14 Apr Why South Africans Are Refusing the US’ Immigration Offer

South Africans have said “no thanks” to US President Donald Trump’s refugee status and asylum offer.

Trump issued an executive order cutting aid to South Africa and welcoming white Afrikaans farmers after President Rhamaposa issued the Land Expropriation Act. According to Trump, South Africa is unfairly taking away land from a minority group, Afrikaners, with 2024’s Land Expropriation Act.

The Act allows the government to expropriate land without compensation when in the public interest. Moreover, it addresses decade-long land ownership inequalities that stem from apartheid.

Why are Afrikaaners refusing Trump’s offer, what’s behind the offer, and what do Afrikaaners have to say?

Read on to find out.

Why Has Trump Offered Afrikaaners Refuge in the US?

Trump issued an executive order that reads, “In shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights, the Republic of South Africa (South Africa) recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 (Act), to enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation. This Act follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.

In addition, South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.

The United States cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country or its undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests.

It is the policy of the United States that, as long as South Africa continues these unjust and immoral practices that harm our Nation:

(a) the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa; and
(b) the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”

How Did South Africa Respond?

The Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation issued a media statement noting the executive order. It states that the executive order’s premise is not factual and that the order fails to recognise historical land ownership laws enacted by the National Party, which expropriated 85% of South Africa’s land from black farmers. Since apartheid, most of South Africa’s land has belonged to white Afrikaners.

The media statement also says, “It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged…”

Why Is the Expropriation Act So Contentious?

There’s a common misconception that the Act allows for land to be arbitrarily seized. Additionally, many South Africans feel the Expropriation Act is unconstitutional, as the Constitution provides that no land can be expropriated without compensation.

The Constitution says, “Property may be expropriated only in terms of law of general application [and]…subject to compensation.” However, the Constitution also says the compensation amount must be “just and equitable”. So, if a property is worth nothing, the government may expropriate it without compensation (but it must follow a rigorous legal process).

Its purpose is, “To provide for the expropriation of property for a public purpose or in the public interest…to identify certain instances where the provision of nil compensation may be just and equitable for expropriation in the public interest; to repeal the Expropriation Act, 1975 (Act No. 63 of 1975); and to provide for matters connected therewith.”

The history of land dispossession during colonial times and apartheid, and the current disparities in land ownership are central to the Act’s rationale. In the past, apartheid’s land reform injustices disproportionately affected black South Africans, and still do today – according to a 2017 land audit, black South Africans own only 4% of South Africa’s rural farmland registered in the deeds office.

What South Africans Say to the US’ Immigration Offer

The groups AfriForum (which represents Afrikaans interests in South Africa) and Solidarity (which represents workers in South Africa) addressed Trump’s offer in a panel aired by EWN in early February. They acknowledged Trump’s concerns but said they would prefer to remain in their home country.

They stated, “We are indigenous to this country and we are going nowhere. We want to show appreciation to Trump as well as of course the US government…We also have to make sure that our culture is transferred to future generations and that cannot be done abroad…There’s a real risk that your grandchildren will not say to you in the morning Hi Oupa, they would say something like Hi Grandad…and that we don’t want…the repatriation of Afrikaans as refugees is not a solution…”

In an interview with Thompson Reuters, 78-year-old Neville van der Merwe from Cape Town said, “If you haven’t got any problems here, why would you want to go? There hasn’t been any really bad taking over our land, the people are carrying on like normal and you know, what are you going to do over there?”

CEO of AfriForum Kallie Kriel declared, “Emigration only offers an opportunity for Afrikaners who are willing to risk potentially sacrificing their descendants’ cultural identity as Afrikaners. The price for that is simply too high.”

Orania – the only whites-only and Afrikaaner-only region in South Africa – affirmed, “Afrikaners do not want to be refugees. We love and are committed to our homeland.”

We Can Help You Immigrate to the US

If you would like to immigrate to the United States, June Luna Immigration Attorneys would love to be of assistance. Our immigration experts and attorneys have years of experience helping South Africans apply for American visas, refugee status, and asylum.

We would love to be of help – contact us today!