Many South Africans have concluded that immigrants are taking jobs away from local workers.
South Africa is in the midst of its most significant anti-immigrant mobilization in years.
The emergence of the March and March Movement, which called for mass deportations of undocumented migrants by June 30, 2026, rising anti-immigrant violence and the repatriation of foreign nationals by many African governments have pushed immigration to the center of the national debate.
The anti-immigrant protest movement argues that it is responding to rising unemployment, deteriorating public services, and increasing insecurity.
The question is not whether these complaints have merit or not. They do. It's whether immigrants are really responsible for them.
This article draws from research by the Center for Southern Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. It examines the drivers and consequences of inequality.
It focuses on the world of work, public spending, production and ownership, technological change and innovation, and the impacts of climate change.
Our research provides important context for understanding the economic and social conditions in which the explosion of anti-immigrant sentiment has occurred – and its underlying causes.
Immigration is not irrelevant to the diverse and overlapping crises facing South Africans. But this is not their primary reason.
Unemployment and informality
Few issues reflect this more clearly than employment.
South Africa has the highest unemployment rate in the world.
More than four out of every ten working-age adults who want work cannot find it (this includes discouraged work seekers).
The scale of this crisis clearly creates pressure to identify the cause and demand action.
Many South Africans have concluded that immigrants are taking jobs away from local workers.
Our analysis of public opinion data shows that 70% of South Africans believe that immigrants take jobs away from people born in the country.
These ideas help explain the growing support for anti-immigrant mobilization. But public perceptions do not always match reality.
Administrative tax data shows that the share of foreign nationals in formal employment in South Africa is very low.
Our researchers found that less than 4% of formal jobs are held by foreigners. This share has remained largely unchanged for more than a decade.
The picture is somewhat different in the informal economy, where foreign-born workers represent a limited but large 20% share of participants.
Related research by scholars at the Southern Center for Inequality Studies in South Africa, along with the international informal labor organization StreetNet and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), found that as the informal sector expands amid rising unemployment, competition has increased.
This has made livelihoods more uncertain and sustaining earnings more difficult.
Competition is particularly rife between spaza shop owners (informal neighborhood grocery stores) and street traders, who buy goods in the formal sector and resell them at small profit margins.
Foreign-owned spaza stores tend to be large and mass operated – similar to the role of wholesalers. This enables them to offer a wide range of products at low prices.
Policy changes will be required to create a supportive environment for informal operators.
They may include: access to start-up capital, wholesale sourcing of goods, safe access to public space, investment in affordable public infrastructure and services, and reducing harassment by municipal officials.
Despite recent government plans to revitalize township (historically segregated poor neighborhoods) and rural economies, South Africa's economic policy remains focused on the formal sector.
The frustration felt by South Africans is therefore understandable. But South Africa's unemployment crisis is too large to be explained by immigration alone.
For example, our research shows that the unemployment rate would fall by just six percentage points – from 43.6% to 37.6% – if all foreigners' jobs were somehow handed over to unemployed South Africans.
This is a relatively modest decline given the scale of South Africa's unemployment crisis.
This highlights that the labor market overall is not dominated by foreigners, even though some sectors and locations have higher numbers of immigrant workers.
Yet, it is not only unrealistic to expect that jobs can be swapped one-for-one between immigrants and South Africans.
It may even lead to overall job losses for South Africans due to the decline in entrepreneurship, investment and skills brought by foreigners.
This was the conclusion of a World Bank report which found that one immigrant worker actually creates about two jobs for locals.
The economic contribution of immigrants may also help explain why attitudes towards immigration vary across South Africa.
A scholar from the Southern Center for Inequality Studies found that residents of more deprived municipalities were sometimes more supportive of cross-border movement than those living in better-resourced areas.
One possible explanation is that direct contact with migrants helped challenge stereotypes and make their economic contributions more visible.
If immigration is not the primary cause of unemployment, why is this perception so strong?
Part of the answer lies in the economic pressures experienced by ordinary families.
Financial pressure facing families
Households face rising costs associated with food, transportation, electricity and other essential commodities. These pressures come on top of the deterioration of public services.
Power cuts, unreliable public transport, overcrowded schools and long waits at public clinics have become part of everyday life for many South Africans.
This has reinforced the perception that the standard of living is continuously declining.
Our research confirms that reduced government borrowing, primarily through lower budgets and higher revenue collection, has been squeezing public services for a decade.
This has contributed to poor teacher-learner ratios, long waiting periods at public health facilities and increasing backlogs in courts.
These pressures are likely to intensify in the coming years for a number of reasons.
First, climate change imposes a disproportionate burden on vulnerable groups such as women, particularly through its impacts on care work, livelihoods and access to essential resources.
Our recent research also shows that the green transition will create highly unequal labor market impacts across South Africa.
Some communities will face significant job losses and economic disruption that could lead to increased social and political tensions.
Second, the limitations of South Africa's social security are becoming more apparent.
Social grants have become a lifeline for millions of families and play a vital role in preventing poverty. But they cannot become a substitute for good work and economic opportunity.
Our research on Social Security shows that people want more than just to survive.
They want meaningful work, respect, freedom, and opportunities to build better lives.
The challenge facing South Africa is not just to reduce poverty, but to expand opportunity.
South Africa's economic prosperity is largely linked to trade and investment with the rest of Africa.
Anti-immigrant politics can yield short-term political gains. But they risk damaging the relationships and openness on which South Africa's long-term development depends.
a warning sign
The rise of anti-immigrant sentiment is a warning sign.
This reflects real frustration with the economic conditions and diminishing opportunities facing the average South African. It would be a mistake to ignore those disappointments.
But this would also be blaming migrants for a crisis they did not cause.
Economic hardship may help explain anti-immigrant sentiment, but it cannot justify directing hostility or violence toward those whose rights and dignity deserve equal protection.
South Africa's challenges demand better policy, not scapegoating, prejudice or violence against migrants.
This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read original article Here.