Politicians across the board benefit from xenophobia

Wcountry hy does’this s political class complain when people on the ground attack immigrants? Because it hates competition.

It is becoming clear that one of the few issues on which the entire political spectrum is agreed is that it is good politics to beat up on immigrants.

The trailblazer in the current wave of prejudice is Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba, who regularly blames immigrants for just about everything. His best effort was his claim that the home affairs department needed to act because illegal mining was threatening Soccer City with collapse.

His party, the DA, shares his view that people who are not born here are a threat; inspired no doubt by Donald Trump, it is making border security a key element of its message to voters this year.

Dumping on immigrants is, however, no DA monopoly. Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has blamed the state of the public health system on foreign nationals, who, he claimed, were increasing infection rates in public hospitals.

To the left of the ANC, SA Federation of Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi singled out shop owners not only because they are immigrants but also because they are Muslims.

A radio station joined the fray, hectoring politicians who did not promise to make life miserable for immigrants.

These are merely the most recent examples.

Spreading anti-immigrant prejudice stretches across all parties and many interest groups. Mounds of research evidence showing that immigrants are as likely to damage our economy and public services as they are to cause Soccer City to collapse in a heap is ignored because there is consensus that immigrants are fair game — a convenient excuse for the elite’s failure to work out what needs to be done about problems or to do anything to solve them.

Of course, few, if any, politicians and public figures who dump on immigrants admit to harbouring prejudice. Their favourite excuse is that they are simply expressing public concerns — the radio station justified its immigrant baiting by proclaiming in news bulletins that “communities” are up in arms about immigrants.

This seems plausible. Immigrants are regularly blamed by citizens for just about everything that goes wrong. And violence against immigrants is a regular occurrence here, though we usually only hear about it when it reaches a level the media cannot ignore.

But are we seriously expected to believe that what politicians and public figures say has no influence on citizens?

If the only message people hear from the political elite, on the right, left and in between, is that immigrants are a problem, what do we expect citizens to believe, particularly when the media, or at least sections of it, say the same thing?

If the voices warning against immigrant-bashing are restricted to a few research organisations or citizens’ groups and the evidence showing that people from elsewhere are a net gain for the country and its economy is found only in learned papers that only academics read, what other attitudes would we expect citizens to hold?

Politicians and public figures don’t need to spread fear and hostility when they talk about immigrants — they could tell the citizenry the truth. But that would take moral courage, which is not plentiful here among politicians and people who shape public debate. It is far easier to play up fears than to show that they are misplaced, particularly when that means you can deflect attention from your failures.

And the more politicians do what they are doing now, the more likely they make it that people will react to immigrants with actions, not words.

If the political class wants to avoid having to bemoan the violent xenophobia of citizens, it should stop doing whatever it can to encourage it.

● Friedman is research professor with the humanities faculty of the University of Johannesburg.