Christine Hobden 4.4 Immigration and Xenophobia: The generous scope of the South African Constitution is sharply contrasted with widespread incidents of xenophobia, in South Africa, throughout its independence. These incidents range from xenophobic comments from leading political figures24 to widespread outbreaks of xenophobic violence, most notably in 2008 and 2015. Explanations for this xenophobia are varied: most commonly the poverty of South Africans is cited, with reference to foreigners usurping work opportunities; others point to a politics of fear cultivated by the state and media frequently pointing to mass immigration and using foreigners as a scapegoat for high crime and poor service delivery (Neocosmos 2008:588-9). Given the often mob-like nature of xenophobic violence, it appears that the legal status of the individuals is not commonly salient: to the xenophobe, being a naturalised citizen, or not, seems to make little difference to the perception of one being a ‘foreigner’. Even so, the previous discussion highlights that South Africa has in the first 20 years of independence chiefly tightened laws around acquiring citizenship. While statistics on naturalisation were not available, census data suggests that the number of individuals ‘born outside the republic’ is increasing rapidly: from 2.3% in 2001 to 4.4% in 2011 (STATSA 2003, 2012). In real numbers this is around 2.2 million (known) immigrants living in South Africa in 2011. A quarter of these immigrants were naturalised, with only 3.3% of the then population reporting to be ‘non-citizens’ (STATSA 2011). These non-citizens have faced increasing barriers to naturalisation in terms of residence requirements as well as restrictions on the children’s acquisition of citizenship by birth. It is also widely understood that there are a large number of undocumented migrants, chiefly from other African countries, residing and working illegally in the country. The large influx of immigrants between 2001 and 2011 can be largely explained by the large influx of Zimbabweans in 2004 (and surrounding years). There is no reliable data on the numbers of Zimbabweans living in South Africa but it is widely cited as somewhere between 1 and 3 million (Chiuma 2013). As one police report bluntly states, “it is a well-known fact that the border line between South Africa and Zimbabwe is at a state of complete collapse.” The report points to large numbers, under resourcing and “weak border management systems” (Meetsi nd). Concessions have been made to enable Zimbabweans to regularise their status: most notably, a special 3-year dispensation visa granted in 2010 to working Zimbabweans within South Africa. These visas were renewed in 2013 for four years, and again in 2017 for another four years (Child 2017). This residency does not however count toward permanent residence, and as such there are large numbers who have lived and worked in South Africa for up to 12 years without security of being able to remain. This is exacerbated by the lack of organisation and communication by the government: the possibility of second renewal was only announced in early September 2017, a mere three months before expiry (Child 2017). 24 For example, see comments by Mangosotho Buthelezi (previously Home Affairs Minister) on competing for resources with ‘millions of aliens’ and the criminality of Nigerians (Neocosmos 2008:588) 14 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2018/1- © 2018 Author(s)