Africa, Development & Aid, Headlines, Human Rights, Migration & Refugees, Population | Analysis

RIGHTS: Let May 11 Be A Turning Point For A More Tolerant, Safe, and Prosperous South Africa

Analysis by Loren Landau*

JOHANNESBURG, Jun 19 2008 (IPS) - June 20 is World Refugee Day. Early this week, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) launched a report documenting just how far South Africa has to go in protecting the rights of foreigners in our midst.

Human Rights Watch followed a day later calling on South Africa to provide Zimbabweans with greater protections. Both reports outline how the recent violence at the hands of criminal thugs and long-time neighbours has added impoverishment and indignity to foreigners' long histories of exclusion, exploitation, and extortion in South Africa.

In the cold of winter, many of them now huddle in settlements with false hopes of resettlement, return to potentially hostile communities, or leave the country. Our hearts are with them and the hundreds of thousands of people throughout the region who depend on them.

The recent wave of violence has upset us all. Clearly, we have failed to ensure that all people's rights, lives, and livelihoods are not imperiled by those who would do them harm. Many feel discouraged or despondent while others are already turning their attention elsewhere. But rather than lay down our tools, let this be a turning point. Together we must recognise and transcend the limits of citizenship by extending protection to all who live in South Africa.

In going forward we must learn from the path that has brought us here. The report offers three important reflections to guide us:

First, the recent violence is but an extreme sign of how non-nationals are treated as 'outsiders' by various elements of South African society, from members of the public, to civil servants, service providers, and government leaders. This report outlines many of the ways non-nationals – refugees, asylum seekers, and other immigrants – are excluded from the services, welfare, and dignity they are guaranteed by South African law and Constitutional commitments.

Second, while South Africa must improve its policing practices and promote tolerance, it must also revisit and fundamentally revise the way it manages migration from the region and further afield. Let us be clear, halting migration is neither possible nor a solution. Are we prepared to follow the United State and Europe in their fruitless, deadly, and hypocritical efforts to halt immigration?

South Africa already deports close to 300 000 people a year. How much further are we willing to go? How can we speak in one breath of promoting tolerance and barricading our borders? Doing so only confirms many South African's deep suspicion that migrants truly are a mortal threat to South African society. Yes, stop corrupt officials and criminals, but let us not further demonise and criminalise our neighbours.

In his speech on 25 May, President Mbeki argued that the country's policies have always promoted the peaceful integration of migrants in our midst. This is not true. Now is the time to make it so.

Third, protecting foreigners' rights is a responsibility we owe ourselves. Twelve years ago, South Africa engendered one of the world's most remarkable Constitutions. This document not only swears to right past injustices, but also to protect the lives and human dignity of all who live here. But these promises are nothing if we do not make them real.

This means fighting discrimination and exclusion in all of its forms, whether due to race, gender, class, or nationality. As the events of the past few weeks illustrate, allowing any member of our society to be alienated from the economic and political rights that we extend to all South Africans – including the right to life – threatens everyone.

Without migrants – people fleeing poverty and violence or simply looking for a better life – South Africa would be a much poorer place. Throughout the country's history, gold extracted from the Witwatersrand has been borne to the surface on the backs of workers from across the region.

Today's skills shortages mean that agriculture, industry, and education will only thrive by drawing on the energy and skills of those from beyond our borders. And as these industries grow, so too will opportunities for South African citizens. They will expand further as remittances from South Africa spread wealth throughout the region in ways that nourish markets and promote political stability.

South Africa depends – as it always has – on its neighbours and those from much farther away. By neglecting, denigrating, and excluding foreigners living here, we erode bonds to those who will sustain us.

Our duty to assist is more than an obligation to refugees fleeing violence, oppression, and persecution elsewhere in the world. Nor should we embrace strangers solely to repay them for hastening apartheid's demise. Our debts are real, but whether the come from Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Somalia, China, or India should make no difference. If they are here, ready to obey our laws, and ready to contribute then we have no reason to wish them ill.

Today is intended to draw attention to the challenges facing refugees and migrants across the world. But our campaign can not be not solely about the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and other immigrants. Rather, it is about building a South Africa where everyone is secure in their rights are welfare. Only when international organisations, government, and the South African citizenry work together will we achieve the justice and prosperity for which everyone in South Africa's deserves and for some many years has been denied.

*Professor Loren B. Landau is Director of the Forced Migration Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand and Chair of the Executive Committee, Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa