Violence Against Immigrants

In case you haven’t seen it in the news, here’s a link:

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-safrica-violence.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

South Africa has a fairly large immigrant population, since it’s a relatively wealthy nation in a poor region, and tumult in Zimbabwe has only exacerbated the number of refugees coming in. A couple of villages over from where I’m living, there’s a lot of Mozambiquean immigrants clustered together; though the violence thus far seems to be limited to cities, the immigrant population certainly isn’t. Though the area I’m living in isn’t exactly highly developed, the immigrant communities are notably poorer and more haphazardly constructed.

I was talking to a man who lives in Johannesburg yesterday who was near to some of the violence. Two points seemed to stand out in what he said. First, he insisted that the people who are participating are usually good people. People seem to be acting out against scapegoats for economic circumstances—unemployment is really high in South Africa, and a lot of people in the villages go to Jo’burg or other cities to find work, often in nearby mines. The people who move to the cities tend to be men, leaving the villages largely run by women. Second, he felt that it was noteworthy that the government wasn’t involved in the attacks. I suppose that popularly instigated violence is a step up from the government-sanctioned violence that was prevalent under apartheid. Hopefully the government’s response to the violence will help to make the riots short-lived, though the underlying causes will indubitably take much longer. South Africa, much like the U.S., will remain a draw for immigrants for a long time, and economic conditions in South Africa will be slow to improve.

At least there’s one currency weaker than the dollar.

Note: I wrote this yesterday but had trouble posting it.

Oh, and I'm fine, not near any of the incidents at all.