Unintended consequences of US's refugee policy

The US must prepare for applications from KhoeSan and Coloured South Africans

- CLYDE N.S. RAMALAINE

THE recent resettlement of 49 South Africans, described as “Afrikaners”, to the US under refugee status via the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) has drawn public ridicule, suspicion, and commentary. While some predict their imminent return to sunny South Africa, the event offers an unexpected opportunity to examine how UŠRAP’s criteria could inadvertently apply to other historically marginalised South African groups, particularly the Khoe-San and Coloured communities.

This article does not support or validate the ideological narratives of groups like AfriForum or Solidarity, who claim persecution under terms like “white genocide”. Such claims are unsubstantiated, racially selective, and morally indefensible. Instead, this article offers a literal and policy-driven reading of USRAP’s eligibility framework, focusing not on its intentions but on its possible implications for marginalised non-white South African identities.

USRAP eligibility criteria

Under Executive Order 14204, USRAP permits applications from South Africans who meet three conditions:

1. Must be of South African nationality;

2. Must be of Afrikaner ethnicity or a member of a racial minority;

3. Must articulate past persecution or fear of future persecution.

Although influenced by racialised narratives of white Afrikaner persecution, the policy does not explicitly exclude non-white groups. This opens an interpretive doorway that, when read literally and consistently, may qualify KhoeSan and Coloured South Africans - groups with long-standing, legitimate claims of marginalisation.

The idea of a unified “South African nationality” is not neutral or straightforward. South African identity has been deeply shaped by colonial conquest, apartheid-era racial division, and selective post-apartheid nation-building.