Immigrants less likely to commit crime, more likely to create jobs for
South Africans, report finds
News 24 – 16 September 2022
- A report has found that immigrants are less
likely to commit crimes than South Africans.
- Making up only 6.5% of the population, it is
impossible for immigrants to be straining government services such as
healthcare, the report has found.
- It has cautioned that anti-foreigner sentiment
appears to be growing in South Africa.
Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than South Africans, the
Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has found in a report.
The new report explored the claims fuelling anti-foreigner sentiment,
which has seen immigrants blamed for a range of social and economic problems in
South Africa and reinforces xenophobic sentiment.
The ISS report found that the immigrant population is much smaller than
commonly believed and does not place a burden on government services such as
healthcare and education. In addition, the report found that instead of taking
jobs from South Africans, as is widely believed, immigrants are more likely to
create jobs.
"South African socio-economic problems are not caused by
immigrants, but by poor governance and corruption. Many politicians, public
officials, and other high-profile people regularly make anti-immigrant
statements that fuel xenophobia. The number of migrants in South Africa is
grossly exaggerated," the ISS report found.
Since 1994, anti-foreigner sentiment has been growing in South Africa,
and 936 violent xenophobic incidents have been recorded, according to the
report. The attacks killed 630 people, displaced 123 000, and saw 4 800
shops looted.
The report read:
During 2019, statements that fuelled xenophobic
sentiment were made by a number of politicians from mainstream political
parties while campaigning for the national and provincial elections held that
year.
"In 2020, various community-based groups started to mobilise around
an anti-immigrant agenda. These include Operation Dudula, which started in
Soweto and has since opened branches across the country, and the unrelated
Dudula Movement, based in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra."
Both groups blame immigrants for a range of socio-economic challenges,
including high levels of crime and unemployment.
Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba recently sparked
a storm of controversy after the emergence of a video showing her
telling a woman that migrants from Zimbabwe were a "huge strain" on
the provincial healthcare system.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton
McKenzie.
The South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS) for 2021 found that
almost half of the population believed there were between 17 and 40 million
immigrants in the country.
However, there were less than four million immigrants in the country,
which made up 6.5% of the population. This percentage was in line with
international norms.
The report found that this population group also positively contributed
to the country. They had a positive impact on the government's fiscus because
they generally paid income and value-added taxes, the report found, and
contributed about 9% to the GDP.
In addition, there was no evidence to suggest that immigrants took
employment opportunities away from South African workers.
"Rather, there is evidence that the opposite is true – that immigrants
often create employment for South Africans," the report found.
Immigrants were generally more likely to be self-employed, and each
immigrant generated around two jobs for locals, according to a World Bank
study. Immigrants also make up only 5% of the labour market, according to
Statistics South Africa data. Around a third of immigrants were employed in the
informal sector.
Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba has sparked a
storm of controversy after the emergence of a video showing her telling a woman
that migrants from Zimbabwe were a "huge strain" on the provincial
healthcare system.
Another common rhetoric around immigrants is that they contribute to
crime in South Africa. However, the report found that immigrants were less
likely to commit crimes than South Africans.
According to the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) SASAS data,
two-thirds of South Africans believed that immigrants increased crime.
"There is no statistical relationship between international
migration in South Africa and crime. There is also no evidence that most
immigrants commit crimes or are responsible for most crimes in the
country," the report found.
Based on data provided by the Department of Justice and Correctional
Services, immigrants made up only 8.5% of convicted cases in 2019, and 7% in
2020.
Only about 2% of inmates incarcerated per year are undocumented
foreigners. The report found that immigrants were less likely than South
Africans to be convicted of serious crimes such as murder and rape, yet they
were disproportionately targeted in police operations and caught for minor
crimes such as drug possession or use.
The report also tackled the assertions that immigrants were a burden on
government services.
The report found:
Immigrants account for about 6.5% of the
population. It is thus statistically impossible for immigrants to be
responsible for the healthcare system's failings. Continued claims of 'hordes'
of immigrants flooding South Africa's public healthcare facilities dominate the
national discourse and promote 'medical xenophobia'. However, in the short run,
immigrants tend to be healthier than locals
It also found that although the blame for overpopulated and overwhelmed
schools was incorrectly placed on immigrant children, it should rather be
assigned to "the poorly managed education department".
"While politicians often publicly denounce and condemn violence
against immigrants and prefer to link it to criminality, not xenophobia, there
are no effective mechanisms in place to address it.
"This lack of political will to address the scourge is most likely
because it is easier to blame others for governance failures," the report
said.
www.samigration.com
