2026年3月11日 美国东部时间上午6:02 / 路透社
作者：内莉·佩顿（Nellie Peyton）和蒂姆·科克斯（Tim Cocks）
[1/5] 2026年3月7日，在南非西开普省普莱滕贝格湾，纳奥米（Naomi）和丹尼·萨菲尔（Danny Saphire）带着他们的孩子和狗在新家合影。路透社/Esa Alexander
- 摘要
- 尽管特朗普声称存在迫害，南非白人仍选择返回
- 归国者称生活质量更高、生活成本更低
- 机构报告称希望回国的侨民咨询量激增
- 新门户网站允许南非人恢复公民身份
约翰内斯堡，3月11日（路透社） – 安德鲁·维奇（Andrew Veitch）曾因在车内遭持枪抢劫而离开南非。但他表示，如今他认为美国存在更大的威胁，列举了公共场所的大规模枪击事件以及美国移民官员的暴力行为。
“人们在光天化日之下被枪杀。美国公民被枪杀，”这位53岁的男子说道，他2003年移居加利福尼亚。“我不想生活在这样的地方。”
53岁的维奇计划今年返回南非，成为数千名返回的南非白人之一，尽管特朗普声称少数白人正遭受该国黑人多数政府的迫害。
比勒陀利亚方面表示，没有证据表明存在针对白人的歧视或迫害。自1994年白人少数统治结束以来，许多人离开，部分人因犯罪和就业困难而离开，但现在也有许多人返回。
维奇是通过政府11月推出的在线门户网站查询其公民身份的12,000人之一。该门户网站是在推翻1995年一项剥夺部分离开的南非人公民身份的法律后设立的。
他们仅占海外南非人的一小部分。2022年的最新官方数据显示，当年有近15,000名南非白人返回。
侨民称南非意味着更低成本和更少动荡
内政部长莱昂·施赖伯（Leon Schreiber）表示，已有1,000人重新获得公民身份，随着该计划的推进，他预计这一数字将大幅增长。
“在海外的南非人肯定有一种乐观情绪，”施赖伯说。他是白人领导的民主联盟（Democratic Alliance）成员，自2024年起与非洲人国民大会（African National Congress）联合执政。他本人也是一名归国者，在2019年回国前曾在美国和德国生活。
两家帮助侨民重新安置的招聘机构表示，咨询量激增，路透社采访了10名已回国或计划回国的南非人，其中7人来自欧洲，3人来自美国。
他们的原因（在一个25,000人的“返回南非”Facebook群组中也有类似观点）包括更接近家人、更低的生活成本和国外的政治动荡。
特朗普政府称，移民和海关执法局（ICE）特工开枪打死两名美国公民是合理的，尽管视频证据与他们的说法相矛盾。
特朗普政府称，1月份ICE特工开枪打死两名美国公民是合理的，尽管视频证据与他们的说法相矛盾。
维奇计划今年返回南非，成为数千名返回的南非白人之一，尽管特朗普声称少数白人正遭受该国黑人多数政府的迫害。
内政部长莱昂·施赖伯表示，已有1,000人重新获得公民身份，随着该计划的推进，他预计这一数字将大幅增长。
“在海外的南非人肯定有一种乐观情绪，”施赖伯说。他是白人领导的民主联盟成员，自2024年起与非洲人国民大会联合执政。他本人也是一名归国者，在2019年回国前曾在美国和德国生活。
两家帮助侨民重新安置的招聘机构表示，咨询量激增，路透社采访了10名已回国或计划回国的南非人，其中7人来自欧洲，3人来自美国。
他们的原因（在一个25,000人的“返回南非”Facebook群组中也有类似观点）包括更接近家人、更低的生活成本和国外的政治动荡。
特朗普政府称，移民和海关执法局（ICE）特工开枪打死两名美国公民是合理的，尽管视频证据与他们的说法相矛盾。
归国者利用远程工作保住工作
南非的犯罪和失业问题严重，但根据国家统计局Stats SA的最新数据，黑人失业率为35%，而白人失业率为8%。
警方去年发布的统计数据显示，就连特朗普关注的农场谋杀案中，受害者也更多是黑人而非白人。路透社发现，特朗普展示的相关照片和视频被断章取义或歪曲。
尽管如此，Stats SA估计自2001年以来，净流出的白人达50万，其中2021年至2026年有95,000人。没有定期数据记录归国者，但Stats SA的分析显示，2022年有28,000名南非人返回，其中52.9%（约14,800人）是白人。
就业机构DNA Employer of Record的首席执行官安东·范黑登（Anton van Heerden）表示，过去六个月，寻求回国的南非白人咨询量激增70%。总部位于约翰内斯堡的招聘公司HomecomingEx的首席执行官安吉尔·琼斯（Angel Jones）称，自2024年以来，咨询量增长约30%。
新冠疫情后的远程工作热潮也起到了帮助作用；路透社采访的三名归国者仍在国外保留了工作。
许多南非专业人士在家中配备了大量私人安保，以最小化犯罪风险，范黑登表示。
“如果你能负担得起生活在安全环境中，你可以过上比我认为北半球大多数地方更好的生活，”他说。
几名归国者还表示，他们觉得自离开以来，南非的生活有所改善。例如，过去每天都有的电力中断现在基本停止了。
38岁的工程师尤金·詹森（Eugene Jansen）于去年12月从荷兰带着妻子和两个孩子回国，他表示，他认识的归国者都觉得情况正在好转。
“大家认为国家正在改善，”他说。
报道：内莉·佩顿和蒂姆·科克斯
编辑：迈克·科莱特-怀特和菲利普·弗莱彻
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Trump says white South Africans are persecuted; some are returning to a better life
March 11, 2026 6:02 AM UTC / Reuters
By Nellie Peyton and Tim Cocks
节点运行失败
Item 1 of 5 Naomi and Danny Saphire pose with their children and dogs at their new home in Plettenberg Bay after returning from the U.S., in the Western Cape, South Africa, March 7, 2026. REUTERS/Esa Alexander
[1/5]Naomi and Danny Saphire pose with their children and dogs at their new home in Plettenberg Bay after returning from the U.S., in the Western Cape, South Africa, March 7, 2026. REUTERS/Esa Alexander
- White South Africans return despite Trump’s persecution claims
- Returnees cite better quality of life, lower cost of living
- Agencies report surge in inquiries from expats wanting to return
- New portal allows South Africans to restore citizenship
JOHANNESBURG, March 11 (Reuters) – Andrew Veitch left South Africa after being held up at gunpoint in his car. But now he feels there are greater threats in the United States, he said, citing mass shootings in public places as well as violence by U.S. immigration officers.
“People are being shot in broad daylight. American citizens are being shot and killed,” said the 53-year-old, who moved to California in 2003. “I don’t want to live in a place like this.”
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President Donald Trump’s officials have said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were justified in firing the shots that killed two U.S. citizens in January, although video evidence has contradicted their accounts.
Veitch plans to return to South Africa this year, one of thousands of white South Africans coming back, despite Trump’s statements that the white minority is being persecuted by the country’s Black majority government.
Pretoria says there is no evidence of discrimination or persecution against whites. Many have left since the end of white minority rule in 1994, some citing crime and difficulty getting jobs, but many are also returning.
Veitch is among 12,000 people who have checked their citizenship status in an online portal launched by the government in November after the overturning of a 1995 law that stripped citizenship from some South Africans who left.
They represent a fraction of South Africans abroad. The latest official statistics on returnees, from 2022, show that almost 15,000 white South Africans returned that year.
EXPATS SAY SOUTH AFRICA MEANS LOWER COSTS, LESS TURMOIL
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said 1,000 people had reclaimed their citizenship, a number he expected to grow significantly as the programme takes off.
“There is definitely a sense of optimism for South Africans abroad,” said Schreiber, part of the white-led Democratic Alliance party that has ruled in coalition with the African National Congress since 2024. He is a returnee himself, having spent time in the U.S. and Germany before coming home in 2019.
Two recruitment agencies that help expats relocate said the number of inquiries had jumped, and Reuters spoke to 10 South Africans who had either returned or were planning to, seven of them from across Europe and three from the United States.
Their reasons, echoed in a 25,000-strong “Return to South Africa” Facebook group some belong to, included being closer to family, lower living costs and political turmoil abroad.
The Trump administration is ramping up its new refugee programme for white South Africans, focusing on Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch settlers. About 3,500 South Africans have entered the United States as refugees since the programme started in May 2025.
Applicants interviewed by Reuters complained of being victims of racially motivated crime and employment equity laws that favour non-white candidates in order to redress decades of white minority rule.
Other Afrikaners, like Naomi Saphire, take a different view.
She had been settled in the United States for two decades when she came back for a holiday and realized how much she missed home.
Last year, she left North Carolina for a seaside town in South Africa’s Western Cape, where she said her three children spend more time outdoors, health insurance is affordable and she prefers the schools.
“My heart is just full of gratefulness to be here,” the 46-year-old said from her home in Plettenberg Bay. “The U.S. has been really good to me (but) I just felt like I was depriving my kids of this life.”
Saphire said she knows many people who are returning home.
RETURNEES USE REMOTE WORKING TO KEEP THEIR JOBS
Crime and joblessness are major issues in South Africa, but the unemployment rate is 35% for Black people compared with 8% for whites, according to the latest figures from the national statistics agency Stats SA.
Police statistics released last year showed that even farm murders, which Trump has focused on, killed more Black people than whites. Reuters has found that photos and videos Trump has presented on the matter were taken out of context or misrepresented.
Still, Stats SA estimated a net outward flow of half a million whites since 2001, including 95,000 from 2021 to 2026. There is no regular data on returnees, but a Stats SA analysis showed that 28,000 South Africans returned in 2022, 52.9% – or some 14,800 – of whom were white.
Anton van Heerden, CEO of employment agency DNA Employer of Record, said inquiries from white South Africans seeking to return had jumped 70% in the past six months. Angel Jones, CEO of Johannesburg-based recruitment firm HomecomingEx, reported a roughly 30% rise in inquiries since 2024.
A boom in remote working since the COVID-19 pandemic has also helped; three of the returnees interviewed by Reuters kept their jobs abroad.
Many South African professionals have extensive private security at home which minimizes crime risks, Van Heerden said.
“If you can afford to live in a safe environment, you can have a much better life than I think in most places in the northern hemisphere,” he said.
Several returnees also said they felt life in South Africa had improved since they left. Power cuts, which used to be daily, for example, have largely stopped.
Thirty-eight-year-old engineer Eugene Jansen, who returned from the Netherlands in December with his wife and two children, said the returnees he knows feel things are getting better.
“The opinion is that the country is improving,” he said.
Reporting by Nellie Peyton and Tim Cocks; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Philippa Fletcher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.