Talk:White South Africans

"Roughly 60% of them speak Afrikaans as their mother language and about 39% speak English and/or another language."

That's roughly 99% for the total, not 100%. Do these statistics account for mute people, or did they include newborn babies?

63.215.27.199 21:26, 6 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

About 1% of the whites speak some other language home than Afrikaans or English, for example such as German, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_South_Africa and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_South_Africa. Dr.Poison 12:45, 7 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

The article's stats, as originally written, still make no sense: "39% speak English and/or another language." Logically, this would include everything besides Afrikaans; it's an instance of the A or not A, and certainly needs to be corrected in some way.

- 63.215.27.199 05:28, 8 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

I have edited it. As of now it is like this: 1% of the white population speaks some other language as their mother language, such as for example German, Portuguese or Greek. . Dr.Poison 13:21, 10 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

- - - -

• Made some edits. Hopefully others who have more knowledge then me, would find it nice to edit and expanf this article. Iv'e tried to do my best and write my best English. Enjoy! Dr.Poison 13:04, 23 July 2006 (UTC)Reply

• Thanks, it really helped the article's value. South Africa experienced a wave of Europeans arrived in the country's gold mining areas in the 1880's and 1890's. The majority of them are Anglo-British, but it included Welsh, Scottish, Irish, some North Americans and a few Australians, all were known to contribute in the growth of small mining gulches like Johannesburg and Pretoria, into major cities of a young promising, but racially strifen nation in the 20th century. Mike D 26 01:56, 1 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

I want to take note on small scale European immigration to South Africa, primarily into the cities, took place in the 1950's and 60's but slowed down in the 1970's. The majority of white European immigrants happened to be British when South Africa was part of the British commonwealth until it withdrew in 1961. Some immigrants came from Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, former Yugoslavia and the Netherlands, as well thousands of Arabs from Lebanon and Syria.

Usually the new South Africans as they were called assimilated into the white minority, but most immigrants joined South Africa's smaller English-speaking group for the reason that economic success required English skills, although are fluent in the Afrikaans language. The country has a sizable population of Chinese and east Asians, despite they encountered less overt segregation than south Asians in the days of apartheid.

However, the economic decline after the end of apartheid was unexpected and a large percentage of white South Africans left for good or temporarily in hopes to return or participate in a country rife with promise. The current government ever since tries to draw in more population of skilled workers and businessmen to boost the country's developed but crippled economy.

Post-apartheid South Africa is open for immigrants of all races, especially sub-saharan Africans came to South Africa in the 1990's and early 2000's to fulfill their dreams in the continent's most developed country, but the emigration of upper-class white South Africans to Europe or the US is an issue for the country wants to reverse the "brain drain" trend.

I believe the South African economy is going to improve in a couple of years and what I know is thousands-some American retirees actually move to South Africa for the kind of living standards the country is known for. Soon, every South African of race or creed will enjoy the post-apartheid prosperity if the nation ever accomplished that goal. I can see why South Africa hold such potential in the last century of high-paced industrial development.

Interestingly, there are many white South Africans who opposed apartheid and want to help make their country a better place for all of their people, but economic conditions must improve or they can't return to their homeland in terms of nationality if not indigenous to the country. South Africans aren't divided in race or color as much, but class divisions and geographic location in the distribution of rich and poor needs to be worked on. Mike D 26 01:43, 1 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Very good information, thank you. Are you willing to write some of that information to the article? I know that there was many Lebanese who moved to South Africa during the civil war (or before). It is also interesting that there was many Scandinavians who moved during the early 21 century to SA, and made some kind of sucess as they could write and read. There was a documentery about that on Swedish Television last year ("Afrikafararna"). Good info and a happy new year! 18:35, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi Mike - any refs for the economic decline after the end of apartheid? I'm not sure that that assumption is in any way correct and thus not tremendously keen to see it incorporated into this article in that form. This assumption wouldn't even have been correct several years ago. There are a couple of braking factors (infrastructure not being built fast enough and skills shortages) on the economy but other than that it's done a pretty good job of benefiting from the current emerging market upswing. Volatility of the currency shouldn't be confused with economic downturn; it can be related but in many cases, and particularly with smaller open economies, is just as likely to merely be speculative/money market related. Emigration after the end of apartheid was less related to actual economics and more related to perception/future expectation and social factors (eg. crime, general politics, advent of affirmative action and related expectations). Kit Berg (talk) 07:33, 28 November 2007 (UTC) ETA: Don't worry about it, I've just read your talk page so am assuming that no reply is forthcoming. Just as a heads-up for anyone else reading this, Mike's comments are stated as fact but many of them can be disproved relatively easily so please don't incorporate into the article without some kind of reference. Kit Berg (talk) 07:41, 28 November 2007 (UTC)Reply

Were they? I've often read that of Japanese and Taiwanese, but not Koreans. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.241.101.167 (talk) 20:01, 1 November 2007 (UTC)Reply

"In recent years there have been high numbers of British expats relocating to South Africa. Among the British expat population, South Africa ranks as the 6th most popular destination and is ranked as the top destination amongst British retirees and pensioners."

Ah yes, it's a mark of a highly professional and useful encyclopedia to use slang or abbreviated words. gg wikipedia.