and inviting people. The country holds genuine promise for anyone willing to take a chance at the opportunity, helped along by a thriving entrepreneurial culture, and a state that most people have simply stopped waiting on. The mentality is: "wait for the government to act, and you'll be waiting forever." You depend on yourself and your network; you don't turn to government for much of anything. That shared understanding is what's driving private-sector growth into spaces the state has traditionally occupied, or has quietly retreated from. For this reason, the Western Cape has managed to outpace other provinces in the country, many of which are struggling significantly.
Not all foreigners experience the same South Africa
And yet, clearly, not all foreigners experience the same South Africa. The migrants bearing the brunt of the recent protests are not the people settling into Camps Bay, Sea Point, or Claremont. Visible inequality is part of the story: when relative newcomers appear to prosper (particularly obvious with West Africans and their expensive cars, designer clothes, and so on) while most black South Africans remain desperately poor, resentment naturally festers. The government has taken a cavalier attitude towards mass intracontinental migration, and seems to have a lot to say about xenophobia but far less to say about unemployment and the people affected by mass immigration.
Visible prosperity in Cape Town sits alongside real hardship.
I, like many white Africans, am descended from Europeans who suffered religious persecution and/or economic stagnation in their homelands and thrust themselves into the unknown in search of opportunity. That same search has brought wave after wave of migrants to South Africa for centuries.
The Khoisan people, with arguably the oldest living culture on earth, estimated at 100,000-150,000 years old, have experienced ongoing waves of migration into the region for roughly the last thousand years or so, the vast majority arriving from further north on the continent. So this southerly migration is nothing new, but it clearly needs to be handled, and government at this point must lead until the private sector can step in to help.
The land of opportunity is real, and it's shifting
Construction along the Clifton and Bantry Bay coastline. New capital keeps arriving.
South Africa needs fresh skills, businesses, and investment. For decades, talented Africans emigrated to developed nations in search of better prospects. I believe the tide has now turned. English-speaking South Africa is well positioned to attract entrepreneurs, young professionals, retirees, and established businesses from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, backed by freehold title on property, a currency exchange rate that stretches foreign savings and income considerably further, and visa pathways that stay genuinely accessible to anyone prepared to come, stay, and build.
At home in Australia, inflation, over-regulation, big government, and high immigration have eroded the value of private-sector work. Decades of regulatory and financial hurdles have made opportunity harder to find. Our service-heavy economies are also among the most exposed to the AI revolution: few professions have a wide enough moat to remain untouched. In a system increasingly geared toward Canberra and its bureaucracy, with heavy taxes and growing red tape, there has never been a better time to look abroad.
Countries like South Africa offer inviting pathways to overseas property ownership and permanent residency. For those willing to step outside their comfort zone, modern South Africa delivers genuine freedom, adventure, and upside to anyone prepared to live with intent.
Golden hour from a rooftop pool in Sea Point.
* Names changed for privacy.
Photographs and video throughout this article were taken on the author's Samsung Galaxy S24 during the trip described above.
