Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Establishing the Territory
- 2 Immigration, Nations and National Identity
- 3 ‘A White Man's Land’: Indian Immigration and the 1913 Immigrants Regulation Act
- 4 Not White Like Us: Preserving the ‘Original Stocks’ and the Exclusion of Jewish Immigrants
- 5 Building an Unhyphenated Nation: British Immigration and Afrikaner Nationalism
- 6 One (White) Nation, One Fatherland: Republicanism, Assisted Immigration and the Metaphysical Body
- 7 Democratic South Africa: Inclusive Identities and Exclusive Immigration Policies
- 8 Conclusion: Nationalisms, National Identities and South Africa's Immigration Policies
- Notes to Chapters
- Appendix 1 Total, immigration and emigration, and net gain/loss in migration, by sex, 1924–2004
- Appendix 2 Immigration by country of previous permanent residence, birth and citizenship, 1924–2004
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Building an Unhyphenated Nation: British Immigration and Afrikaner Nationalism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 October 2019
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Establishing the Territory
- 2 Immigration, Nations and National Identity
- 3 ‘A White Man's Land’: Indian Immigration and the 1913 Immigrants Regulation Act
- 4 Not White Like Us: Preserving the ‘Original Stocks’ and the Exclusion of Jewish Immigrants
- 5 Building an Unhyphenated Nation: British Immigration and Afrikaner Nationalism
- 6 One (White) Nation, One Fatherland: Republicanism, Assisted Immigration and the Metaphysical Body
- 7 Democratic South Africa: Inclusive Identities and Exclusive Immigration Policies
- 8 Conclusion: Nationalisms, National Identities and South Africa's Immigration Policies
- Notes to Chapters
- Appendix 1 Total, immigration and emigration, and net gain/loss in migration, by sex, 1924–2004
- Appendix 2 Immigration by country of previous permanent residence, birth and citizenship, 1924–2004
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Immigration is the call. We want men and women. We want our population to increase by leaps and bounds. Let us once more open our doors — we want to make hay while the sun shines. We are going to re-shape our machinery both here and overseas to establish an organisation for the selection of immigrants …. We can get thousands — hundreds of thousands — millions of them.
J.C. Smuts, speaking to the Transvaal Head Committee of the United Party, 15/8/1946There is such a thing as a real South African nationhood, and for that reason there are national interests that must be cared for and protected. The permanent population of South Africa that belongs to the South African nation is entitled to that protection, protection against those who come from outside. The real South African nation has its own character and future and we must protect that character and that future of the nation by seeing it in reference to elements that come from outside so that we shall preserve the true composition of that nation.
D.F. Malan, National Party, Parliament, 25/2/1947From the formation of the Union in 1910, the South African state viewed immigration policy as an essential part of building, and protecting, the nation. The 1913 Immigrants Regulation Act, by excluding ‘non-white’ immigrants established that the South African state saw the territorial entity of South Africa as an exclusively white nation, despite the millions of Africans, Indians and coloured people within its boundaries. In the 1920s and 1930s, as South Africa started its post-war nation-building process, it emerged that the definition of whiteness and white national identity was both flexible and contested. Jewish immigrants were excluded because a secondary qualification for national membership was invented. New members of the nation had to be white, but they also had to be related to, or from, the fictive ‘original stocks’ of the country, the British and Afrikaner. To limit the entry of those who were seen to have the potential to contaminate the stocks of the nation, the state introduced the Aliens Act in 1937. In so doing, it created a two-tier immigration system that privileged British immigrants who only had to meet the terms of the 1913 Immigrants Regulation Act, while immigrants from all other countries had to comply with both the 1913 and 1937 Acts.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Selecting ImmigrantsNational Identity and South Africa's Immigration Policies 1910-2008, pp. 85 - 108Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2009