The refugee exception that everyone's talking about!
Wednesday, March 14, 2025
What happened? 59 Afrikaners just arrived in the United States as refugees. Afrikaners are white South Africans (mostly) descending from Dutch settlers. There are three key reasons this is drawing a lot of attention:
The refugee resettlement program is closed! So it’s notable that an exception was made for this group of folks, even though the government has actively canceled plane tickets for refugees who were already screened and approved to resettle in the U.S.
For reasons 2 and 3, we need to remember the international legal definition of a refugee: Someone who "owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of [their] nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail [themself] of the protection of that country."
To be a refugee, you have to be persecuted for one of the five specific reasons above. South Africa has passed a law that, under certain conditions, the government can take private land for public use if it's in the public interest. Some white South Africans are worried that, since white people own about 75% of the land in the country (thanks to apartheid policies), this law could be used to target them. No land has been taken yet.1 Maybe Afrikaners qualify as refugees because they think this law will persecute them based on their race, but typically, you have to prove that persecution has actually happened.
To be a refugee, you have to be outside your own country. In this case, all the Afrikaners were flown to the U.S. directly from South Africa. This is a massive shift from international law and our country’s laws about refugee resettlement.2
How can I pray? Pray that the 59 Afrikaners who have arrived in the country will adjust well. Pray for the country of South Africa as it continues to heal from the pain of apartheid and move towards a more just society. Pray for all South Africans who fear for their safety and well-being. Pray for refugees abroad who are stuck in limbo after our government cancelled their plane tickets. Pray that our government will restart the refugee resettlement system and prioritize serving the most vulnerable.
What is one more thing I can do? We’ve been making many phone calls lately, which are always encouraged! But today, could you think about how to share your support for refugees in a public way? If you’ve spent time with refugees, can you share some of that story online or with a friend in real life? If not, can you share other pro-refugee messages? We don’t want to spend all of our energy pointing out the hypocrisy of accepting these folks from South Africa, but rather can point to the dignity and humanity of all refugees.
I do also want to mention that there have been reports of some farmers being killed in South Africa. And all loss of life is tragic. Here is some helpful context from AP News: “The South African government has condemned the killings and says they are part of the country’s desperately high violent crime rates across the board. Experts say there is no evidence of genocide and the killings make up a very small percentage of homicides. For example, a group that records farm attacks says 49 farmers or their families were killed in 2023, while there were more than 27,000 homicides in the country that year.”
If our government wants to allow refugees to apply for refugee status or other humanitarian protections within their home countries, how wonderful! But shutting down global aid and refugee resettlement indicates that we can’t expect this exception to be made for other countries.
Brava, friend, you handled this with such grace and nuance. Thankful for you!