The response to a Facebook question I asked this week showed first-hand the tensions surrounding the xenophobia/illegal immigration debate.

Commenters overwhelmingly responded to “Has xenophobia become a bigger problem in your community? And how should South Africans respond?” by rejecting the existence of xenophobia at all. The facts suggest otherwise.

In recent weeks, attacks targeting African and Asian foreign nationals have been reported across the country. Demonstrations in Cape Town, Durban and East London have turned violent, with incidents of looting, property damage and injuries. Hundreds of Ghanaian nationals recently accepted voluntary repatriation flights out of South Africa.

That does not sound like a country where xenophobia is absent. Nor is it a new phenomenon.
According to Wits research through Xenowatch, there were 873 recorded incidents of xenophobic victimisation between 1994 and November 2021. These included 612 deaths, 1 184 physical assaults, more than 122 000 people displaced and over 6 300 shops and properties looted or damaged. These are only the incidents that were recorded.

Groups such as Operation Dudula and March on March argue that South Africa is being overwhelmed by migrants and that foreigners are responsible for many of the country’s social problems, particularly unemployment and drug-related crime.

It is an appealing narrative because it offers a simple explanation for deeply complex problems.
After three decades of corruption, state failure, collapsing infrastructure, unemployment and poor governance, it is easier to direct public anger towards a visible outsider than to confront the institutions and leaders responsible for those failures.

Foreign nationals, particularly undocumented migrants, are easy targets. Many already live on the margins of society, having left their home countries to escape conflict, persecution or extreme poverty. They often have little political power and few avenues of protection.

But regardless of where one stands on immigration policy, we should not assume the current wave of anti-foreigner sentiment is entirely organic.

As University of Fort Hare lecturer Ncebakazi Makwetu observed: “South Africa has moved from sporadic mob violence to an organised political entity of xenophobia.”

Recent research points to the role of social media in that transformation. Writing for Daily Maverick, analyst Kyle Findlay traced the rise of the #PutSouthAfricansFirst movement and examined how nationalist influencers, activist networks and co-ordinated online campaigns have amplified anti-foreigner narratives. His analysis suggests that public fears around crime, kidnappings and missing persons have increasingly been channelled into a broader political movement targeting migrants.

History offers many examples of this strategy. Leaders throughout the ages have found it politically expedient to identify a common enemy and present them as the primary source of problems. Hitler blamed the Jews. Trump was elected on a platform of building a wall.

South Africans have every right to demand secure borders and the enforcement of immigration laws. But we should be wary of anyone who suggests that migrants are the only cause of our country’s challenges.

When a nation begins blaming its most vulnerable people for its deepest problems, it risks ignoring the real causes of its decline.