Khabane's Chickens

If you can´t get social welfare in Ireland, if you are not working, it is better to go to your home country where you can get your family support.

Khabane was working in a café in South Africa when a friend of his, who lived in Ireland, encouraged him to move to Dublin in 2007. Khabane did some research and enrolled in college to study Information Technology. Of his decision to move, he explained, “I came to further my studies and seek a better life.” He went to classes during the evening and worked 20 hours per week as a kitchen porter.

When his course ended, things changed. “I finished my studies and I got a full time job,” he remembered. “It was difficult to do further studies, it interfered with them.” Khabane carried on his life in Ireland until he lost his job. Without a current visa, he could not get hired again. Life was too expensive to stay there so he decided to return to South Africa. He did so in June 2011, seven years after he first moved to Ireland.

Khabane narrated his trip in detail:
I got information about IOM from a friend of mine and I got more information from the internet. Fortunately the office was in Dublin, so I walked there and they gave me more information. I decided to go home with the help of IOM. I transited in France; a guy from IOM came to assist me. It was a safe journey. Once in South Africa, as IOM gave me some cash for transport, I took a cab to the train station and from there a train to my hometown.

Once he arrived, Khabane found out that “many things have changed in South Africa, not for the better but for the worse.” However, his parents and friends welcomed him and made him feel at home. He told IOM at that time, “I find it hard to settle in my country. Ireland suits me.” Although Khabane missed Ireland, he felt he made the best choice to return to South Africa. “I can now be free and not worry about any visas. I can sleep peacefully.”

Soon after he returned, Khabane contacted the IOM office in Pretoria to apply for the IOM reintegration grant, which he used to begin raising and selling chickens. “In a month or two months I was already selling chickens.”

When a member of IOM Ireland visited Khabane in 2013, he was still operating his small chicken business. He was looking for investment to purchase more stock, as he cannot meet the existing demand. “I make enough profit to buy more chickens,” he explains. “But to get a good profit, you need to sell even more.”
Khabane would like to export chickens to other African countries and even further abroad, if possible.