This report was commissioned by the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) on behalf of the
Migrating for Work Research Consortium (MiWORC). It aims to assist with improving the quality of available
statistics on foreign labour in South Africa. Such improvement is intended, in turn, to advance
understanding of the role played by foreign workers in the South African labour market.  
The core of this report is an assessment of the scope and relevance of existing statistical data sets in South
Africa. The term “foreign labour” is understood as referring to foreign nationals who are either involved in
economic activity or seeking to be involved in such activity. In terms of time period, the focus is on the
period 1980 to date. However, more emphasis is placed on current data sources given that the ultimate
aim is to contribute to improving available data for future use. Geographically, special attention is given to
statistics on foreign labour originating within the Southern African region.
The first section of the report, Statistical options and data collection methodologies, summarises relevant
aspects of key international guides on the collection of statistics on foreign or migrant labour. The second
section, Historical statistics for South Africa, focuses primarily on available sources for the period 1980 to
1994. The third section, Current government statistics, describes and discusses data produced and/or
published by key government or government-related agencies. This is the core section of the report as
ultimately government-produced statistical sources present the greatest opportunities for large-scale,
sustainable and publicly available data. The fourth section, Recent non-government sources, describes
sources and data coming from outside of the government. Finally, the fifth section – Synthesis and
appraisal – summarises what the various sources described previously can tell us about foreign labour in
South Africa.