Research finds immigrants not to blame for SA’s problems – Operation Dudula not buying it

Operation Dudula has rubbished the findings of a report that tackles the “myths” of immigrants being the prime culprits when it comes to “stealing jobs”, committing crimes and straining South Africa’s resources at the expense of citizens.

According to the Institute for Security Studies’ new Busting the myths about immigrants in South Africa survey report launched on Wednesday, the number of migrants in SA has been grossly exaggerated.

There are about 3.95 million migrants in the country, making up about 6.5% of the approximately 60-million strong population, which the researchers said was in line with international norms.

Immigrants were found to contribute about 9% of the country’s GDP and boost employment, as every working immigrant creates two local jobs, the researchers pointed out.

They also found that only about 2.3% of inmates incarcerated annually were undocumented migrants.

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The researchers found that immigrants were less likely than South Africans to be convicted of serious crimes like murder and rape, yet were disproportionately targeted in police operations and caught for minor crimes such as drug possession or use.

Nonsense

Anti-illegal immigrant grouping, Operation Dudula, however, charged that the statistics were simply wrong and did not reflect the reality on the ground.

The organisation advocating for the removal of illegal migrants went as far as suggesting that the authors and panel discussing the report were all privileged and did not share the socio-economic experiences of the majority of poor South Africans.

“It is very problematic that when you talk about migration in a country like SA and the whole panel is made of people who do not have a direct relationship with undocumented and illegal migrants.

“It’s a problem because those of us who live in the townships can give you a different story. You got to allow South Africans to talk about their experiences and challenges as it relates to migrants,” the organisation’s technical advisor Isaack Lesole argued.

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He claimed that the official figure on the number of foreign nationals in SA could not be accurate, as documents are obtained fraudulently, with the combination of corruption and porous borders making South Africa a destination of choice for foreign criminals.

“We have a problem of porous borders and many people get into SA through means that are not detected, so nobody can stand there and give factual argument that we have 3.95-million immigrants… by the virtue that there are no statistics…”, he said.

Illegal immigrants ‘steal jobs’

Lesole insisted that illegal immigrants do not create employment but instead take jobs from SA citizens. He says this is a major problem as these opportunities should be the preserve of citizens.

He said his sister ran a spaza shop for eleven years but had to close down as 11 more spazas owned by whom they believe to be illegal immigrants opened up in the vicinity.

“No matter how you look at this, there is a significant number of migrants occupying no-scarce skills jobs. So, people do not come here because they like us, but because government is not able to enforce the laws and therefore, we should not be demonised when we stand and say there are opportunities that are a preserve of locals,” Lesole added.

Impossible to measure accurately

Diego Iturralde, Head of Demographics, Statistics South Africa, said it was nothing new that Statistics SA did not measure migration irregularity and that no country in the world had the ability to directly to do so.

“What we are saying is that through indirect methods and through looking at administrative processes that people use, we do not see evidence that points to the fact that there are more than 4-million foreign nationals in the country,” he said.

Iturralde said what the report merely pointed out was that all these challenges cannot be attributed to the existence of migrants, and that if immigrants would disappear overnight, the challenges wouldn’t simply disappear as well.

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Critics refuses to face reality

Anthony Kaziboni, Head of Research at University of Johannesburg’s Institute for the Future of Knowledge, said criticism on the makeup of the panel was not fair because he was black and understood challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality.

He said immigration challenges revolved around corruption and that he had been fascinated to find a Bangladeshi national with a South African name.

“The Bangladeshi is wrong… A criminal, and the person who issued that document is a criminal. Migration is a double edged-sword. There are good things that come with it but also horrible things. People come here for greener pastures and not to come be corrupt,” he said.

Global phenomena

Finland’s Ambassador to SA, Anne Lammila, said immigration has emerged as a contentious and emotional subject in many countries, with people scapegoating immigrants for socio-economic problems like crime, disease, unemployment and poverty.

She said in some countries, it is right wing parties who fuel these emotions, and that this expression of discontent was not supported by facts but rather by fear and hostility.

Margaret Monyani, ISS Senior Researcher for Migration, said SA had a great standing at the UN’s Global Compact on Migration, which she said was a great framework which gives states a way forward in how to deal with issues of migration.