This week, South Africa has been rocked by protests that have caught the world’s attention. These have been led by anti-immigration civic groups campaigning against what they describe as a crisis of illegal immigration. But to understand these protests, it’s key to view them as part of a broader conservative nationalist turn, as has been seen across countries in the west.

For the past two months, these groups have marched through townships and city centres demanding identity documents from African foreign nationals, ordering non-citizens to close their businesses and calling on undocumented migrants to vacate the country. They declared 30 June as the deadline for immigrants to leave and as the date of a nationwide shutdown.

The protesters blame South Africa’s porous borders for high crime, unemployment and overburdened public services such as healthcare and education. Despite official data repeatedly debunking these claims, their movement has successfully tapped into South Africans’ real frustrations. Stagnant economic growth, an unemployment crisis and declining trust in state institutions have turned the country into a tinderbox where genuine grievances can easily ignite into dangerous social unrest.

African foreign nationals have long been the targets of these frustrations. Xenophobic violence in 2008 left more than 60 people dead and displaced thousands. Further outbreaks followed in 2015 and 2019.

This time, tens of thousands of migrants from countries such as Zimbabwe and Malawi have........

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