What happens when a country tries to fix its economy by pushing migrants out? South Africa’s anti-migrant stance is backfiring—tourism cancellations, declining trade, and a damaged reputation are now a reality.

ACMS’s senior researchers, Prof. Jo Vearey and Prof. Loren Landau, lean in on this matter.

Prof. Landau: We think in Johannesburg, the informal trade in clothing and goods is probably worth something like a billion dollars a year. If you shut that down, if you stop trade within the region, you’re losing that money. And that’s money that goes straight into people’s hands. It’s spent within the economy.

Prof. Vearey: The ways in which we are seeing things manifest currently, is harming South Africa’s reputation, both within the southern African region, continentally and globally. The lack of substantial engagement by the state and engagement to try and ensure that the kind of 30th of June condition is being challenged by the state is lacking at the moment.

Catch their interviews in this Deutsche Welle (DW) Africa news insert below:

[This insert was originally broadcast on DW Africa, under the same title, on 20 June 2026.]