Why does xenophobia occur

Education authorities took no action because, according to them, the offending students expressed remorse and taking further action would, in their view, inflame tensions. When this report was finalized in August , Nathalie had still not returned to school out of fear, as her attackers are still attending the school but have faced no consequences for attacking her. They are directing this anger at African and Asian foreigners who they believe are taking jobs and livelihoods away from South Africans.

Mobs also blame non-South African nationals for the high levels of crime and, as Nathalie's brutal experience demonstrates, the demonization of foreigners, in particular other Africans and Asians, now permeates beyond disillusioned adults to their children.

Among the actions the NAP identifies to be taken to combat xenophobia, are creating mechanisms to ensure foreigners receive services they are entitled to, facilitating their integration, and embracing a humane and dignified approach to managing migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. However, as the incidents documented in this report show, implementation of the NAP should include steps that could quickly and effectively improve accountability for perpetrators of abuse motivated by xenophobia and justice for its victims.

Potential measures include creating a dedicated portal or contact for non-South African nationals to report xenophobic incidents and standardizing how instances of xenophobia are recorded and responded to across provinces, stations, and community policing structures. This report documents some of the large scale and more individual experiences of xenophobia, discrimination, and barriers experienced by non-nationals in the year following the launch of the NAP, as well as the, at best, anemic response by the government.

Based on interviews with 51 people in Western Cape, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, this report documents xenophobic harassment and attacks by South Africans, including government and law enforcement officials, between March and March In that period, mobs of angry rioters throughout South Africa have attacked and harassed non-nationals, blaming them for unemployment, crime, neglect by the government, among other things.

In September in Western Cape, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal, hundreds of people believed to be South African organized a national shutdown, blocking roads and highways; closing taxi ranks, schools, and businesses; and chanting for all foreigners to leave. The shutdown turned violent with mobs looting and torching homes, shops, and malls owned or rented by non-nationals. The government has said 12 people, 10 of whom were South Africans, died during the September unrest.

In addition to being targeted by mob violence, non-nationals whom Human Rights Watch interviewed for this report said they have been harassed verbally and physically by South Africans for being foreign and not using local languages in their daily interactions, including while walking on the street.

Foreigners also reported to Human Rights Watch that government and law enforcement officials throughout the country have used counterfeit goods raids as a cover for xenophobic harassment and attacks. These raids are conducted by SAPS and Metro Police, but local civilians whose roles are to identify counterfeit goods routinely accompany them.

A common practice is to storm shops suspected of selling counterfeit goods with the goal of destroying or removing such goods from the market.

Non-nationals told Human Rights Watch that they believe their shops have been disproportionately targeted by authorities conducting counterfeit goods raids. Sometimes, they said their shops have been completely destroyed in the raids and police officers have beaten them and fired tear gas and rubber bullets on them. The government claims that counterfeit goods raids protect the local economy and South African jobs, but sellers told Human Rights Watch that the police have sold confiscated goods back to them after ransacking their shops in Johannesburg Central Business District and Diepsloot.

SAPS, Metro Police, and Department of Home Affairs representatives also try to approach suspected foreigners unaware, or enter their homes to verify their documents and legal status, in what are known as documentation raids.

During and after documentation raids, as with counterfeit goods raids, foreigners have been beaten by police just for being present or for not complying with orders quickly enough.

Documentation raids have led to arrests of hundreds of both documented and undocumented foreigners throughout the country. Foreigners told Human Rights Watch that despite producing proper documentation, the police arrested and detained them from days to weeks in dirty holding centers while the Department of Home Affairs verified their legal status.

Foreigners, including those who are community activists, told Human Rights Watch that law enforcement officials often responded with indifference or provided inadequate remedies when they reported xenophobic attacks, such as beatings or lootings by South Africans. In the same vein, government and law enforcement officials have often denied that such attacks were xenophobic in nature, insisting instead that they were routine criminal acts.

Human Rights Watch was also told that while non-nationals may be subject to prolonged detention, for example while their legal status is verified, and their lawyers were denied access to them, by contrast suspected perpetrators of xenophobic violence, if arrested, may be released within a few days without effective investigations into the crimes of which they are suspected. Such impunity emboldens others and perpetuates xenophobia.

Most interviewees for this report want to stay in South Africa and contribute to the country and its economy. However, they face challenges in acquiring and renewing documentation to maintain legal status to remain in South Africa. This in turn causes difficulties in accessing education, healthcare, and other basic services.

Such challenges are also a pivotal barrier to accessing justice. With little to no access to justice, the path toward accountability for xenophobia, and therefore bringing an end to it, remains uncertain.

This report is based on interviews in Western Cape, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces in November with 41 people, including at least two children aged ten and eleven, as well as remote telephone and WhatsApp interviews with ten additional people between November to August Due to travel restrictions as a result of Covid, follow-up interviews were conducted by telephone, WhatsApp, or email.

Human Rights Watch interviewed non-nationals living in South Africa, including shop owners, community leaders, teachers, students, and truck drivers; lawyers and representatives of civil society organizations who work on issues related to xenophobia and migrants rights in South Africa; officials at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR in Cape Town and Pretoria; academic scholars who are experts on xenophobia and migrants rights in South Africa; and government officials and diplomats.

All incidents in the report have occurred between March and March to document xenophobia, discrimination, and barriers experienced by non-nationals in the year following the launch of the NAP. Interviews were conducted in English, Bengali, and IsiZulu with the aid of interpreters. Those interviews that used an interpreter are noted. Human Rights Watch did not provide compensation to any of the interviewees.

Each interviewee was informed of how the information provided would be used and provided verbal consent to be interviewed. All were told that they could decline to answer any questions or could end the interview at any time. For security reasons, Human Rights Watch has used pseudonyms for most victim interviewees in this report.

In one case which has already been subject to broader public exposure, Human Rights Watch has made an exception and, with the victim's consent, used his name. Human Rights Watch called Diepsloot police station in February , but there has been no response to multiple phone calls. As a result of travel limitations occasioned by Covid, Human Rights Watch was unable to research and examine some human rights violations related to xenophobic incidents in South Africa, and as such, this report is not as comprehensive in scope as originally envisaged.

Human Rights Watch acknowledges the economic challenges exacerbated by Covid in South Africa and other countries in the African continent, which has manifested in xenophobic violence and other incidents since March not covered in this report. Often scapegoated for economic insecurity and government failures in delivering basic services to its citizens, many African and Asian foreigners who have been targets of xenophobia, live in neighborhoods with predominantly poor, Black South African neighbors who have limited access to resources and employment opportunities.

Official government data for the last quarter of recorded the unemployment rate at This xenophobia has manifested as verbal abuse and physical attacks, with notable waves occurring in and when hundreds of foreigners were injured and displaced nationwide.

However, those apprehended have typically been released within a few days without charge and rarely prosecuted. While there is no justification for the often violent and always harmful xenophobia which persists in South Africa, it is important to acknowledge and understand the issues of poverty and inequality which are intertwined with the manifestations of that xenophobia and are weaponized to fuel it. SARB data collected in , as in most SARB surveys since , revealed that South African respondents ranked inequality as the primary source of division in society.

Post-apartheid, locals expect that it is the responsibility of the government to resolve the poverty and inequality that disproportionately affect Black South Africans. As a result, in conjunction with scapegoating non-nationals for economic insecurity and government failures, South African locals have expressed their dislike for non-nationals by insisting that the limited employment, healthcare, education, and housing opportunities available should be reserved for South Africans.

Thirty-six percent of South African respondents reported that they would likely prevent people from other African countries from accessing jobs, 34 percent reported that they would likely prevent African foreigners from accessing government services, 38 percent reported that they would likely prevent African foreigners from operating a business in their area, and 39 percent reported that they would likely prevent African foreigners from moving into their neighborhood.

However, a World Bank Group report found that a 1 percent increase in immigrants increases local employment by 0. On March 25, the government promisingly launched the National Action Plan to Combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance NAP after consultations with government departments, Chapter Nine institutions, civil society organizations, businesses, and organized labor since Recommendations on xenophobia from the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Probing Violence against Foreign Nationals Report and the Special Reference Group on Migration and Community Integration in KwaZulu-Natal chaired by Judge Navi Pillay, which provided detailed recommendations to various government departments on how best to address their challenges in responding to the wave of xenophobic violence, were incorporated.

As a result, seven general principles inform the NAP: universality, interdependence and indivisibility of human rights, participation and inclusion, progressive realization, accountability, equality and non-discrimination, and intersectionality. The NAP aims to better public awareness and understanding around xenophobia and its causes, improve protection and access to justice for victims, and enhance the quality of anti-discrimination data collected, to promptly respond to xenophobic incidents by creating a Rapid Response Mechanism RRM.

However, implementation of the NAP remains a key challenge. Human Rights Watch has examined both mob and targeted attacks that have taken place between March and March against African and Asian foreigners throughout South Africa, but mostly in the predominantly poor, Black South African areas in the provinces of Western Cape, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal.

For example, on July 25, in Richards Bay Central Business District, KwaZulu-Natal, a group of South African locals accused foreigners of dealing drugs and beat up random foreigners as they looted and torched foreigner-owned and rented cars and shops, including restaurants, spazas, and hair salons. A similar attack happened in apparent retaliation for an incident involving a non-national who allegedly killed a police officer. Oupa Matjie, a police captain in Diepsloot, a township in Johannesburg, was fatally shot on January 17, while pursuing a Zimbabwean national alleged to be involved in an attempted murder and home robbery.

They set bushes on fire and shut down shopping malls and schools while the homes and shops of non-nationals were looted and attacked for several days. Human Rights Watch was told on a number of occasions that another common reason given for the violent attacks is to gain the attention of the authorities, who perpetrators claim have failed to deliver on their promises of delivery of social infrastructure, fighting crime, and curbing irregular immigration.

Perpetrators also claim that authorities have ignored the poverty and inequality that they find themselves in, and the government has taken little to no steps to create opportunities or provide resources to enable them to improve their wellbeing. This has led to an environment in which xenophobia is weaponized. In relation to the riots in Diepsloot discussed above, one local resident forwarded to Human Rights Watch viral WhatsApp messages that discussed the plans for retaliation against foreigners that circulated in Diepsloot at the time.

They had compelling personal stories, but when I read their essays, I noticed that they did not mention anything about being refugees. I think it is phenomenal. So yes, xenophobia absolutely has an impact. Families being split apart, etc. While there are vocal anti-immigrant groups, who is advocating now for immigrants? One of the things that has changed in recent years is that people are leading spontaneous and mass protests against many anti-immigrant measures.

It was late in the afternoon. These challenges and protests today are so fundamental and so important. They give me hope. And of course, with the elections coming up, we have the chance to vote xenophobic politicians out of office.

And how can the view of immigrants be more positive, especially among those who fear the effects of immigration? I think about this on a daily basis. I really want to try to change the narrative about immigration, to combat the threat narrative. It started 55 years ago as an immigrant archive. We are still working hard to achieve this mission in a new era of global migration. In , I wanted to do the same for this new generation of immigrants and refugees, and especially the young people who were in my classrooms.

So my colleagues and I started the Immigrant Stories digital storytelling project, and it grew nationally and internationally.

There are now over stories in the collection representing plus ethnic groups. I really believe in the power of storytelling to change the ways in which people think about immigration and to challenge xenophobia and racism. They help us see immigrants and refugees as real people, not stereotypes. And they remind us what unites us, rather than divides us. South Africa is back in the news yet again for all the wrong reasons. At least 12 people were killed and hundreds arrested after mobs attacked foreign-owned shops in Johannesburg and Pretoria last week.

The attacks drew condemnation from across the African continent and resulted in reprisal attacks abroad. Nigeria began evacuating some of its citizens , recalled its high commissioner, and boycotted the World Economic Forum on Africa summit in Cape Town.

And while a significant number of the population hold anti-immigrant views, data shows the country faces bigger challenges than hosting foreign nationals. South African politicians have consistently complained about the influx of foreign citizens, with some claiming they were burdening sectors including the national healthcare system.

Yet data from the government agency Statistics South Africa showed there were 2. Population figures have since jumped to Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Xenophobia, or fear of strangers, is a broad term that may be applied to any fear of someone who is different from us. Hostility towards outsiders is often a reaction to fear. Xenophobia often overlaps with forms of prejudice including racism and homophobia, but there are important distinctions.

Where racism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination are based on specific characteristics, xenophobia is usually rooted in the perception that members of the outgroup are foreign to the ingroup community. Whether xenophobia qualifies as a legitimate mental disorder is a subject of ongoing debate.

Xenophobia is also associated with large-scale acts of destruction and violence against groups of people. While xenophobia can be expressed in different ways, typical signs include:. While it may represent a true fear, most xenophobic people do not have a true phobia.

Instead, the term is most often used to describe people who discriminate against foreigners and immigrants. People who express xenophobia typically believe that their culture or nation is superior, want to keep immigrants out of their community, and may even engage in actions that are detrimental to those who are perceived as outsiders.

However, some psychologists and psychiatrists have suggested that extreme racism and prejudice should be recognized as a mental health problem.

Some have argued, for example, that extreme forms of prejudice should be considered a subtype of delusional disorder. Other professionals argue that categorizing xenophobia or racism as a mental illness would be medicalizing a social problem. There are two primary types of xenophobia:. The desire to belong to a group is pervasive—and strong identification with a particular group can even be healthy.

It is natural and possibly instinctive to want to protect the interests of the group by eliminating threats to those interests. Unfortunately, this natural protectiveness often causes members of a group to shun or even attack those who are perceived as different, even if they actually pose no legitimate threat at all.

Xenophobia doesn't just affect people at the individual level. It affects entire societies, including cultural attitudes, economics, politics, and history. Examples of xenophobia in the United States include acts of discrimination and violence against Latinx, Mexican, and Middle Eastern immigrants.

Xenophobia has been linked to:. Certainly, not everyone who is xenophobic starts wars or commits hate crimes.