Should those who flee the ship be welcomed back when it’s saved?

With the elections fast approaching, it’s hard to think or talk of much else, but one thing that has become a topic of discussion lately is the number of people leaving and coming back to South Africa, and what it all means.

Before we delve further into this, I must say I am one of those people who will never leave the country. I will stay to fight the good fight to prevent our country from going down in flames.

That is not to say that should opportunities out­­­side the country present themselves, I would not pursue them. I believe in the fluidity of the world we live in and that at any point I might find myself spending a year or two living elsewhere, but in the firm knowledge that I would always return and put down roots here. If my country needed me, I would be back in a heartbeat.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s look at the issue of emigration, which of course is not just a South African phenomenon and is influenced by a lot of factors, including education and employment.

Some people move because they find their life partners in another country, and some for survivalist reasons such as political persecution and conflict.

In this day and age, people should be free to move and live wherever they want to. Migration has, after all, been a defining part of our history, whether for imperial conquest or less nefarious reasons.

I have always felt, however, that the more connected you feel to your environment and those around you, the less likely it is that you will be inclined to leave.

Your relationship with your country is as intimate and deep as a personal relationship with family.

You have to take the good with the bad and fight to keep the relationship because its rewards outweigh its trying times.

It also gives you the stability of identity and belonging, and you would be hard-pressed to find human beings who don’t have this longing.

One hears accounts of how those who have left their country often feel a sense of isolation, displacement and never quite “fitting in”, which is unsurprising when entering a foreign society where you must learn its norms, value systems and cultural imperatives.

It takes an extra effort and that extra effort will remind you that you are not really of that country. This must be a lonely feeling, but I guess it’s something that some people find to be worth enduring because of whatever their push is to leave their country.

Further than that, and specific to South Africa, a question arises – do people who have left the country for fear of its collapse under the current administration deserve to come back and enjoy the spoils once the country is saved by those who stayed behind to fight against its collapse?

I haven’t made up my mind one way or the other, but I do think the question is worth chewing on. DM

This article first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick newspaper, DM168, which is available countrywide for R29.