‘The issue of immigration is very topical today and has emerged as a subject of contentious and emotional debate in many countries. A disturbing trend emerging globally is that the right-wing conservative groups tend to blame and scapegoat immigrants for socioeconomic problems like crime, disease, unemployment and poverty,” said Anne Lammila, the Ambassador of Finland to South Africa, Botswana Lesotho, and Mauritius.

“Also, in some countries, it’s left-wing parties who do that. This discontent is not supported by facts but rather by fear and hostility against those who are not from the host country,” Lammila continued.

She was speaking at an Institute for Security Studies (ISS) hybrid seminar on Wednesday to launch a report that aims to debunk ongoing myths that immigrants in South Africa are the cause of many of the country’s problems. 

Xenophobia is by no means unique to South Africa.

It is prevalent in the Global North, including Finland. In the US, former president Donald Trump’s policies encouraged xenophobia against Mexican and Central American immigrants. In Turkey, Syrian immigrants are targeted. 

According to a recent report by the Organization for World Peace, xenophobic sentiment in the Global North has been aggravated by the EU restrictions on Russian tourists. 

While xenophobia is not new in South Africa, there are worrying reports about these attacks or threats of attacks which show that the problem is growing. South Africans have engaged in sometimes fatal acts of xenophobic violence against immigrants, especially Zimbabweans.

Over the past few months, there has been a disturbing narrative that “illegal” foreign nationals are the reason for problems in South Africa that include corruption, mismanagement in government, unemployment, violent crime, insufficient infrastructure, poor service delivery and impoverished communities. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Fed-up SA citizens take to the streets, blaming foreigners for crime and the unemployment crisis” 

At the seminar, speaker Isaack Lesole of Operation Dudula said the panel was not clued up on “illegal migrants” and South Africans.  

The panel members were: Anthony Kaziboni, head of research at the Institute for the Future of Knowledge; Margaret Monyani, a senior researcher in migration at the ISS;  and Diego Iturralde, the head of demographic analysis at Statistics South Africa.

“Operation Dudula is of the view that South Africa is a destination of choice to many migrants because of corruption and because they know that in South Africa enforcement of law and regulation is poor,” said Lesole.

“Undocumented migrants and illegal migrants in South Africa do not create jobs, they take jobs from South Africans. The migration problem in South Africa is unique and is reaching a disastrous point due to porous borders.

“Regardless of how you look at this, Operation Dudula believes there is a significant number of migrants that have occupied job opportunities without scarce skills,” said Lesole, without providing facts or sources for his claims.

Pronouncements by politicians

Xenophobic sentiment has been strengthened by anti-migrant groups such as Operation Dudula, as well as public officials and politicians who blame immigrants for a range of social and economic problems in South Africa.  

Just last month, in a live interview with eNCA, Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie reaffirmed his stance on immigrants, saying he would switch off the oxygen supply of illegal immigrants in hospitals. 

“If there is a Zimbabwean or Mozambican on oxygen and there is a South African in need and there is scarcity, I will turn off that oxygen. I would not criticise Zimbabwe or Mozambique for doing the same to save their people.”

His comments came days after MEC Phophi Ramathuba’s dehumanising rant to a Zimbabwean patient and Operation Dudula protesting outside the Kalafong Provincial Tertiary Hospital in Pretoria.

Operation Dudula members blocked the entrance to the hospital and turned away patients who they believed were undocumented foreign nationals, based on the colour of their skin and the language they speak, GroundUp reported last month.

Before then, Daily Maverick reported on more than 400 immigrants living in fear in “abandoned” or “hijacked” Johannesburg buildings as a result of Operation Dudula’s threats of eviction.

Visit Daily Maverick’s home page for more news, analysis and investigations

In the 16-page report released by the ISS, Scapegoating in South Africa: Busting the myths about immigrants in South Africa, researchers Anthony Kaziboni, Lizette Lancaster, Thato Machabaphala and Godfrey Mulaudzi argued that many of the issues had existed long before the influx of migrants entering South Africa to seek a better living.

To manage the influx of economic migrants, the government has recently revamped some of its immigration policies to end most special permits for foreigners.

Kaziboni said the xenophobic problems faced in South Africa mirror the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality as well as the lack of response and denialism from the government on issues associated with the challenges.

“If someone asked me if xenophobia is a problem in South Africa, I will direct them to the National Action Plan to Combat Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance that was adopted in February 2019. The documents list xenophobia as a problem.

“Corruption and other illicit activities deflect funds meant for critical areas such as housing, social grants and public healthcare, which in turn frustrates the affected communities and causes instabilities as depicted by the July riots last year,” said Kaziboni. 

United Nations experts have condemned xenophobic violence and racial discrimination against foreign nationals living in South Africa. The experts have urged the government to address the issues faced by the country and to stop scapegoating immigrants and refugees.

“Xenophobia fails to acknowledge the economic contribution of migrants and makes it look like migration and economic development cannot coexist, and that is not great for South Africa and the continent at large,” said the ISS’s Monyani.

“We need to embrace evidence-based migration management to stir the country and the continent forward.” DM