The Price of Migration to South Africa

How fulfilling is it to live a life in fear? To flee your home country, the people you love, the area you are familiar with, only to be confronted with the fear of living because of your identity? Many migrants in South Africa are all too familiar with this feeling and have become targets in acts of violence simply because they’re foreign nationals (NPR).

Why is there so much violence being centered upon the migrants? South Africa has been dealing with an underlying racial issue known as “Afrophobia.” An article written by The New Humanitarian, a non-profit news agency, defines it as “an intolerance towards other black Africans” (Humanitarian). Many migrants in South Africa are targeted for their appearances and identity (AllAfrica).

In order to escape the economic and political issues asylum seekers face in their home country, they flee to South Africa to seek stability. However, political figures in the South African Government have been outwardly blaming and using them as scapegoats for the faults of the country (Media). This has led to citizens holding the foreigners accountable for the flaws in the South African system. The former mayor of Johannesburg claims that “migrants are a menace to society” (NPR). Migrants have been blamed for the high unemployment rate in South Africa and are often wrongfully accused of stealing jobs. For example, there has been an increase in truck violence where many migrants are targets in truck attacks due to the belief that many foreigners have been “stealing” those jobs from citizens. However, many of the truck driving employers hire more migrants because they are more willing to work in comparison to South African nationals (AllAfrica). Despite important political figures encouraging violence and attacking refugees, the South African president has called for the people to welcome the migrants warmly (NPR). However, it is still evident that xenophobia still poses a threat to migrants.

Because many migrants feel that their safety is being threatened, they are protesting to be moved from South Africa. Many have been demanding to be moved to countries such as Canada, the US, Britain. However, it is not up to South Africa’s Government or the UNHCR (NPR). The protests have been causing more violence and disruption as well and are becoming out of hand (Media). Many migrants, including women and children, are being moved from a temporary sanctuary by the police because of the overflowing number of migrants that have been disrupting areas of tourism, such as a 19th-century church (Humanitarian). The unforgiving cycle of protests leading back to more violence is something that must be addressed.

Racism and prejudice can develop into deeper problems such as xenophobia which is what South Africa is facing at the moment. By addressing this, the world won’t have to face the poisoned branches of prejudice -- xenophobia. The current president is very aware that xenophobia is an issue in South Africa that has been interfering with its economy and culture. Due to violence that has been targeted towards migrant truck drivers, the South African economy has lost more than $64,979,064.00 USD (AllAfrica). The hate behind the wheels must be stopped in order for the progressive growth of the country. If the xenophobic violence is not dealt properly with by the South African government soon, not only will the economy suffer, but the people of the country will as well.




Works Cited: Allafrica.com. “South Africa: Trucking Violence Blamed On High Unemployment.” "AllAfrica.com", AllAfrica.com, 11 Mar. 2020, allafrica.com/stories/202003120281.html. Accessed 13 Mar. 2020.

Humanitarian, The New. “Briefing: South Africa's 'Afrophobia' Problem.” "The New Humanitarian", The New Humanitarian, 11 Mar. 2020, www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2020/03/11/south-africa-xenophobia-migrants-refugees-afrophobia. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Media, AllAfrica Global. “Nigeria: South Africa - Amnesty International Condemns Xenophobic Attacks.” "Box", Pdf, 11 Mar. 2020, 2461084-6cfc4eeb-c1a4-4340-95ce-f9a08b1a1d74.pdf. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Radio, Inc. (NPR), National Public. “Xenophobic Violence In South Africa.” Box, Pdf, 11 Mar. 2020, 2461084-e3dfbb37-bd05-423e-bbce-d39c7750bfe9.pdf. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Timeslive. “'There's No Xenophobia Here'.” "TimesLIVE", TimesLIVE, 4 Mar. 2020, www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-03-04-watch-theres-no-xenophobia-here-refugee-speaks-out-against-chance-taking-members-of-cape-town-group/. Accessed 13 Mar. 2020.

The Undercurrent Passion

Sijie utilizes the symbol of the narrator’s sheep coat to illustrates the importance of literature by demonstrating how it’s used to help expand intellectual liberty.

A gift from the villagers from the boys’ arrival, the sheep coat is highly valued like any other clothing the tailor makes. The coat is small and can fit a limited amount of passages. It had a wide range of textures and consisted of a rawhide interior. The narrator replicated his favorite passage of Balzac’s Ursule Mirouët. As he copies down the chapter where Ursule somnambulates, he states that “I longed to be like her: to be where Ursule somnambulates. I longed to be like her: to be able, while I lay asleep on my bed, to see what my mother was doing in our apartment five hundred kilometers away, to watch my parents having supper, to observe their gestures, the dishes on the table, the colour of the crockery, to sniff the aroma of their food, to hear their conversation... Better still, like Ursule, I would visit, in my dreams, places I had never set eyes on before…” (58-59). He becomes hopeful to fulfill his unquenchable desire for learning and experiencing the western literature. The narrator fills that literature and his newfound intellectual liberty will only be exacerbated by future encounters with Western literature, as he keeps it close to him on the sheepskin coat.

The next morning, Luo borrows the narrator’s sheep coat on a trip to see the Little Seamstress. When Luo returns, he briefs the Narrator on the Little Seamstress reaction to his writing. She was overwhelmed with knowledge, as “[his] coat was resting on her hands, the way a sacred object lies in the palms of the pious”(62) in silence. The Little Seamstress’s reaction reinforces the narrator’s sense of enthusiasm towards the transformative literature. The analogy comparing the coat to “a sacred objects” shows that it is delicate and inspiring to those who are fortunate enough to read western literature. The word “pious” indicates that the narrator and the Little seamstress were believers in the limited liberal arts hidden from them as the result of the cultural revolution.