Afrikaner landowners in South Africa hoping to relocate to the United States under refugee status will likely face significant challenges, as legal experts argue there is little evidence to support such claims.
According to human rights lawyer Jacob van Garderen, South Africans will struggle to meet the criteria required to qualify as refugees under US law.
The US Immigration and Nationality Act defines a refugee as someone unable or unwilling to return to their home country due to a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
Van Garderen noted that Afrikaner landowners do not meet this threshold, as there is no clear evidence of systemic persecution against them.
He acknowledges that individuals from stable democracies can be granted refugee status in rare cases. However, he still argues that there is little merit in the idea that Afrikaner farmers fit this category.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on 7 February, freezing aid to South Africa and prioritizing the resettlement of Afrikaners under the United States Refugee Admissions Program.
The White House justified the decision by citing South Africa’s newly enacted Expropriation Act, which they noted allows the government to seize land without compensation.
According to the US administration, this policy discriminates against the white minority and contributes to racially targeted violence against landowners.
Trump’s directive instructed the US Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement measures to admit and resettle Afrikaners facing alleged systemic discrimination.
This move sparked immediate controversy, with the South African government condemning the order as misleading and based on misinformation.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) denounced the decision as factually inaccurate, arguing that it distorts South Africa’s socio-economic realities.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office also defended the Expropriation Bill, insisting that it does not amount to land confiscation but creates a framework for fair and lawful land redistribution. The perception of Afrikaners as a persecuted group has been shaped in part by lobbying efforts from organizations such as AfriForum, reported Bloomberg.
In 2018, AfriForum leaders met with Republican Senator Ted Cruz and then-National Security Advisor John Bolton to discuss the alleged targeting of white farmers.
A subsequent appearance by AfriForum’s then-deputy CEO, Ernst Roets, on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show drew significant attention to the issue, prompting Trump to comment on it publicly for the first time.
During the interview, Roets claimed that the South African government was threatening white farmers by telling them to give up their land or face violence.
However, while AfriForum maintains that white farmers are being targeted, many analysts note that violent crime in South Africa affects all racial groups and is largely driven by extreme economic inequality.
Experts argue that framing farm attacks as a racially motivated crisis ignores the broader issue of widespread criminal violence in the country.
Despite the Trump administration’s offer of refugee status, groups such as AfriForum and the Trade Union Solidarity Movement have stated they do not support mass relocation efforts.
AfriForum has pushed for domestic solutions rather than encouraging South African farmers to seek asylum abroad.
Similarly, Solidarity said its focus remains on strengthening the position of Afrikaners within South Africa rather than promoting emigration.
Ultimately, moving to the US under refugee status may not be as easy as it may seem, with many legal and diplomatic challenges.
