South Africa as dystopia: diaspora views from Canada

Abstract

The high-profile case of the ‘white refugee’ in Canada, Brandon Huntley, temporarily soured relations between Canada and South Africa and raised serious questions about the Canadian refugee protection determination system. In constructing a plausible narrative to convince the judge that Huntley qualified for refugee protection, his lawyers painted a picture of a country in which all whites were being persecuted because of their race. Although the decision was overturned on appeal, the case raises the question of how South Africans in the diaspora more generally view the country. This paper shows that despite a strong personal South African identity, South Africans in Canada are a deeply disengaged diaspora. In order to rationalise their departure, disengagement and decision never to return, this post-apartheid diaspora paints itself as victims of post-apartheid South Africa and draws on the same narrative reservoir of images as Huntley's lawyers. The Huntley case therefore represents something much more than an egregious but exceptional miscarriage of justice.

Keywords:

• diaspora
• Canada
• South Africa
• refugee
• immigration

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following for their work on the SAMP Diaspora Survey: Mary Caesar, Abel Chikanda, Cassanda Eberhardt, Ashley Hill, Wade Pendleton and Sujata Ramachandran. The research was funded by IDRC's Migration, Poverty Reduction and Development in Southern Africa Project. Thanks are extended to Bronwen Dachs and to Edgard Rodriguez and Paul Okwi of IDRC for their help.

Notes

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423–09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 216.

IRB Ruling: Brandon Carl Huntley RPD File/No. Dossier SPR: MA8-04910 at www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/huntley-decision.pdf (accessed 26 September 2012).

IRB Ruling: Brandon Carl Huntley RPD File/No. Dossier SPR: MA8-04910 at www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/huntley-decision.pdf (accessed 26 September 2012).

A Google search in 2009 found that the case had been the subject of 113,000 press stories and articles; see Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, Affidavit from Stephanie Gude, 2 November 2009, Para. 3.

‘Brandon Huntley: An Open Letter to Canada,13 September 2009’ at http://www.scribd.com/doc/20519947/FF-04-b-142-SA-Academics-Open-Letter-to-Canada-Re-Brandon-Huntley (accessed 26 September 2012).

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 220.

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 231. For analysis of the idiosyncratic nature of RPD decision-making see Rehaag (2007–8).

Positive grant rates for those adjudicating more than 50 cases in 2008 varied from 4 per cent to 92 per cent. Davies (at 73 per cent of 155 decisions) was classified in the ‘extreme grant rate’ group by the Canadian Council for Refugees at http://ccrweb.ca/documents/rehaagdatamarch09.htm

The acceptance rate for Zimbabwean asylum seekers between 2005 and 2009 was 10 per cent in South Africa and 74 per cent in Canada.

‘Dlamini-Zuma Welcomes Canada's Decision On Huntley’ Immigration Watch Canada 21 October 2009 at http://www.immigrationwatchcanada.org/2009/10/21/dlamini-zuma-welcomes-canadas-decision-on-huntley/

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 254.

Between 2005 and 2010, the Minister of Immigration applied for leave to appeal an RPD decision on only 133 occasions, of which 78 were granted Rehaag (2012, p. 15).

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 173.

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 229.

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 207.

‘Africa says Canada is stealing MDs’ Prince George Citizen 19 August 2009 (at http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/article/20120326/PRINCEGEORGE0101/303269996/-1/PRINCEGEORGE (accessed 30 September 2012).

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 177.

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 180.

Russell Kaplan, ‘Huntley Accomplished “African White Refugee” Objectives’ at http://why-we-are-white-refugees.blogspot.ca/2010/12/huntley-accomplished-african-white_5407.html (accessed 29 September 2012).

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 184.

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 204.

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 190.

Federal Court of Appeal, File No. IMM-4423-09, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Brandon Carl Huntley, 24 November 2010, Para. 210–229.

The RDP's 2008 National Documentation Package on South Africa would actually have been of limited use to Davis. There was no documentation in the section entitled ‘Crime and Criminality’ and ironically only one newspaper article in the section on ‘Police and Security Forces’ entitled ‘Criminal Justice System Near Breakdown’. These sections are still blank in the 2012 iteration; see http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca:8080/Publications/PubNDP_CDN.aspx?id=1789 and http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca:8080/Publications/PubNDP_CDN.aspx?id=5314 (accessed 20 November 2012).