Scapegoating Immigrants Will Not Fix South Africa
Blaming immigrants for unemployment, crime and failing public services may be politically convenient, but it will not solve South Africa’s problems.
South Africa is once again gripped by rising anti-immigrant sentiment. Protests demanding deportations of undocumented foreigners, fears of xenophobic violence, and rhetoric blaming migrants for unemployment, crime, and strained public services have intensified.
Hundreds or even thousands of African migrants have fled or been repatriated amid threats and attacks. While these frustrations stem from genuine hardships like our absurdly high unemployment rate, failing infrastructure, and overburdened services, scapegoating fellow human beings risks repeating cycles of violence and distracts from the policy failures that truly undermine prosperity.
As someone who values individual liberty above all, one recognises the tension within libertarian thought on immigration. The ideal of the free movement, of goods, services, and people, aligns with the entrepreneurial discovery process that drives human flourishing. People seeking better opportunities embody the same alertness that township spaza owners and informal mechanics demonstrate daily.
Restricting movement arbitrarily can hinder the voluntary coordination that markets enable. Yet borders and jurisdictions exist in our imperfect world of states unfortunately. Therefore, public resources financed by taxpayers raise legitimate questions of capacity and rule of law. The core issue is not “African foreigners” versus “locals,” but how state policies suppress opportunity for everyone.
Blaming migrants for our economic woes ignores root causes. South Africans do not lack enterprise; our policy environment actively suppresses it. Rigid labour laws, high minimum wages, licensing burdens, and compliance costs make it risky and expensive for small businesses, the engines of job creation, to hire.
Central planners in Pretoria cannot replicate the dispersed knowledge that allows entrepreneurs to match skills with needs locally. Migrants, often highly motivated and entrepreneurial, frequently fill gaps in the informal economy or take jobs locals avoid under current regulations.
But when the state makes formal employment a minefield, competition feels zero-sum. The solution is not mass deportations, but deregulating labour markets so more people, citizens and newcomers alike, can participate productively.
Public services are strained not primarily by immigrants, but by chronic mismanagement, corruption, and fiscal irresponsibility at every level of government. Collapsing infrastructure, unreliable electricity and water, and inefficient hospitals predate recent migration waves. Expanding the welfare and regulatory state without corresponding growth in productive capacity creates scarcity that fuels resentment.
Individualism teaches us that each person has the capacity to shape their destiny through choice and voluntary cooperation, provided rights are protected. Coerced redistribution and social engineering breed division; free enterprise coordinates diverse individuals toward mutual benefit.
The classical liberal-inspired approach offers a better path. Secure borders and sensible immigration policies that prioritise skills, the rule of law, and integration are compatible with liberty when paired with domestic reforms.
Enforce laws against crime and illegal entry consistently, without ethnic profiling that descends into violence. But pair this with Job Seeker Exemption Certificate-style labour exemptions, reduced red tape, tax relief, and privatisation of failing services.
Unleash entrepreneurship so the economy grows fast enough to absorb more workers. Studies and indices such as the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom Index show that freer movement alongside economic freedom correlates with prosperity – not because migration is costless, but because open, dynamic societies harness human potential.
Framing the debate in ethnic/nationalist terms, that is, African migrants versus locals, hijacks legitimate concerns and poisons discourse. The true divide is between policies that foster agency, property rights, and voluntary exchange, and those that entrench dependency and extraction.
History’s grievances should not excuse present failures in governance. South Africans of all backgrounds share aspirations for safe communities, functioning services, and economic opportunity. Migrants fleeing hardship often share these dreams; many contribute as traders, workers, and innovators.
Violent scapegoating undermines the rule of law we all need. It distracts from holding leaders accountable for the institutional decay that makes life harder for everyone. Instead of pitting groups against one another, we should demand a leaner state focused on protecting rights, deregulated markets that reward value creation, and an environment where entrepreneurial discovery by citizens and immigrants alike, can flourish.
Only then can South Africa move beyond resentment toward the free and prosperous society its people deserve.
Zakhele Mthembu, BA Law LLB (Wits), is a Policy Officer at the Free Market Foundation.