Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1.6 Hypothesis on causes of xenophobic attacks
2.1.6.1 Scapegoat hypothesis
Scapegoating amid a climate of high unemployment and inequality is nothing new. In 2008, 62 people were killed in xenophobic violence across Johannesburg’s townships (Steenkamp, 2009).
In April 2015, many people died as looters rampaged through the city of Durban and surrounding townships (Desai, 2015). Scapegoat hypothesis is when Black African foreigners become a frustration scapegoat and a target to blame for the enduring problems such as poverty in South Africa (Lombard, 2015). Furthermore, foreigners particularly Black African nationals are criticized for being responsible for the expansion of social problems such as crime, unemployment, poverty, poor access to adequate housing, and other social issues that South Africans are battling with. According to Piper and Charman (2016), the issue of needs such as housing inaccessibility keeps frustrating many South Africans because some of the foreigners staying in some municipalities access houses without producing valid documents to prove their legal presence to be in the country. Therefore, local people blame foreigners for taking houses that are supposed to be provided to them and as a result, they attack them.
Local people can also scapegoat hypothesis when they are struggling with securing employment.
This is because they argue that foreigners have taken their jobs when locals cannot find one.
According to Dinbabo and Nyasulu (2015: 30), “The increase in economic immigrants primarily from neighbouring countries has occasionally been met with hostility from the generally poor and unemployed sections of South African society who view foreign migrants as direct competitors for jobs in the primary sectors of the economy”. However, South Africans who complain about immigrants taking up their jobs also suspect government officials for being corrupt because they believe such problem of immigrants competing for employment with them should have been prevented.
According to Desai (2015), many locals claim that foreigners with expired passports just remain in communities because they have bribed some government officials preventing to be sent back to their home countries to have their passports renewed. Furthermore, he argues that among the reasons mentioned by citizens of Durban townships during the attacks were suspicions that foreigners paid Department of Home Affairs some money to stay in the country because they were
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regarded as undocumented foreigners. However, that is one of the reasons making locals to blame foreigners for their problems such as the high rate of unemployment.
Undocumented foreigners competing for employment opportunities can propel locals to blame foreigners. According to Landau (2010), locals blame foreigners because those without valid passports documents are sometimes forced to accept low paying employment that locals take for granted. In 2011, the census reported that, there were approximately 2.2 million immigrants in the country with the unknown, undocumented foreigners present in the country (Statistics South Africa, 2018). Furthermore, based on the 2012 General Household Survey (GHS) these figures were still noted. One can argue that the reason for recording similar results in both occasions might be foreigner’s fear of disclosing their personal information which could have put them into danger of getting jailed for being illegal in the country.
However, such anonymity of available immigrants within the country threatens locals when searching for employment. This problem can possibly increase competition for employment resulting in an extreme anger of locals which makes them attacks foreigners. For example, in Alexandra Township which located outside Johannesburg in Gauteng province, a group of young unemployed people organized a march to the local police station demanding the immediate removal of foreigners whom they accuse of being responsible for criminal activities in their area (Lekaba, 2014). Therefore, it can be expected that the presence of undocumented immigrants within a country can cause xenophobic attacks.
Based on this perspective of undocumented immigrants, someone might argue that the problem of illegal on the country can result in foreigners being blamed for taking employment for local people.
This is because based on the studies conducted in Johannesburg and Durban townships discovered different notions about the employment of foreigners. Mosselson (2010), reported that some people believe that everyone has the freedom to choose whatever he or she wants in life, therefore, foreigners have a right to do any job they prefer in this country. Whereas, others believe that people must work in their country of birth, therefore, foreigners indeed take the employment for local people and if the government allows them to enter the country, such problems would never be avoided.
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However, such cases in the community lead to people destroying and attacking foreigners who in then affect innocent people. Matunhu (2011), argued that foreigners in South Africa are regarded as a threat, but not all are a threat. This is because the study by Mosselson (2010), recommended that the government should ensure foreigners are protected because they provided refuge to South Africans who were in exile during the apartheid period. However, some South Africans do not care that other African countries were helping South Africa. This is because they believe that in order for the economy of the country to grow, the products to be utilized within the country should be locally owned (Neocosmos, 2010). Therefore, the presence of foreigners might affect that because they would bring the products from their own countries.
Piper and Charman (2015), reported that the clash between foreigners and locals due to a crime believed to be committed by foreigners in Verulam north of Durban resulted, in the death of a 14- year old boy while locals are looting foreign-owned shops. Furthermore, this death perpetuated locals to loot more foreign-owned shops because they accused the owner of that death. However, this event shows the extent to which South Africans shift the blame of their flaws which is what Lombard (2015), refer to as scapegoating. This is because this death occurred while people were looting when the shop owner was not involved. According to Piper and Charman (2015), the shop owner was already at the police station during the time death took place. Therefore, neither South Africans nor foreigners should never be involved in violent situations where they shift blame to someone who should not be responsible for that situation.
It can be observed from the above discussion that, scapegoat hypothesis is intrinsically attached to relative deprivation which argues that, personal dissatisfaction occurs out of what people feel entitled to, and what they receive (Webber, 2007). Such entitlement Webber is talking about is considered to be felt by South Africans who were promised better life by first democratic government elected in the year 1994. According to (Charman and Piper, 2012), democratic government promised people of South Africa better life where they would be provided equal and fair access to basic rights as enshrined in the constitution of the country. Therefore, xenophobia becomes an expression of disappointment with the manner in which government is rendering services to the people both locals and foreigners. Relative deprivation theory argues that South
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Africans feel disappointed by the inability of the government to fulfill their promise of better life for all.
South Africans bottle these disappointments and only turn violent when they observe an increment of the number of people competing for little resources that the government is even unable to render to its people. Therefore, it can be concluded that scapegoating hypothesis take place when local people direct their anger resulting from the problem they are facing against foreigners, mainly because foreigners are assumed or labelled as responsible for all their problems which are not proven to be true thus far.