Xenophobia and Illegal Immigration in South Africa

Just an article, Reid, Ethan and I wrote at the end of last year. It just deals with the xenophobic issues South Africa was facing.

There are an estimated 5 million illegal immigrants in South Africa. This is roughly 10% of our population at the moment. 3 million of these illegal immigrants are Zimbabwean. Recently in 2007 & 2008 there have been many anti-immigrant protests in South Africa leading to a lot of violence and aggression against these refugees. This can be termed as Xenophobia. Now it is all very well knowing this, but do we actually know what illegal immigration and xenophobia are?

Illegal Immigration refers to the illegal movement across national borders. It occurs in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. It is often caused by civil war, repression, genocide or poverty in the country of origin. People become endangered and fear for their lives. In an effort to escape the violence they flee the country and enter another (more often than not) illegally.

Xenophobia is the dislike and/or fear of that which is different to oneself. It derives from the Greek words ‘xenos’ meaning foreigner and ‘phobos’ meaning ‘fear’. The Xenophobia that has occurred in South Africa targeted the illegal immigrants in our country. The protests were carried out in a violent and aggressive manner. We looked to find out why?

There are many effects that illegal immigration has on society. One of the leading factors is poverty. When people flee their country they often leave with nothing. Many are in a state of desperation and lose the ability to think ahead. They concentrate on the present and only focus on the dire situation that they are in. They struggle to find jobs and end up in poor states. Those who do find jobs disadvantage those legal citizens in the country who themselves are struggling to find work. Illegal immigration reduces job opportunities in countries and this leads to increased poverty.

Another major negative effect it has on society is overpopulation. As well as contributing to poverty, overpopulation severely increases pollution which is very detrimental to the environment. It also contributes to water crisis’ such as Ch***ra which leads to death of immigrants and citizens alike.
These two effects seem to be the major contributors to the recent Xenophobia attacks in South Africa; but really how violent were these protests?

In 2007 & 2008 South Africa witnessed many Xenophobia attacks on illegal immigrants. Most of the attacks were by people infuriated that these immigrants were taking South African jobs; jobs rightfully theirs. They were angry that these refugees were upsetting their way of life, overcrowding their settlements and lowering their quality of life.

Attacks and violence occurred throughout South Africa but the severest ones took place in Reiger Park, Ramaphosa and Holimisa. The Reiger Park incidents are the most horrific. About 20, 000 people have been displaced from their homes. Hundreds have been injured and even killed. These figures show how violent and aggressive the attacks have been. It is believed that the angry mobs used the foreigners as scapegoats to their problems (unemployment).

We interviewed a Malawian woman in an effort to gain more insight into the conditions she and other foreigners were living in.

After conducting the interview, there was one thing that really struck us. The thing is that these people actually want to go back home. They arrive in South Africa with high hopes of a new life; but now most are unwanted and many want to leave again. The problem is that people like our interviewee, have no money or possessions. It is simply not possible for them to just set off home again. Another thing is that these people, if they made it back home, would not want to return to South Africa because they feel unwanted due to xenophobic issues here.
Now if these immigrants/refugees can’t go back home, they need to be looked after here in South Africa. During the recent Xenophobia attacks many refugee camps were set up in an effort to help and protect people threatened by Xenophobia. The problem is that these camps were often in very poor conditions. Many of them were even short of clean water and most didn’t have any electricity. The people in these camps were in a state of despair and lived simply off what was given to them.

We believe that the crisis was dealt with poorly. All immigrants were to be dispatched home by late July 2008. It is now September 2009 and the problem hasn’t gotten much smaller. These remaining immigrants need to be looked after properly, until they are in a good enough state to return home.

By Martin Dyer, Reid Falconer & Ethan Gray