Most Africans want tighter controls on immigration, with about two-thirds of them saying their governments should admit fewer or no foreign job seekers and refugees.
The finding is contained in a new Afrobarometer report based on nearly 51,000 interviews across 38 African countries conducted in 2024/25.
It comes amid renewed anti-immigrant tensions in South Africa, particularly towards undocumented foreign nationals, which have, at times, turned violent and strained Pretoria’s diplomatic relations with other African countries, including Ghana and Nigeria.
According to the report, ‘The clearest exception is lived poverty. Those experiencing high lived poverty are more likely to hold negative views than well-off respondents, suggesting that insecurity may be more closely associated with negative perceptions of immigrants’ economic impact than other demographic characteristics.’
Mixed views on immigrants’ economic role
Based on the report, 45 percent of Africans believe immigrants make a positive contribution to their economies, while 44 percent believe they have a negative economic impact. This is a reflection of a broader rise in anti-migrant sentiment globally, as economic insecurity and migration pressures increasingly shape public attitudes towards foreign nationals, particularly as countries across the continent grapple with unemployment, poverty and pressure on public resources.
About 64 percent of respondents said their governments should reduce the number of foreign job seekers admitted into their countries or allow none at all, while 70 percent expressed a similar preference regarding refugees. Only 15 percent favoured admitting more foreign job seekers.
At the same time, 87 percent said they would welcome or accept living next door to someone of a different ethnicity, while 84 percent said the same about someone of a different religion. The corresponding figures were 81 percent for people supporting a different political party and 77 percent for people of a different nationality.
Tolerance towards refugees was lower, at 69 percent.
South Africa records sharp divide
South Africa recorded some of the continent’s strongest negative perceptions of the economic impact of immigrants. Only 17 percent of South African respondents said foreign nationals make a positive contribution to the economy, compared with 69 percent in Ivory Coast, 68 percent in São Tomé and Príncipe, 65 percent in Cabo Verde and 64 percent in Benin.
Regional differences were also pronounced. West Africa was the only region where a majority of respondents, 55 percent, said immigrants were good for their country’s economy. The figure was 47 percent in East Africa, 39 percent in Southern Africa, 36 percent in Central Africa and 23 percent in North Africa.
Afrobarometer said demographic characteristics such as gender, age, education, employment status and urban or rural residence made little difference to perceptions of immigrants’ economic impact.
Migrants’ economic contribution
The perception of immigrants as an economic burden contrasts with evidence of their contribution to host economies.
Earlier this year, a migration statistics report showed that South Africa’s migrant population generated household income of R433 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, largely through salaries.
Non-migrant households recorded a total income of R2.486 trillion during the same period.
Afrobarometer also found that tolerance towards immigrants, people of different ethnicities and religions, supporters of different political parties and homosexuals had declined by between two and three percentage points since 2021/23, reaching their lowest levels of the past decade.