MASSES …
The new government faces a real problem in the number of illegal immigrants and refugees in the country. Clearly, an unbridled flow across our borders is a potential source of conflict in a country with massive unemployment and resources to meet the needs of reconstruction and development already stretched beyond their limit.
However, official responses are crude, even dangerous. The threat is exaggerated, with some putting the number of aliens as high as 8-million, a ludicrous figure with no evidence to back it up. The response is taking on an increasingly racial and nationalistic tinge as some political groupings try and whip up xenophobia, presumably to set the ground for a ruthless clampdown.
There are good moral reasons to warn against such sentiments. After all, this country, with its previous policy of destabilisation, bears a good deal of responsibility for the economic chaos of our neighbours. But the practicalities also suggest that a more carefully considered approach is necessary.
Firstly, the Pretoria authorities should know, better than most, that border controls — like the old pass laws — are not going to stop the hungry and desperate from finding a way through. Such actions may hinder the flow, will certainly cost a great deal and cause great discomfort, but are almost certain to fail.
Secondly, there is a heavy cost for having so many people –probably in the region of 2-million –here illegally, without social or legal standing. The decay of our inner cities can be traced largely to the fact that most of the black residents were, in the past, illegals because of the Group Areas Act. The decay will not be reversed as long as most of the current residents have no standing because they are aliens. It would be better to realise that some immigrants, perhaps the majority, are potentially good citizens prepared to work hard and make a contribution to our society. Some of the world’s greatest countries have, after all, been built on immigration.
The long-term solution has to be a regional one. If we want to stop economic refugees pouring in from neighbouring countries, we have to seek ways to encourage those countries to achieve the stability and growth that will keep their citizens at home. An insular, nationalistic policy will not achieve this. Nor will denying the reality of immigrants who are here, in our cities, and are not going to disappear.