Are Afrikaner ‘refugees’ to the US genuine or just opportunists?
Are white Afrikaners who arrived in the US as ‘refugees’ actually ‘opportunists’ looking to fast-track their immigration?
A white commercial farmer has accused Afrikaner “refugees” heading to the US of being “opportunists.”
Last week, a second group of white South Africans left the country under the resettlement programme, claiming they faced racial “persecution.”
ARE AFRIKANER ‘REFUGEES’ FARMERS OR PERSECUTED?
Last month, US President Donald Trump claimed that white Afrikaner refugee farmers faced racial targeting. He also wrongly alleged that South Africa had begun land grabs under the new Expropriation Act and accused the country of enforcing other “racist laws.”
However, many South African officials – and even US President Donald Trump – have rejected his claims.
In an interview with France24, Nick Serfontein said the Afrikaner “refugees” who relocated to the US are not genuine farmers.
He added: “They are opportunists”.
Denile Samuel of the Women on Farms Project echoed similar sentiments.
She told Newzroom Afrika: “My sense about that (issue) is, the real people who are marginalised, the real people who are not heard and not seen are farm workers. They are the ones who need to complain, not white Afrikaners
She added, “They are opportunists, that is what they are.”
FAST TRACKING IMMIGRATION
Meanwhile, Professor of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Roger Southall, claimed that many of the “refugees” used the programme to fast-track their immigration to the US.
In an op-ed, he wrote, “Emigrating requires jumping through numerous hoops: meeting educational and professional qualifications, getting a job offer, having sufficient financial resources to support themselves and their families before they can qualify for recipient countries’ social security systems, and so on.
“The evidence suggests that the heads of household among the Afrikaner 49 are drawn not only from that minority of Afrikaners who are totally unreconciled to democracy, but who, quite simply, are opportunists who have availed themselves of a shortcut to emigrate.
DWINDLING JOB OPPORTUNITIES?
Despite the criticism, Solidarity Movement spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans claimed that many Afrikaners who chose to leave South Africa over a lack of employment.
He posted on his X account: “20% of Afrikaners have already left the country permanently or temporarily because they could not find work here. The white unemployment rate is completely skewed.
“Hundreds of thousands of Afrikaners have been pushed out of the formal labor market and have started their own businesses or emigrated”.