South African xenophobes run amok

been me,” says Dumisani, a Zimbabwean living in Diepsloot, on the northern outskirts of Johannesburg. On April 7th a mob of South Africans beat and burned to death his fellow countryman, Elvis Nyathi, after tearing through the township demanding to see migrants’ identity documents. “South Africans are frustrated and they are taking it out on foreigners,” says Dumisani (whose name has been changed). Ever since the lynching he struggles to sleep at night, fearing that vigilantes will come for him. “I’d rather be confronted by the police or Home Affairs than these guys.” During apartheid South Africa had what scholars call a “two-gates” immigration policy. White foreigners came through the front gate, receiving residency rights and incentives like subsidised housing. Africans were shown the back gate, with temporary entry tied to specific jobs and no pathway to citizenship. (Black South Africans were in effect denied full citizenship, too.) After the shift to democracy in 1994, Nelson Mandela’s government allowed people from the rest of the continent to come through the front gate. That formalised South Africa’s role as a hub for African economic migrants and asylum seekers.