More than 50% of all immigration applications refused, although many comply with regulations, writes Gary Eisenberg SA NO longer has an immigration policy. This is not a criticism, but a fact. On May 26 last year, when the Immigration Act was amended, an entirely new paradigm of immigration regulation came into operation, unprecedented in its inflexibility and in its exclusionism. This is not a phenomenon that appeared out of nothing; it emerged from a history of administrative corruption, the violation of SA’s borders and the government’s frustrated response to it.The foundation of this frustration lies in its realisation that perhaps 15%-20% of SA’s permanent resident population are imposters. These are foreigners who misrepresented themselves as offspring of at least one South African citizen parent, or who acquired permanent residence documents by fraud. It was a common practice for foreigners, mostly from neighbouring countries, to falsely represent themselves by affidavit as t...
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