Xenophobia has an economic cost

A dangerous tide of xenophobia in South Africa, which stereotypes people from the rest of the continent as criminals and competitors for scarce jobs, is obscuring the positive impact immigrants are making, according to the government and advocacy groups. "That many South Africans lack knowledge of and contact with foreigners is an underlying cause of xenophobia," said a report by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the parliamentary portfolio committee for foreign affairs, which concluded that intolerance was a rising menace to South Africa and its international standing. The benefits of migration are felt, for one, in the cash registers of South African retailers. Rather than trying to settle in the country, a significant number of immigrants are traders, who rent hotel rooms, pay value added tax on the goods they purchase, and then leave. "South Africa would not be the centre for continental trade if it was not for the influence of the immigrants. The retail sector is expanding because of the large volume of continental customers arriving daily," said Jacob van Garderen, a researcher with the Refugee and Migrant Project of South African Lawyers for Human Rights. The government is worried that rising xenophobia and related violence against foreigners could hurt South Africa's ability to attract much-needed skills. "We must appreciate that a developing democracy like ours might not have all the critical skills we require, and that there might be a need to attract foreign skills in a regulated manner," Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe-Mapisa Nqakula told a forum of business leaders earlier this month. According to recent research, the fast-growing information technology sector has 70,500 vacancies, reaching 113,900 by 2009. The education sector is also expected to face a shortage of up to 35,000 teachers by 2008, while more than 5,000 expatriate engineers are required in the energy sector. Zambian labour consultant Monica Musonda said many African graduates overseas, keen to return to the continent, considered South Africa an excellent base. "This country is attracting and benefiting from highly educated and skilled immigrants ... Current trends suggest that the majority are heading for jobs or investments in finance and information technology," she said. Many African professionals relocating to South Africa are also creating jobs. "I employ 12 South Africans and that is only my contribution alone. There are many other foreign businesspeople and graduates who came here to offer rare skills and seek investment opportunities because the climate is good. Not all immigrants are asylum seekers," said Moki Makura, a Nigerian businesswoman previously based in London. "The problem is not about South Africans losing jobs and economic opportunities [to other Africans], it is about sheer hatred of immigrants," said a Zambian alarm specialist who asked not to be named. The report by SAHRC and the parliamentary committee, released in 2002, noted that rights violations of non-nationals also affected South Africans. "The continuing arrest of South Africans deemed to be too dark or too tall bear testimony to the interconnectedness of all rights." It alleged that politicians had resorted to using the influx of foreigners as a scapegoat for failures in service delivery. The underlying causes of xenophobia are complex and varied. Unemployment and mounting poverty among South Africans at the bottom of the economic ladder have provoked fears of the competition that better educated and experienced migrants can represent. "If you get into any shops, you are likely to find that all workers are foreigners because employers favour them. Government is mistaken if it expects citizens to remain silent while foreigners monopolise our right to jobs. They should investigate these accusations," urged Nonto Khuzwayo, a student at the University of Witwatersrand. South Africa's shocking crime levels, and the alleged abuse of social services, is repeatedly blamed on foreigners. "It is difficult to prove such allegations, but they have contributed to serious tensions between locals and foreigners, especially in the townships and informal settlements," said Max Rambau, the coordinator of Utshani Fund, a grassroots housing finance scheme. The Department of Correctional Services has a total of 110,000 convicted prisoners and detainees awaiting trial on its books. Of these, just over 4 percent are foreigners, many on immigration charges. There is also no clear evidence of immigrants abusing social services. According to van Garderen, apartheid played a role in the hostility of South Africans towards other African people. "Apartheid-era isolation was reinforced by physical separation and enforced through strict boundaries that prevented one homeland from interacting with another, and the same was true of homelands and the rest of Africa. As a result, South Africans were not ready for the refugee and immigration influx that came after independence in 1994." He believes that "The nation-building policies of the new government have failed to teach citizens about refugees, immigration and the country's international obligations ... Our definition of nation-building should teach our people to accept this population diversity." See part one of this two-part series On/oa/he