Pretoria: Cabinet has approved the National Labour Migration Policy (NLMP) White Paper 2025 for implementation, marking a significant step in regulating the movement and employment of foreign nationals in South Africa. Speaking during a post-Cabinet media briefing on Thursday, Minister in The Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni explained that the policy seeks to provide a framework to enforce proper and orderly movement and employment of foreign nationals in the country.
According to South African Government News Agency, the policy aims to achieve a balance across several areas, including addressing South Africans’ expectations for job prospects, in light of rising unemployment and the perception that foreign nationals restrict labour market access. The NLMP introduces quotas on the total number of documented foreign nationals with work visas that can be employed in major economic sectors such as agriculture, hospitality and tourism, as well as construction, among others.
The policy complements other interventions such as enforcement of a list of sectors where foreign nationals cannot be allocated business visas and amendments to the National Small Enterprise Act, 1996 (Act 102 of 1996), as amended, to limit foreign nationals establishing small, medium and micro enterprises, and trading in some sectors of the economy, Cabinet explained.
The NLMP is the first comprehensive National Labour Migration Policy aimed at managing labour migration both into and out of the country. The policy is designed to promote a ‘brain gain’ by attracting skilled workers to South Africa, while also addressing the ‘brain drain’ caused by the emigration of skilled professionals.
The Employment Services Amendment Bill goes hand-in-hand with the NLMP and has been created to make it legal for the government to regulate the employment of immigrants in South African businesses. One of the bill’s more contentious features is the potential introduction of employment quotas, which would limit the number of immigrants that businesses can hire and require employers to prioritise the hiring of South African citizens.