In this opinion piece, Engineering News Senior Deputy Editor Martin Zhuwakinyu writes about African nations' attitude towards migrants during times of economic downturn.

The latest flare-up of antimigrant violence in parts of Gauteng has been a major talking point across Africa. Regrettably, emotions seem to have taken precedence over cool logic in much of the discourse.

If you ask me, the kind of sentiment towards non-natives that is coming to the fore in sections of South African society is more symptomatic of an economy in very bad shape than inherent xenophobia. History is replete with examples where attitudes towards those perceived to be outsiders hardened when a country’s economy hit the skids.

Perhaps the most well known exemplar of this phenomenon in Africa is what happened in Nigeria in the early 1980s. Those with more than a passing interest in African history will know that Nigeria, which struck oil in 1958, experienced an economic boom during the 1970s, driven by soaring prices of the so-called black gold.

While the 1970s was a golden decade for Nigeria, its closest English-speaking neighbour in West Africa – Ghana – was going through a rough patch, attributable to a crash in the price of cocoa, of which Ghana was the world’s largest producer at the time, coupled with a dismal performance by the agriculture sector, owing to recurring droughts.

During the 1970s, millions of Ghanaians signed up with Nigerian recruiters who came looking for teachers and other professionals, as well as those prepared to do menial jobs that Nigerians would not do. By 1980, primary and secondary schools in Nigeria’s then 19 states (there are 36 now) were filled with Ghanaian teachers, and these ‘neighbours from the west’ were also to be found in law offices, shoe repair shops, ice cream parlours and restaurants. Many did not bother to apply for work or residence permits. And no-one gave a damn.

Then the oil price crashed – from $37/bl in 1980 to $29/bl in 1983. The US, a big oil user, started producing oil around that time, cutting demand and causing excess supply. As Nigeria’s economy was – and still is – overwhelmingly dependent on oil exports, it was hard hit. According to some estimates, 90% of its foreign reserves had been depleted by 1982.

In the midst of all this, the Nigerian government, under Shehu Shagari, decreed on January 17, 1983, that the two- to three-million unskilled immigrants living and working in the country had to leave within a fortnight, upon pain of arrest and deportation. Skilled foreigners were given until the end of February. About half the immigrants were Ghanaian. The reasons given for Shagari’s decree included foreigners’ involvement in crime and religious disturbances, but everyone knew the Nigerian authorities believed the move would help dent rising unemployment.

In 1985, during his first stint as Nigeria’s President – albeit an illegitimate one, having shot his way to power in December 1983 – Muhammadu Buhari expelled a further 700 000 foreigners.

But Nigeria was not the first independent African country to blame migrants and resort to mass deportations when its economic fortunes began to wane. That dubious honour appears to belong to Ghana. In 1969, it ordered hundreds of thousands of Nigerians and other foreign nationals with no immigration permits to leave the country within 14 days. Officials argued that the high unemployment among Ghanaians would be relieved by the expulsions, that remittances of immigrants’ earnings to their home countries were worsening Ghana’s balance of payments deficit, and that some immigrants were involved in crime.

Clearly, South Africa is not the only African country to experience tensions between its own citizens and immigrants in the face of a poorly performing economy. And how our political leaders react will determine how history will judge them. Are they doing their utmost to create more jobs? Are they sparing no effort in making the country attractive to foreign investors? My view is they are doing their best.

I must say I have been impressed with the way the South African government has moved to mollify African countries whose citizens were caught up in the recent violence. A backlash against South African businesses is the last thing that this country wants – at a time when it is looking to reap huge benefits from continental integration.