{"id":723295,"date":"2026-06-08T15:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723295\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T15:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T15:37:13","slug":"white-south-african-refugees-fall-foul-of-republican-driving-rules-in-us-midwest-us-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723295\/","title":{"rendered":"White South African refugees fall foul of Republican driving rules in US midwest | US immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among President Trump\u2019s most vocal supporters are South Africans seeking asylum in the US.<\/a><\/p>\n

An estimated 6,300 people have arrived in the US since the administration\u2019s announcement<\/a> in February last year of a refugee resettlement program specifically for white South Africans and other minorities.<\/p>\n

So far, 206 Afrikaners have resettled in Ohio, a state that has struggled with population decline for decades. The Trump administration recently announced it plans to increase by 10,000 the number of refugee resettlement places for South Africans this year.<\/p>\n

But since arriving in the US, Afrikaners \u2013 largely the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of Dutch settlers and French Huguenots \u2013 have faced major challenges, in large part due to policies aimed at immigrants and enacted by the White House and Ohio\u2019s Republican-run legislature.<\/p>\n

Last June, Ohio introduced new driving license rules for lawful residents who are not citizens or green card holders.<\/p>\n

They include the requirement for all applicants to complete eight hours of lessons through a designated driving school, 24 hours of classroom work and 50 hours of driving with a licensed adult before being able to take a driving exam. The cost of fulfilling these requirements is estimated at about $500 and could take up to nine months, when in the past it took a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n

All this has created a major barrier for the new South African arrivals, many of whom claim to be victims of a so-called \u201cwhite genocide\u201d, a debunked conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n

South Africa was an apartheid state for 48 years until 1991, a time in which many white South Africans prospered as land and business owners, while Black South Africans were subjected to systematic racism and poverty. Since the fall of apartheid, some white South Africans have claimed they have become victims of violence, racial attacks and targeting by successive governments.<\/p>\n

A post<\/a> on X by an Ohio-based South African from 7 May called for authorities to \u201cStop sending South African refugees to Ohio immediately!\u201d due to alleged \u201cridiculous driving laws\u201d.<\/p>\n

Resettlement agencies working with South Africans estimate about half have left Ohio due to the restrictive driving requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of them are out-migrating, which means they arrived here and they choose to opt out of the program and move out of state,\u201d says Katelyn Recicar of the International Welcome Center, an Akron-based non-profit that has been assisting 50 to 70 South Africans a year with resettlement services since 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, we had it happen usually if specifically someone had a family member in another state to support them. [But now] it\u2019s pretty much because of the driving. There\u2019s been a few cases in where it\u2019s really been a sticking point [for refugees].\u201d<\/p>\n

Some South Africans are reportedly struggling<\/a> to secure transportation just to get to and from food banks in Akron.<\/p>\n

Authorities in Ohio say they are not aware of financial issues facing refugees.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) has not received any direct reports from these refugees indicating they are experiencing financial hardship or planning to return to their home country and therefore cannot speculate,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The law has drawn the ire of conservative supporters of the South African refugee program who have pleaded with authorities<\/a> in Ohio to reverse the change, with one prominent YouTuber calling it \u201cdeeply discriminatory\u201d.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not only in Ohio that newly arrived South Africans have found themselves struggling.<\/p>\n

Under the Trump administration, the federal refugee cash assistance program, which provided refugees with essential means to establish themselves in the US, was reduced<\/a> from 12 to four months. With almost no other refugees admitted to the US under the Trump administration \u2013 as of 30 April this year all but three of the 6,069 individuals granted refugee status in the US since 1 October are from South Africa \u2013 South Africans have been hit disproportionately hard by this change.<\/p>\n

Reuters reported<\/a> in April that at least four South Africans had returned home for various reasons including relatives falling ill and others changing their mind about the prospect of life in America. Other reports suggest South Africans are struggling with housing conditions in Michigan and safety issues in Denver.<\/p>\n

In Ohio, Afrikaners have launched a crowdfunding campaign to help fellow new arrivals, with one effort raising more than $10,000<\/a> by 21 May.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonations will be applied for helping refugees pay for rent when government funding stops after 3 months as well as financial assistance towards obtaining drivers licenses ($500\/person), transportation to and from clothing and food banks,\u201d the effort wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope and pray the Refugees<\/a> program gets to a point where no financial assistance would be needed but at this moment we desperately need your help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campaign was created by Pieter van der Walt, who declined a request for comment.<\/p>\n

A representative of Amerikaners, the South Africa-based organization enlisted by the Trump administration to administer the program, declined to comment on questions asking if it had received reports of South Africans struggling, saying they were not authorized to speak to the media but noting that the program remained \u201cvital\u201d.<\/p>\n

A woman who asked not to be named for fear that her family in South Africa might be targeted said she came to the US via the refugee program in March with her children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI left my country for a better future for my kids. We were persecuted by the government. Our police force can\u2019t look after us; it\u2019s basically non-existent. On top of that there is the crime,\u201d she said, although she admitted she had not experienced any specific attacks on her personal safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t go outside after dark. You have to lock your doors. You are in constant fear of what might happen tonight. We had to take turns to stay awake at night \u2026 and it\u2019s not just white people who are persecuted \u2013 it\u2019s colored people and Indian people [too].\u201d<\/p>\n

While the money she received through the refugee program is limited, and her rent is $1,950 per month, there are other more pressing challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t receive any support, specifically from the resettlement agencies. My experience is that they don\u2019t assist us and that they are set up for failure,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But on the whole, she says she\u2019s positive about life in America.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got so much support from the community. They are very helpful. I can\u2019t believe how friendly the people are.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a time when the Trump administration has suspended refugee applications from crisis-torn countries such as Afghanistan and Ukraine, some have criticized South Africans for seeking help with funding to bring their pets<\/a> to the US.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned fundraising effort is hosted on GiveSendGo, a Christian-centered organization that has courted controversy<\/a> for hosting hundreds of campaigns for extremist organizations and causes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile some Christian groups, such as the Episcopal church, have ended<\/a> their working relationship with the government\u2019s refugee resettlement effort over the South African program, citing the \u201cchurch\u2019s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among President Trump\u2019s most vocal supporters are South Africans seeking asylum in the US. An estimated 6,300 people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-723295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}