"Community." "People's power." "Participation." These are the words South African anti-migrant groups are reaching for as they push campaigns that target foreign nationals. The language sounds democratic. The intent, researchers and observers argue, is anything but.
What makes this pattern particularly troubling is how effectively the framing works. When exclusion is dressed up in the vocabulary of civic engagement, it becomes harder to challenge. Calling something a "community campaign" lends it a legitimacy that outright hostility never could.
South Africa has a long and painful history with xenophobic violence, and the concern now is that coating that hostility in democratic language gives it new staying power. Movements that might once have been recognised as discriminatory are now presenting themselves as grassroots and participatory, making the marginalisation of migrants feel like a collective choice rather than a human rights violation.
The warning here is worth sitting with. When the tools of democracy are used to justify who belongs and who does not, the values underneath those tools start to erode. South Africa built its post-apartheid identity on inclusion. Watching that same inclusive vocabulary get repurposed to push people out is a contradiction the country cannot afford to ignore.
Originally published by This Is Africa.