EXPLAINER| International migrants, jobs and crime in South Africa: What do the numbers show?

By Keegan Leech/Africa Check

Amid rising hostility towards international migrants, anti-migrant protests have spread across South Africa in 2026. Some have involved intimidation, the denial of access to public services and fatal violence. 

False information has flourished in this climate, and Africa Check has been tracking it live. 

After more than a decade of fact-checking claims about migration, we’ve seen the same broad narratives return in different forms. They shape public debate, deepen social divisions and reduce South Africa’s complex problems to simple explanations.

South Africa does face real migration challenges, including weak border management, asylum backlogs and poor enforcement of labour and business laws.  

But they do not prove the narratives examined in this explainer: that migrants are present in vastly greater numbers than official estimates show, dominate the economy or are chiefly responsible for crime and failing public services.