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Johannesburg: When South African native Nicky Prins lived in London, there was one television advertisement that always touched her heart.
As part of an effort to encourage tourism, the South African government ran a commercial showing the country's dramatic landscape, coupled with emotive music and excerpts from President Thabo Mbeki's famous "I am an African" speech.
"Sometimes I would cry when I watched it. It sort of brought on the emotions to a head, and you would think, 'I really want to go home,'" said the 34-year-old Prins, an economist who left South Africa eight years ago for better career opportunities. A few months after she first saw the ad, she packed up her bags and came home.
Brain drain has plagued South Africa since the unravelling of apartheid in the 1990s. Affluent, accomplished South Africans of all races, but whites in particular, still flood out of the country in search of adventure, better opportunities and an escape from crime. But now some - like Prins - are returning.
Moving companies, real estate agents and nonprofit groups say more and more white South Africans in their late 20s and beyond are returning to South Africa. Hungry for their own culture, eager to raise children near their own families, and encouraged by their country's economic potential, these adults are leaving their successful careers abroad for an uncertain future at home.
"We've been happy and enjoying ourselves ever since the day we've been back," said Prins, who moved to Johannesburg last October. "I felt like my quality of life improved dramatically," she added.
Prins and her boyfriend Mark Kirkness, a civil engineer, may not have made the decision to come home if it weren't for the Homecoming Revolution, one of several South African organisations dedicated to persuading expatriates to come back.
"We've certainly seen South Africans returning," said Homecoming Revolution manager Martine Schaffer, whose website draws 17,000 new visitors each month.
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