South Africa’s migrant backlash is a regional problem
Without policy reform and African cooperation, anti-immigration sentiment will remain a crisis for South Africa.
In a nutshell
- Economic decay and state failure are fueling anti-migrant anger
- African governments are trading blame
- Unilateral crackdown is more likely than policy reform
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South Africa is experiencing a significant resurgence of anti-immigration protests, the latest in a series of episodes dating back to 2008, 2015 and 2019. It has become clear that the country has a problem with hostility toward migrants from elsewhere on the African continent.
Since anti-immigration protests first broke out in South Africa’s urban areas in 2008, scholars and observers have grappled with how a country whose democracy was born of solidarity with neighboring African states has reached a point where many citizens view the presence of foreign African nationals as an existential threat.
While there has been progress since 1994 in dismantling apartheid laws and establishing a constitutional framework to provide political and socioeconomic rights, several challenges persist, underscoring unmet expectations. The new constitutional order has extended social security to many who are in need, including housing for the poor. But South Africa also suffers from severe inequality and a real threat of the collapse of service delivery at the local government level, among other challenges.
State failure feeds the resentment
As the country heads toward local government elections on November 4, 2026, that sphere of government is characterized by such poor service delivery that citizens have resorted to open protests to bring the crisis to the attention of political leaders.
Corruption has become ingrained in the public service across the government, eroding trust in the state’s ability to act in the interests of its citizens. Rampant abuse of the tender system continues to enrich a politically connected few at the expense of delivering on the public good. This has been seen in the declining capacity of state-owned companies: Power cuts by the electricity utility Eskom have crippled the economy in recent years, while the freight and logistics company Transnet increasingly struggles to provide the services that connect South Africa to the global economy.
With unemployment hovering above 30 percent, South Africa has one of the world’s highest jobless rates, deepening a social crisis that has driven up crime. For many desperate young people, the solution seems to lie in the expulsion of unauthorized foreign African nationals who have come to South Africa to escape the economic hardships that have engulfed their home countries since liberation from colonial rule.
The story unfolding in South Africa – the steady collapse of the economy and diminishing opportunities for many – echoes a tale already told in most African countries after the dismantling of the colonial system: the failure of the state to provide basic opportunities for those it should serve. While South Africa has remained, to some extent, an exception to postcolonial state failure in the region, the country appears to be taking on many of the characteristics associated with it. Even with a vibrant democracy and a strong constitutional system, South Africa faces the risk that citizens will become disaffected with a democratic system they see as failing to protect them from economic hardship.
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It is economic distress and failing democracy that have driven many people in other African nations to look elsewhere, including to South Africa, for better opportunities. The country continues to host a large number of migrants from within the continent because it still offers relatively better opportunities despite the hurdles it has faced in consolidating its development since the end of apartheid.
For increasingly disaffected young South Africans, the presence of African immigrants is seen as a threat to stability. The charge is that the large number of unauthorized migrants seeking opportunities in South Africa diminishes economic opportunities for the majority of citizens. The result has been rising xenophobic tension, expressed in open public protests against African immigrants living and working in the country.
While such outbreaks have been sporadic in past years, the 2026 wave has been intense and sustained, drawing global attention and casting South Africa as a country battling swelling xenophobic sentiment. Recently, there have been marches in South Africa where community leaders, and at times political leaders, have called for the mass deportation of undocumented migrants living and working in the country. While some, including civil society organizations, have urged caution and circumspection, others have taken a hard stance against foreign nationals, particularly those from other African nations.
South Africa’s crisis on global display
Many African countries have expressed frustration over the anti-immigration sentiment gathering in South Africa. However, South Africa is not the first country on the continent to struggle with an immigration crisis. In 1969 and 1983, Ghana and Nigeria engaged in mass expulsions of each other’s nationals. Then, as now, the idea was that immigrants were responsible for diminishing economic opportunities for locals. The same narrative is driving the current wave of anti-immigration sentiment in South Africa today: that immigrants are taking jobs and are responsible for social ills such as crime.
African states have experienced immigration crises in the past and should, in theory, be able to address this challenge holistically as it emerges, drawing on those experiences. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ratified by all African Union members, prohibits the mass expulsion of non-nationals. South Africa’s constitution guarantees fundamental rights to everyone in the country, whatever their migration status. It is in the spirit of the constitution that civil society organizations have pointed to the rights of migrants to live and work in South Africa.
What is becoming clear is that the issue is not entirely domestic, one that South Africa can resolve alone, but a regional matter with implications for regional solidarity and economic cooperation. In responding to the marches organized against migrants, some African countries have opted to confront Pretoria through the African Union (AU), while others have resorted to quiet, cautious diplomacy.
Ghana, whose citizens are among those targeted for expulsion in this year’s protests, has approached the AU to request a debate on “xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa.” Pretoria sees the Ghanaian approach as narrow, as it leaves the problem solely to South Africa while allowing other African countries to abdicate responsibility for acknowledging that migration is also triggered by economic challenges in countries of origin.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration has pushed back against the label of “xenophobia,” insisting that South Africans are not xenophobic and that the issue is a migration crisis rooted in the competition over economic opportunities. Countries such as Ghana and Nigeria, however, have preferred the term xenophobia, pointing to resentment toward foreign nationals.
Locked in an unhelpful narrative debate
Whether one calls it xenophobia or an immigration crisis, there is an undeniable connection between the two, as events in South Africa – and, in the past, in Nigeria and Ghana – have shown. Immigration crises resulting from unclear policy positions in host countries often trigger xenophobic reactions. South Africa’s incoherent immigration policy, coupled with its poor implementation, has resulted in a flood of unauthorized migrants into the country.
However, that is only half of the equation. Poor economic policies in countries of origin have also contributed to citizens leaving their homelands en masse to look for opportunities elsewhere. A mass exodus from Zimbabwe to South Africa, for example, points to serious failures in Zimbabwe’s economic management. The crisis in South Africa therefore cannot be addressed without appreciating its causes at their origin.
South African policymakers have denied charges from African nations that their country bears sole responsibility for addressing rising hostility toward foreign immigrants. For Pretoria, other African countries are equally responsible for the unfolding crisis. Beyond the AU’s position that immigrants should be accorded human rights and privileges in line with South Africa’s domestic laws, the response so far shows no clear regional approach to the problem. The crisis has not inspired collective action. Instead, countries have passed the blame to one another, in particular shaming South Africa for failing to educate its citizens against xenophobia.
Scenarios
More likely: Unilateral crackdown and political stalemate
As blame for the mistreatment of immigrants continues to be leveled against South Africa, Pretoria will enforce strict border controls and act unilaterally to prevent unauthorized crossings. A partial crackdown on unauthorized migrants living and working in the country will be undertaken to appease agitated citizens, who have expressed frustration at the government’s inability to ensure basic control over cross-border movement.
Political parties will continue to capitalize on the crisis, promising tough measures against immigration if voted into power. Immigration will remain a political football and a long-term crisis. African countries will keep blaming South Africa for betraying its own constitutional journey in the interest of political expediency, as the mistreatment of immigrants recurs over the medium term with no sustainable long-term solution.
The continued crackdown will negatively affect South Africa’s interests in the region, particularly businesses operating in countries such as Ghana and Nigeria. It will also further stifle diplomatic relations between Pretoria and other African governments, particularly those two nations.
Less likely: Regional cooperation and policy reform
African countries would accept collective responsibility for a crisis that reflects on the continent and adopt a holistic approach to the recurring immigration problem in South Africa. The Ramaphosa administration will also reform its immigration policy along those lines, involving regional partners in an approach that promotes integration instead of isolationist alternatives.
This will involve both medium-term measures, such as ensuring that immigrants already in South Africa are documented and integrated into society, and a long-term effort to ensure that future immigration takes place within clearly articulated laws and policies. South Africa will also address the lingering question of its porous borders and seek collaboration with other African nations to curb unauthorized crossings.
Such an outcome would support further integration of the African Continental Free Trade Area and the Southern African Development Community, signifying collective efforts to address the crisis and harmonize relations. The AU would prioritize addressing the immigration crisis beyond South Africa to find longer-term solutions for regional stability.
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