American dream turning sour for Afrikaner refugees

Key topics:Afrikaner refugees face unsafe housing, crime, and food shortages in the USUS resettlement agencies criticised for mismanagement and high executive payPrivate citizens step in to support refugees amid government program failures.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..BizNews Reporter.For many Afrikaner families taking advantage of President Donald Trump’s open door, the United States was supposed to be a sanctuary. Instead, an investigation by The Free Press reveals a harsh reality: refugees are finding it’s far from paradise, often placed in cockroach-infested apartments, navigating high-crime neighbourhoods, and rationing food to survive.In a report by Madeleine Rowley, The Free Press details how the US government’s refugee resettlement programme is failing some of its newest arrivals. This comes despite a February 2025 executive order by Trump that explicitly prioritised Afrikaners for resettlement, citing them as “victims of unjust racial discrimination”. The order slashed the overall US refugee cap by 94% to just 7,500 but opened a specific lane for white South Africans, whom the administration argues are facing persecution."We left everything for safety"Since May 2025, over 1,600 Afrikaners have arrived in the US, with thousands more expected by September. However, the support system awaiting them appears broken. Rowley’s investigation highlights stories of families placed in dangerous conditions by the very non-profits paid billions to help them.One former farmer, identified only as Werner to protect others in the system, arrived in Denver in September with his wife and mother. He told Rowley that the agency responsible for their care placed them in a dirty, mouldy basement apartment in an area rife with fentanyl use and prostitution. When he asked to be moved, he was told there was a "funding shortage".“We come from a place where you have to grow a set of eyes on the back of your head, only to move to another unsafe place and be told by the locals you’re now in harm’s way,” Werner said.Another couple, who fled after a home invasion in South Africa, found themselves in a motel near Detroit, eating just one meal a day to save their dwindling resettlement funds. They walk to a diner for breakfast because they cannot afford other meals, and they lack winter coats for the walk to the nearest grocery store.The "Non-Profit" disconnectThe dysfunction is occurring within a network of large non-profit organisations that have held government contracts for decades. The Free Press reports that agencies like the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) receive hundreds of millions in federal funding..Read more:.Smiling refugees, grim realities: The politics behind Afrikaner asylum in the US - Ivo Vegter.Despite this, refugees often receive minimal support. One family in San Jose, California, was shown an apartment infested with cockroaches that cost $2,500 a month. “I understand I am a refugee, and I am very grateful, but I can’t, in my right mind, pay to live with cockroaches,” the mother told Rowley.While refugees struggle, executive compensation at these agencies remains high. The CEO of the IRC earned $1.2 million in 2023, while the head of Global Refuge earned $700,000.Private citizens step inWith the official system faltering, private citizens have begun to fill the gap. Mike Morris, an emergency room doctor near Philadelphia, founded Keystone Refugee Services to help Afrikaners navigate the bureaucracy. Using his own money, Morris has housed families and helped them secure jobs and Social Security numbers.“The barriers to entry to resettle people also seem like it’s a very closed network club of organisations that have control of all the funding and all the resources,” Morris told The Free Press.Ashley Botha, a mechanic who fled South Africa after his farm cottage in Howick was set on fire, credits Morris for his successful integration. Botha now has a job, a truck, and an apartment. “My aim is to eventually go back into the farming side and provide food for the United States,” he said.As the US prepares to welcome thousands more Afrikaners this year, the question remains whether the system designed to protect them can provide the safety they were promised..Read the full investigation by Madeleine Rowley at The Free Press.

American dream turning sour for Afrikaner refugees

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