Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen...

More South Africans are leaving for Canada

 

Recently published immigration data from Statistics Canada shows that the rate of South Africans entering Canada is accelerating, says Nicholas Avramis, immigration consultant with Beaver Immigration Consulting, based in Johannesburg.

Between 2015 and 2020 over 25,000 South Africans obtained either temporary status, permanent residency or citizenship in Canada. And between 2015 and 2019 there was a 67.3% increase in South Africans obtaining permanent residency and a 75% increase in the number of study permits.

Overall, there was a 37.5% rise in the number of South Africans entering Canada prior to the Covid-19 global pandemic in 2020, he said.

“While the coronavirus threw the numbers off for 2020 it is clear that there has been an 18% year-over-year average increase in the number of South Africans admitted into Canada as permanent residents from 2015 to 2019,” Avramis said.

He said that there is both a push and pull effect that is seeing more South Africans heading to Canada to begin a new life.

“These numbers should not really surprise anyone in the industry, as the timeline associated with this upward trend matches the Government of Canada’s 2018 announcement that it will admit one million permanent residents by the end of 2021,” he said.

Despite the global pandemic, the government of Canada is on track to meet this target, he said.

“What was lost in the news cycle late last year was the Canadian immigration minister’s announcement that Canada plans to welcome another half a million permanent residents by the end of 2023,” Avramis said.

Data shows that around 5,000 South Africans enter the Canadian immigration system for processing every year.

“Based on the economic head winds in South Africa today, and coupled with the Canadian government’s aggressive immigration targets for the coming decade it is very possible that the number of South Africans heading to Canada on a yearly basis will double to 10,000 by 2025.

“If these numbers hold you will get close to about 80,000 to 100,000 South Africans in total by 2030,” Avramis said.


Read: South African businesses are looking at Canada post-Covid-19 – particularly from this one sector

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