This is according to the department's white paper on national labour migration policy NLMP for South Africa, which was gazetted last week. The department aims to "adopt a more open immigration approach to expand the supply of high-level skills" to develop a "labour market that is more responsive to economic opportunity".
"The NLMP follows the National Development Plan's recommendation of relaxing immigration requirements for highly skilled science and maths teachers, technicians, and researchers," said the document. "All graduates from foreign countries should be granted seven-year work permits."
The document acknowledges that current labour policy has failed at attracting highly skilled individuals.
Another of the department's aims with the white paper is to address South Africa's skills deficit caused by a "brain drain" of talent to other countries. It plans to do this by coaxing expats back into the country. The document proposes using incentives that include subsidies and covering the cost of immigration for returning South Africans.
However, the programmes will not necessarily ask expats to return to South Africa on a permanent basis but also offer seasonal programmes that will help facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skills to the local labour market.