'Politically expedient around the world': Immigrants in South Africa face wrath of xenophobia

South Africa's waves of anti-immigrant mobilization reveal a familiar playbook: when unemployment, inequality, corruption, and failing public services leave citizens angry and frustrated, the politically expedient move is to point elsewhere. According to the Institute for Security Studies, migrants have become convenient scapegoats for these structural crises rather than their cause. While public frustration over genuine economic and governance failures is real, the evidence doesn't support blaming immigrants. Instead, anti-migrant narratives persist because they offer simple explanations for complex problems—and because that political framing works. The irony is that focusing public anger on migrants distracts from the actual sources of South Africa's economic struggles.

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