Fleeing: Media is urged to stop calling white South Africans who relocated to United States ‘refugees’.
With the Trump administration planning to expand its assistance to Afrikaners, raising the limit to 17 500 from 7 500 and declaring an “emergency refugee situation”, the term “refugee” is being used once again. There is a difference between leaving and fleeing. The media should know that.
The increasing numbers of white South Africans relocating to the United States and elsewhere are being described in headlines, interviews and commentary as “refugees”.
The term is emotionally powerful. It evokes images of desperation, persecution and survival. But it is also a legal and historical category and its careless use matters.
According to the United Nations Refugee Convention, a refugee is someone unable or unwilling to return to their country owing to a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group.
