Demographic data from the South African government suggests there is merit to his statement.
Is U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement that Australia is being “inundated” with fleeing South Africans true?
Well according to data from the African government, there are merits to his claims.
During an official meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on May 21, Trump told the leader a “tremendous number of people” from the nation had fled to the United States or Australia.
He also stated that white farmers, including Afrikaners–South Africans of Dutch origin—were being persecuted and subjected to brutality, violence, and land confiscations.
“They’re being executed. And they happen to be white, and most of them happen to be farmers,” Trump told Ramaphosa.
“We have thousands of people who want to come into our country.
“You take a look at Australia–they’re being inundated, and we’re being inundated with people that want to get out, and their farm is valueless.”
To support his statement, Trump asked White House staff to play a video of a speech by Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)—a communist party and the fourth-largest political party in South Africa.
Malema was formerly part of the African National Congress, before splitting off to form the EFF after a protracted dispute with former President Jacob Zuma.
In the video at the White House, Malema said South Africans could occupy land without government permission, and in another scene, Malema openly calls for the killing of farmers at an EFF rally, which received applause.
Trump also handed Ramaphosa a stack of new articles about white farmers killed in South Africa.
In response, Ramaphosa said Malema belonged to a “minority party” in South Africa, and what he said did not reflect the government policy.
The South African president also denied that land confiscation existed in his country, saying that land ownership was protected under the South African Constitution.
Regarding the killings of farmers, Ramaphosa stated that they were the result of criminal activity, emphasising that the victims were not only white, but predominantly black.
Are South Africans Escaping Overseas?
While some media outlets claim Trump’s statement about Australia being “inundated” as false, the actual numbers suggest otherwise.
According to Statistics South Africa’s 2023 Migration Profile Report (pdf), Australia had the second-largest number of South African expatriates in the world in 2020, with 199,960 individuals, following the United Kingdom, which had 247,336.
The United States was the third most popular destination, with 117,321 South African expatriates, followed by New Zealand (73,846) and Canada (48,093).
There was a sharp increase in emigration in the 20 years between 2000 and 2020, with the number of South Africans living abroad almost doubling from 501,600 to 914,901.
Involuntary emigration also skyrocketed during the period, with the number of refugees rising from 266 in 2000, to 4,258 in 2020.
While more and more South Africans want to leave the country, fewer people expressed a desire to return.
In 2011, a total of 45,866 South African citizens returned to the country. By 2022, this figure dropped by half to 27,983.
Migration Since the 90s
Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that South Africa ranked seventh among the top 10 countries of birth for Australian residents born overseas, not an unusual trend given the shared British heritage between both nations.
In 2024, there were 244,160 Australian residents born in South Africa, up from 174,903 in 2015.
According to Australia’s Home Affairs Department, the median age of South African-born migrants was 45.6 years, 7.3 years above that of the general population.
Data from the 2021 Census indicated that the majority of South African migrants lived in New South Wales (26 percent) and Queensland (26 percent), followed by Western Australia (24 percent) and Victoria (17 percent).
Many notable Australians have South African lineage including Gail Kelly (former CEO of Westpac), Brad Banducci (former CEO of Woolworths), Bryce Courtenay (author), Adrian Paterson (nuclear scientist), and athletes like Marnus Labuschagne (current cricketer) and Morne Morkel (cricketer).
Academic Claims Official Support for ‘Cultural Genocide’
Eric Louw, an academic and former member of the African National Congress (ANC)–the party of Nelson Mandela that has governed South Africa since 1994—said staying in his homeland had become “untenable.”
“I migrated to Australia, so I am not technically a refugee. But I left South Africa to get my children out of an untenable situation,” he told The Epoch Times.
While Louw declined to use the word “genocide” to describe the situation for white farmers, he said there was a “cultural genocide” against Afrikaans.
He pointed out that the Afrikaan language was used in five universities in 1994, but now it has disappeared because of ANC policy.
“Since 1994, all Afrikaans language colleges have been forced to switch to English by the ANC. And the ANC is now stepping up the pressure to force Afrikaans language schools to switch to English,” he said.
“Afrikaners are under a systematic cultural attack from the ANC. If one deprives a people of the capacity to culturally reproduce themselves–by closing their universities, colleges and schools, then [it] is some sort of cultural genocide.”
ANC and EFF Hold Similar Views: Louw
At the same time, Louw said Ramaphosa’s claims that Malema had nothing to do with the ANC government were untrue.
He referred to the video shown at the White House, which included a scene of former South African President Jacob Zuma singing a song that advocated the killing of white farmers at an ANC national conference in 2012.
“Malema, Zuma, and Ramaphosa have all made speeches saying that whites are unwelcome colonial settlers,” Louw said.
“This anti-settler/anti-white language has certainly given ‘licence’ for the murder (and brutal torture) of white farmers.
“In what other country would the president call for the shooting/killing of one racial group in his country?”
The academic also said the ANC was responsible for the collapse of law and order in South Africa, as well as the rampant violent crime in the rural and urban areas.
“Whites and blacks are both victims of violent crime,” he said.
“But when whites are killed, they are very often tortured to death in a most brutal way. This does not happen when blacks are murdered.”