A charter plane carrying 59 white South Africans arrived at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC, on Monday. These individuals, including families and children, are starting their new lives in the United States. US President Donald Trump expedited their arrival.
In February, he announced a new program aimed at accepting refugees from South Africa who, according to Trump, are facing racist policies. Despite refugees usually waiting for years to enter the United States, the Afrikaners who arrived on Monday were able to do so within three months.
Trump justified admitting these individuals as refugees, citing a “genocide” and claiming that white farmers are being killed in post-apartheid South Africa. He referred to a new law signed by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in January, which regulates the expropriation of private property and possible compensation.
However, Tessa Dooms, director of the Rivonia Circle think tank in Johannesburg, dismissed Trump’s claims. She argued that the high murder rate in South Africa affects all South Africans, with Black women facing a higher risk of being murdered than white farmers. Dooms said that US recognition of white South Africans as refugees is based on false narratives.
South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola also stated there is no persecution of white Afrikaners in South Africa, claiming police reports do not support such assertions. The crime rates in South Africa affect all citizens irrespective of race. He also emphasized that significant land reforms are not happening.
The US giving South African refugees status is also viewed as a concerning development by political scientists Zainab Usman and Anthony Carroll. They believe the law is part of an effort to address historical inequalities rooted in apartheid-era land dispossession. Despite this, there is still constitutional protection against arbitrary seizure.
Loren Landau from Witwatersrand University does not believe fears of persecution are major drivers. He argues that Afrikaners taking advantage of Trump’s program are aware there is no persecution of whites in South Africa but see this as an opportunity to go to America.
By mid-March, more than 67,000 South Africans had registered to emigrate to the US, according to the South African Chamber of Commerce in the US. The decision by Trump is seen by some as positioning himself as a “savior of white privilege and Christianity” globally, rather than a reaction to South Africa’s empirical realities.
Source: https://www.dw.com/en/white-south-africans-refugees-arrive-as-refugees-in-the-us-but-do-they-really-need-protection/a-72533041?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf
