Emigration of South Africans to the West: Sociological and missiological implications

A huge number of South Africans, including Christians, are emigrating to the Western world, which is experiencing a serious regression in Christianity. Unfortunately, the contribution made by South African Christian emigrants has not been sufficiently examined; hence there is no literature on this particular topic. Given this, the objective of this article was to provide a comprehensive discussion of the contemporary emigration situation in South Africa and assess how South African emigrants can evangelise the post-Christendom West, which is, fortunately, still Christian and Christian tolerant. The article dialogued with relevant literature to accomplish the proposed objective and provide an overview of the push and pull factors of why South Africans emigrate to the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States of America, New Zealand and many other countries, all of which used to send missionaries abroad, but they are now experiencing exponential growth in atheism. Further, the article discussed the unprecedented growth of Christianity in Africa, particularly South Africa, in contrast to the opposite trends in the Western world, thus, establishing how South African Christian emigrants can contribute towards evangelising the post-Christendom West, according to the biblical notion that God advances his kingdom through migration in centripetal and centrifugal ways. Thus, although the emigration of South African Christians to the West is associated with pain and sorrow, it is not an accident, but God uses it in his scheme to accomplish his redemptive purposes and plans for the world. In this case, emigration in South Africa is viewed as a missiological opportunity. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The focus of the article is interdisciplinary, that is, it discusses the emigration phenomenon in South Africa (migration) and its contribution to the advancement of God’s Kingdom to the West (missiology). The article challenges South African Christian emigrants to the Western world to perceive their migration as an evangelical and missiological opportunity.