Xenophobia In South Africa Essay

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Socio-economic inequality and competition over resources are on the rise in the Republic of South Africa. The socio-economic inequality among the different races in the country has been existing ever since apartheid was abolished. But this time, the huge gap of inequality is merged with the ideology and acts of xenophobia. In the informal labour sector of South Africa, foreigners, mostly from Africa and Asia are more likely to be employed than local South Africans. According to the MiWORC, 2012 data, foreigners in South Africa have much lower unemployment rates than others. This is uncommon. In most other countries, it tends to have higher unemployment rates than locals. South Africa’s unemployment data shows that 26.16% of locals are unemployed and only 14.68% of foreigners (international migrants) are unemployed. (South African Statisics, 2013). But while foreigners…show more content…
According to Dr. K. Wilson of the Psychology Department of Witwatersrand University, ‘xenophobia is a sentiment rooted primarily in economic competition and scarcity – a "phenomenon driven by a desire for financial benefit". In South Africa, economic factors have been an important contributing factor to new hostile attitudes to outsiders. Apartheid had a devastating impact on the country and on the entire region. The South African government pursued a policy of destabilisation that left it the poorest country on the globe. Coupled with regional migration patterns that created a dependency in surrounding countries on the remittances of male mine workers, South Africa's apartheid legacy to the South African Development Community (SADC) has been the creation of optimal pull factors that draw people from neighbouring states to the comparatively enormous economy of South Africa. One writer notes that in the villages of Lesotho and Mozambique, people sing about the wealth of South Africa (Solomon,
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