A happy family with two dogs sitting on a patio, illustrating South Africans returning from the US to their homeland.
While President Trump portrays white South Africans as a persecuted minority, a growing number of them are quietly making the opposite choice—returning home. Thousands of white South Africans are coming back from the US, Europe, and elsewhere, drawn by lower living costs, family ties, improved power supply, and mounting disillusionment with life abroad. Some also claim they feel safer in South Africa than in American cities plagued by mass shootings and violence by immigration officers. Recruitment agencies helping expats return report that inquiries about moving home have surged as much as 70% and a 25,000-strong Facebook group documents the momentum. South Africa’s government notes that unemployment among white South Africans sits at just 8%, compared to 35% for Black South Africans. For many returnees, the country they left feels meaningfully improved—and the world they moved to feels far less stable than they imagined.
Reuters