Divided Views Among White South Africans on US Refugee Offer

Mon Dec 08 2025 15:37:30 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Amidst rising fears of violence and crime, white farmers in South Africa express differing opinions on applying for refugee status in the US, reflecting a complex narrative of safety, identity, and perceptions of ethnic targeting.

As violent crime rates in South Africa remain alarmingly high, many white farmers like Marthinus are applying for refugee status in the US, citing fears for their safety and the safety of their families. However, this prospect is met with division among white South Africans, with some rejecting the notion of targeted attacks on white individuals. In contrast, black farmers bear the brunt of the country’s crime, highlighting a broader issue that transcends racial lines. The narrative surrounding farm violence continues to evoke strong responses, as political and social implications unfold across South Africa.

The 4m-high (13ft) electric steel gates, capped with spikes, creak open as Marthinus, a farmer, drives through in his pick-up truck. Cameras positioned at the entrance track his every move, while reams of barbed wire surround the farm in the rural Free State province in the heart of South Africa.

It feels like a prison, he says as the gates clank shut behind him. If they want to come and kill us they can. At least it will take them time to get to me.

The fear of being attacked is very real for the white Afrikaner, who manages a farm with his wife and two young daughters. He did not want us to use his full name.

His grandfather and his wife's grandfather were both murdered in farm attacks, and he lives a two-hour drive from where the body of 21-year-old farm manager Brendan Horner was discovered five years ago, tied to a pole, with a rope around his neck.

Marthinus says he can't take a chance with his own family and, in February, they applied for refugee status in the US.

I'm prepared to do that to get a better life for my wife and children. Because I don't want to be slaughtered and be hanged on a pole, he says.

Our Afrikaner people are an endangered species.

Not all white South Africans agree that they're being targeted and black farmers are also victims of the country's high crime rate.

It's estimated that thousands of Afrikaners - who are mostly white descendants of early European settlers - have begun the lengthy process of applying for refugee status in the US since President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year.

Despite announcing in October that the US would reduce its yearly intake of refugees from 125,000 to 7,500, Trump has made the resettlement of Afrikaners a priority.

A presidential document indicated that those accepted would primarily be Afrikaner South Africans and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.

For Marthinus, it is a way out. I will give my whole life just so that my wife and my kids can be safe. Living in fear, you know? Nobody deserves a life like that.

Violent crime in South Africa is endemic, with the latest figures revealing an average of 63 murders every day, maintaining one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

While many farmers, including both white and black, express varying degrees of fear regarding farm attacks, the narrative around race and targeting remains intensely divisive within the social fabric of South Africa.

Additional reports illustrate that the conversation is clouded further by differing perspectives on crime rooted in historical contexts, underscoring the complexities of race relations in post-apartheid South Africa.

As these discussions surface, the dichotomy of response from white farmers compared to their black counterparts reveals a multifaceted struggle for safety, identity, and the quest for societal belonging.