If xenophobic attitudes escalate and foreign traders are shown the door‚ South Africans are the ones likely to suffer. This idea is explored in a research report‚ titled South Africa’s Immigrants — Building a New Economy‚ released by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) on Monday. The report’s author‚ Rian Malan‚ interrogates which foreigners come to SA‚ why they come‚ how they come and what we can learn from them. He found that most refugees and immigrants who enter SA seeking a better life are able to achieve this. "These people arrive in SA with black skins and next to no money. Yet they manage to make economic headway in a way that raises questions about the central belief that white monopoly capital and its hegemonic power makes it impossible for black people to make progress‚" Malan said. "The chief reason [foreign traders] are successful is because they work incredibly hard." In three case studies‚ Malan unpacks some of the experiences of immigrants and their...
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