A survey conducted by the African research network Afrobarometer found that seven out of 10 South Africans view immigrants' economic impact as negative.Anti-immigrant groups also blame illegal migration for social problems in the country, such as high crime.The numbers are showing something else.A national statistics office survey by StatsSA in 2023 showed there were 3.1 million migrants in South Africa, equivalent to about 4.1 per cent of the population, down from 5.6 per cent a decade ago.Campaigners claim the number does not reflect undocumented migrants.On the other hand, a recent study by researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg found that if all foreigners' jobs were handed to unemployed South Africans, the unemployment rate would fall by only 6 per cent, from 43.6 per cent to 37.6 per cent Well over a third of the population is unemployed, which is among the world's highest rates.By some measures, South Africa has the highest inequality in the world.Experts say that for some South Africans, the economic crisis has fuelled anger directed at migrants — but the reason might lie elsewhere."Immigrants are by no means the reason why services and the economy have faltered, but people remember what confirms their biases," Loren Landau, professor of migration and development at the University of Oxford, told Reuters