Welcoming refugees in the rainbow nation: contemporary attitudes towards refugees in South Africa

Abstract

Modern South Africa has become a major recipient of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. The safe integration and protection of refugees and asylum seekers in the country is undermined, however, by the presence of widespread xenophobia in the country. Such animosity has motivated anti-immigrant riots, violence, and prejudice which has negatively impacted refugee protection. Despite the seriousness of the problem, scholars have not effectively mapped the attitudes of the South African population towards granting refugees protection. The determinants of such attitudes have not been adequately explored at the national level. This paper will provide a quantitative analysis of public attitudes towards granting refugees protection in South Africa. I will use nationally representative data collected during the fifth round of Afrobarometer Survey, and employ multivariate techniques for the analysis. Using this data, I will assess the predictive power of economic competition and conflict over important symbols of the nation in determining attitudes. The political alienation hypothesis, which suggests that the politically isolated are more predisposed towards restrictive immigration attitudes, will also be tested. The findings of this study will allow us to better understand what interventions can be put in place to improve attitudes towards refugee protection.

Keywords:

• refugees
• public opinion
• South Africa
• nativism

Notes

1. Research has shown that many refugees struggle to realize their entitlements to protection, labor market and social services. For a quantitative evidence, see Landau (2006) study on refugees in Johannesburg. A recent report from the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) (2011) also raise concerns about refugees’ ability to realize their legal entitlements (also see Handmaker, 2011, pp. 123–152).

2. This has been recognized by scholars such as Landau (2006) who acknowledges that refugees face obstacles to realize their legal entitlements because of host community hostility (also see Rugunanan & Smit, 2011).

3. The SAMP researchers asked a representative sample of South Africans if the government should give asylum or protection to those escaping war and persecution. As a result, the researchers made a clear distinction between political refugees and other refugees types (such as economic or environmental refugees).

4. South Africa has also become the destination for other kinds of international migrants and currently there are estimated to be more than two million foreign immigrants in the country (United Nations [UN], 2013).

5. In an opinion survey for the city of Johannesburg, a major South African urban area where many refugees reside , Landau (2010) found similar levels of anti-immigrant sentiment.

6. The space for engagement with the state by civil society organizations has been limited because of what Pugh (2014, p. 12) calls ‘the growing gaps between policy and practice.’ As the gaps between policy and practice started to broaden, these organizations have turned to the courts which has become, according to Handmaker (2011, p. 80) the ‘principal platform’ upon which advocacy groups engage with the state on refugee and asylum seeker rights.

7. This variable was based on which the party respondents felt attached to, creating a four dummy variables (the ANC, the main opposition (the Democratic Alliance or DA), other opposition parties and not political aligned).

8. Respondents were asked ‘What is your ethnic community, cultural group or tribe?’ and then subsequently, ‘Let us suppose that you had to choose between being a South African and being a part of your ethnic community or cultural group, which of the following statements best expresses your feelings: (1) I feel only South African; (2) I feel more South African than my ethnic community; (3) I feel equally South African and my ethnic community; (4) I feel more my ethnic community than South African; and (5) I feel only my ethnic community?’

9. In a model not shown here, other measures of media exposure (including television, radio, and the internet) were tested. These variables, controlling for the socio-demographic indicators, did not have a significant impact on attitudes and only exposure to print media was shown to be a significant predictor of attitudes.

10. The group identified as most disliked varied greatly by population group with black African respondents, for instance, identifying ‘White Afrikaans speakers’ as their most disliked group.