Haphazard immigration policy sends confusing messages to locals and migrants, with disquieting results

South Africa has never worked out a coherent policy towards the migrants that have arrived in droves from poorer countries on the continent, particularly Zimbabweans. Seeing the queues of frightened people now waiting for days outside Home Affairs offices for the documentation that will enable them to remain here after the December 31 deadline for “illegals” reminds me of the prominent SA official who confided recently that the state’s muddled approach to immigration reflects its determination not to be “un-African”.
He explained the complexity of combining SADC’s policy of regional integration with SA’s obligations under international law in trying to be a good global citizen towards struggling neighbours. But he shrugged helplessly when admitting that, without a plan or the means to absorb thousands of extra people in an environment of chronic unemployment, South Africa has faced the same problems as every country richer than its neighbours eventually confronts: social upheaval.
In our case, the consequences include xenophobia, a scary form of violence that cannot be controlled by simply appealing for tolerance. Dealing with the underlying competition for resources has to take precedence if bloody attacks are not to become more frequent in strained economic times.
In the last two months alone, eleven Somali shopkeepers have been murdered in the Western Cape. Situated at the bottom of the food chain, these hard-working traders are resented mainly for applying marginal mark-ups on their products. Because South Africa’s ambivalent immigration policies have over time helped to criminalize foreigners – who are often denigrated as makwerekwere and accused of crime - successful Somali businesses are seen as an unfair threat by local competitors, and literally eliminated.
More widespread as an issue provoking anger in townships around the country are the scores of fraudulent social grants claimed by illegal migrants using fake identity documents. This drain on SA resources - albeit humanitarian in helping to support impoverished Zimbabweans back home through remittances - has become a worry for the South African government in dealing with disaffection among its own deprived voters.
Tensions between ordinary Zimbabweans and South Africans simmer on the streets of our cities, not to mention in the 3 000 informal settlements that have mushroomed around the country over the last few years. Mistrust arises mainly from Zimbabweans apparently getting jobs more readily than South Africans, not only because of employer exploitation but because they are generally better educated.
Although South Africans are accused by Zimbabweans of arrogance, being proud of their country’s advanced infrastructure and avoidance of the civil wars that have afflicted many other African countries, Zimbabweans are said to up the ante by brandishing their educational superiority. “Your people must go to school if they want better jobs,” a former Bulawayo teacher told me bluntly last week.
With provocation coming from both sides, Zimbabweans may be ill-advised in boasting, as some do, about having paid Home Affairs officials R1 500 for their sham IDs. Other immigrants with no work credentials, who have suffered police harassment, are rightly aggrieved at being treated as ATM machines by bullying officials.
The government’s failure to manage refugee policies frustrates locals and discredits all migration in the eyes of ordinary people. Tara Polzer of the Forced Migration Studies Programme at Wits says that deporting victims while ignoring crimes perpetrated against them “gives the impression that whatever you do to someone who is illegally in the country is fine since they should not have been here in the first place”.
You wonder at the year-end cut-off date for documentation when a senior member of the Department of International Relations reveals that South Africa has for some time been monitoring annual spikes in repatriations to Zim around Christmas, with interesting results. According to this official, many Zimbabweans have taken to presenting themselves at police stations as self-confessed “illegals” in order to be transported home for the festive season at the SA state’s expense. Ferrying people back to Zimbabwe is costing at least R300-million annually, with some of the deportees routinely returning to their lives in South Africa after New Year.
Another SA official involved in facilitating dialogue between the Harare-based inclusive government’s partners revealed laughingly that Zimbabwe’s six negotiators had at one meeting spoken in unusual unison when calling on South Africa to pay a tax for the intellectual property of skilled Zimbabweans working down south.
Such resentment of Zimbabwe’s brain drain may explain why SA’s latest haphazard immigration policy is backed by Harare’s politicos, although some observers believe the Mugabe part of Zimbabwe awaits the return of its exiles with trepidation since most are Tsvangirai’s supporters - yet cannot publicly oppose the move without undermining the progress South Africa claims has been made by its struggling unity government.
Whether Zimbabwe wants its citizens back right now or not, there is a sense among those queuing for papers that they are on a hiding to nothing. With some clutching forms that require confidential financial information from employers, such as company registration and income tax numbers, there is suspicion that Zimbabweans will battle to obtain the necessary details – suggesting to them that South Africa intends issuing as few permits as possible.   
Over the last decade, South Africa has veered between welcoming “economic migrants” and rejecting “aliens”. We can’t seem to decide whether we value Zimbabweans among us or not. The latest decision to deport those without hard-won legitimate papers does not seem any more rational than our earlier attempts to regularize the movement of people from Zimbabwe, which confusion has resulted in rampant illegal migration, rights abuses and other negative impacts for South Africa.
One reason to question our latest immigration policy is our inability to prevent deported individuals from returning to South Africa. Another is the continuing graft at Home Affairs; a third, the myth that Zimbabwe’s economic recovery will support thousands of returnees. But the most compelling cause for concern is our hard-heartedness towards desperate people. That is as un-African now as it was ten years ago – and as it always will be.