User:Brontyjn/Immigration to South Africa

In 2019, there were 4.2 million international migrants in South Africa. This constitutes about 7.2% of the entire population, and out of this group around 2 million are women. The total net migration rate is increasing by 2.5 percent.

The countries of origin for immigrants in South Africa are diverse to the African continent, and include: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Most immigrants originate from the countries of Swaziland, Mozambique, Botswana and Lesotho. A spike in the number of immigrants in the mid-1980s can be attributed to a high demand for mine labor. In the 1990s, the Renamo War in Mozambique produced an influx of migration into South Africa. Many work permit holders come from Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. A high number of asylum-seekers are from Somalia. The rate of female immigration has been expanding since post-colonialism. The most present age groups among both men and women migrants range from 25-34 and 35-44.

Among the victims of trafficking which occurred in South Africa between 2002-2017, 70.4% were women and 13.2% were children.

Migrants residing in South Africa pay over $1 billion (USD) in remittances, accounting for 0.2% of the nation's total economy (measured by GDP). The highest levels of remittances received from South Africa are respectively in Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, and Malawi. Immigrants tend to be more highly skilled than non-foreign populations. However, it is common for a highly-skilled worker to be limited to lowly-skilled work upon immigrating to South Africa. The most common sectors immigrants work in are casual work, restaurant, manufacturing, and construction. Around 10 percent of this group is unemployed.

Immigration Policies:

- The Aliens Control Act of 1991

The Aliens Control Act of 1991 (ACA) is one of the last policies implemented by the apartheid regime of South Africa. It served to determine the flow of immigration into South Africa, transitioning from exclusive to selective immigration in times of high labor demands, and to induce stricter enforcement of immigration law. The policy has been critiqued internationally as a source of mass human rights violations and unconstitutionality, including minimal due process in entry, search, and arrest. The Act terms and considers all migrants, including refugees and asylum-seekers, as "illegal aliens."

The apartheid's general stance on immigration policy can be suggested through three major actions on programming: racist policy and legislation, exploitation of migrant labor from bordering countries, strict enforcement of legislation, and dismissal of refugee conventions of the United Nations (UN). Legislation continuously used religious or racial quotas to determine inflow and isolate certain groups from immigrating. Preferred immigrants were white Europeans or highly skilled workers. The apartheid followed a "two-gates policy" to restrict permanent residency and issue labor contracts that would ensure the eventual return migration of mining and commercial farming workers. Stricter enforcement targeted refugees from Mozambique, and "Operation Sentry" effectively deported about 47,000 of this group in 1991. Further legislation upgraded a penalty for harboring undocumented migrants to five years imprisonment, and law enforcement carried out several raids on informal settlements of mostly war-torn refugees from Mozambique. Backed by the ACA, the apartheid government rejected language of policies introduced at international refugee conventions, essentially viewing asylum-seekers as migrants having illegal entered and settled in South Africa.

The post-apartheid regime introduced a new framework on immigration through programs such as the Reconstruction and Development Plan; Growth, Employment, Redistribution; the 1996 Presidential Commission to Investigate Labour Market Policy. While these policies dismantled the racist legislation of the previous government, the newly empowered regime has been criticized for not removing the ACA and condemning the associated xenophobia which has trickled into contemporary public opinion. Since 1994, the following regimes have in fact used the ACA to implement strict immigration measures. However, in general, immigration policy was reduced in restrictiveness by 60.4% between 1994-2014. The post-apartheid government did approve a one-time reparation for victims of previous immigration laws deemed racist. It also implemented three amnesty policies between 1995-96, benefiting mineworkers, migrants with over five years of uninterrupted residency in South Africa, and Mozambican refugees who arrived before 1992. The regime adopted an acceptance towards the UN Refugee Conventions and made South Africa a signatory in 1995. The government passed the Refugee Act of 1998, which lacked specific language to determine the status of refugee, reflecting some public disapproval which has considered refugees as falsely-posing economic migrants. As of 2015, the government's stance of immigration policy has been to maintain existing levels and rates, however, during the previous ten years it aimed to reduce the numbers of immigrants present and moving into South Africa.

Fact check : On 12 May 2008 a series of riots started in the township of Alexandra (in the north-eastern part of Johannesburg) when locals attacked migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, killing two people and injuring 40 others. - more than 60 dead 100,000+ homeless/displaced --> replace with: In 2008 a series of riots and violent attacks against foreigners of varying origin resulted in the deaths of more than 60 people, and the displacement of over 100,000 immigrants. Many of the homeless were re-sheltered in tent settlements similar to those reserved for refugees fleeing war. Leading up to and following the violence there had been a history of locals mugging, robbing, and beating immigrants, and a deep-rooted movement of anti-immigrant sentiment that can be drawn from the apartheid

Several public demonstrations emerged following the 2008 attacks in protest of xenophobia in South Africa, with slogans such as "Shame On Us," "Join the Fight Against Xenophobia," and "Don't Touch My Sista."

The post-apartheid government miss-quoted the number of undocumented immigrants at 9 million; the actual number was closer to 500,000. They also increased deportations by 75%, deporting 600 thousand between 1994-2000, and 84% of this group arrived as refugees. Deportations were used as indicators of crime reduction in mass media to portray law enforcement and regime as effective in crime-fighting. This reinforced a common assumption that lasted through later year and upheld by the comments of public officials such as Nelson Mandela, which associates immigrants with criminality. However, immigrants in South Africa are more often victims of crime than perpetrators. Ministers and other officials have been cited blaming undocumented immigrants for lack of resources in addition to crime. There have been several incidents of police brutality and high arrest rates targeting foreign-born residents.

Common stereotypes placed on immigrants in South Africa can be associated with the sense of job, wage, and resource competition South Africans relate to immigration. There has been some evidence that the presence of undocumented immigrants does lesson the work opportunities of South Africa-born residents, due to this group being willing or forced to work for much lower wages. High unemployment has also been assumed to be driven from exhaustion of jobs by immigrants, although there is limited evidence to support this. "Otherness" is an indicator of xenophobia in South Africa, and some researchers believe that the racial otherness perpetrated by the apartheid was replaced by otherness of foreigners. Cultural stereotyping has increased with higher levels of immigration since the early 2000s and greater exposure to immigrants deriving from a wider scope of countries of origin. Confusion over political and civic rights has also been associated with the presence of xenophobia in South Africa.

Update on White Paper on Immigration

There was approximately 370 thousand refugees in South Africa in 2019, the majority of which originate from neighboring Sub-Saharan African countries.