Refugees, Afrikaners, and the Luxury of Choice
For decades, the U.S. refugee resettlement program has been a model for humanitarian efforts to help those fleeing persecution, injustice, and war. From Europeans fleeing after WWII, to the Vietnam War refugees of the 1970s, to the Afghans of recent years – refugee resettlement has offered sanctuary to those in dire situations. With the shift by the Trump Administration to welcome white Afrikaners as “refugees” from South Africa, this program is being shaped into something unrecognizable.
The number of refugees the U.S. welcomes annually is set by the President each fall. This number varies by administration but averages around 70,000 individuals yearly. In 2024, President Biden welcomed 100,034 to the U.S. out of his proposed 125,000 goal – the largest number in three decades. But since Trump took office in January, only a few dozen have been admitted. Exodus Refugee Immigration welcomed 884 refugees to Indiana in 2024 – yet only 32 individuals since inauguration day. This week, reports suggest President Trump will announce the lowest goal ever: just 7,500 individuals for 2026 – nearly all of them white Afrikaners.
While gutting the traditional refugee program and halting all processing for those who have been waiting years for the chance to come to the U.S., President Trump has adulterated the very definition of “refugee” by opening the gates to Afrikaners. No longer prioritized are the Burmese and Congolese that cities like Indianapolis have come to know and embrace. Instead of welcoming those who have been forced to flee their homes because of war, persecution, and violence, the U.S. is now attempting to use the refugee program for immigrants who are still living in the comfort of their homes. They have not been forced to make the difficult decisions so many refugees face: What items should I grab as I flee? How far is my child able to walk to reach safety? Where will we even go? In other words, not only is the administration trying to welcome fewer refugees, but it’s also contorting the very definition of the word and the purpose of this life saving program.
This is a systemic shift to how this country (or any country) has considered refugees. Instead of working in partnership with the United Nations, who typically pre-registers most U.S. admissions, Trump’s policy has created an alternate migration route for an ethnic group who no one in the international community defines as refugees. This is because Afrikaners are not refugees.
First, Afrikaners are not being discriminated against. Even leaders from their own community agree. Documented one-off crimes against individual farmers are very different from targeted government-sanctioned violence, which there is no evidence of. Victims can turn to the functioning South African justice system for recourse just as a victim of a crime in the U.S. could.
Second, despite claims that land is being seized by the South African government, there is no evidence this is actually taking place. In fact, though Afrikaners are just 7% of the population of South Africa, they continue to own up to 70% of the country’s privately owned farmland—and, land cannot be taken by the government without the involvement of the country’s court system. The belief that Afrikaners are being persecuted is being perpetuated by the same white nationalists who claim that there is a “white genocide” going on—a dangerous and misleading narrative. Apartheid was held up by Afrikaner perpetrators for decades. After years of subjecting South Africa’s black population to oppression and pain, some now believe that national calls for equality are calls for their own subjugation. But a loss of privilege is not the same as persecution. Afrikaners have a choice that refugees do not have. They can come to the U.S. and start again, or they can stay peacefully in South Africa. True refugees do not have the luxury of such a choice: they flee or they die.
Further, prioritizing Afrikaners over the thousands of refugees who have been patiently waiting to come to the U.S. would be unfair. Refugees wait for years for their opportunity to resettle. They go through lengthy rounds of medical screenings, security checks, receive education about life in the U.S., and often have no idea how long they will have to wait in difficult conditions for their turn. And yet, the first Afrikaner refugees arrived in the U.S. on May 12, 2025, just 3 months after Trump’s Executive Order outlining the plan.
If the refugees who had already been through several rounds of security and medical screenings could not be safely admitted, how could hundreds of Afrikaners be ready to resettle in 3 months? How can it take less than 100 days to create a system allowing this new population to come to the U.S., when those who have already been waiting in line are turned away? Why should our government let white Afrikaners cut the line while ignoring the tens of thousands of vetted black and brown refugees who have been delayed for years?
Afrikaners have the luxury of choice. We have a choice to make too. It would be easy for Exodus to say that we want to welcome Afrikaners because we believe everyone is welcome. That would be the safe choice. It would ruffle the fewest feathers. But it would not be the right choice. It would mean turning our backs on the refugees here in our community who long to reunite with their loved ones. It would mean turning our backs on the refugees this country has promised safety to. And it would mean turning our backs on what refugee resettlement truly stands for.
Exodus will not be a collaborator to the Trump administration’s distortion of the refugee resettlement program. However, we will continue to support humanitarian immigrants in Indiana who are truly displaced and long to call the Hoosier state their home.
