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Adri, who spoke on the condition that only her first name be used out of concern that she would be targeted for sharing her story, had tried to leave South Africa for years, exploring ways to immigrate to Canada or Europe, without success. Then she learned that the United States would accept Afrikaners like her as refugees. She saw it as her last chance to go.
“I was walking in faith every day,” said Adri, a tall woman with dark, spiky hair. “And God’s not doing anything small.”
Adri is one of 6,069 people who have been admitted to the United States as refugees since October, according to State Department figures. All but three were from South Africa.
Her journey reflects the wholesale transformation of the refugee program under the Trump administration, which early last year froze refugee admissions save for one specific group — people like Adri. Now nearly all those arriving under the program are White South Africans, many of them Afrikaner, an ethnic minority who speak Afrikaans and trace their roots to early Dutch settlers. These newest arrivals have settled in almost every state, with the largest numbers going to California, Florida, Michigan and Texas.
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President Donald Trump has touted his reshaping of the refugee program, framing it as a response to racial persecution and repeating false claims that “a genocide” is occurring in South Africa. Trump’s billionaire backer Elon Musk, who was raised in South Africa, has also made similar claims.
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The Trump administration is planning to expand its assistance to Afrikaners. On Monday, the State Department told Congress that it wants to more than double the number of refugee slots for Afrikaners during the current fiscal year, raising the limit to 17,500 from 7,500.
The change is the result of an “emergency refugee situation,” according to a copy of the report reviewed by The Washington Post, and would cost taxpayers an additional $100 million.
{snip}
The Post also interviewed eight recently arrived White South Africans, all of whom spoke on the condition that they not be fully identified. They know that their journeys are a source of controversy, both here in the U.S. and in South Africa.
Back home, they said, they felt unsafe because of the high levels of crime and the rhetoric of a small opposition political party; they also spoke of facing potential employment discrimination in the postapartheid era. Other White South Africans, however, have reacted to such views with disbelief and derision.
When Adri heard early last year that Afrikaners could apply to come to the United States, she didn’t hesitate. Eight years ago, she says, her elder daughter, then 6, was assaulted in a swimming pool, suffering a cut to her eye while security personnel stood by.
In the weeks before her departure, she sold her old Volkswagen Golf and quit her job at a funeral home. This was the moment to get “my girls to a safer country with a future,” Adri said.
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During the Biden administration, the annual limit for refugee admissions was set at 125,000, with dozens of nationalities represented. The current limit of 7,500 is the lowest in the program’s nearly five-decade history.
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Adri is deeply critical of her home country, which she described as a place where people were being “groomed to hate” by politicians. She appeared to embrace the false claim of genocide, saying such killings are being hidden. Of the postapartheid transition, she said, “They were given a functioning country, and they’re messing it up.”
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Adam says he appreciates the willingness of the South Africans to take any job that will pay the bills, regardless of their experience. He says he knows little about South Africa but can tell that the new arrivals are still adjusting to the relative lack of crime on the streets of Lewiston, a former mill town of 39,000 on the banks of the Androscoggin River.
When Adam told some of his clients that they could leave their bags in a locked car, he had to reassure them that no one would break the glass. They were aghast when Adam once kept his car running while taking them into an IHOP to get them settled at a table. He’s glad they can feel safe here.
{snip}
The post Trump Offered White South Africans a New Life. Thousands Took Him Up on It. appeared first on American Renaissance.
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