South Africa has once again witnessed waves of xenophobic violence directed at fellow Africans. Foreign nationals from countries including Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia and Ghana have repeatedly been accused of “stealing jobs,” overwhelming public services, and contributing to crime. Periodic protests and attacks have resulted in deaths, destruction of businesses, and the evacuation of some foreign nationals by their home governments.
The frustrations driving these protests are understandable. South Africa faces one of the world’s highest unemployment rates, particularly among young people. Economic inequality remains severe, and many citizens struggle to find stable employment. In such circumstances, migrants become convenient scapegoats.
Yet the uncomfortable question is this: Are South Africans fighting the wrong battle?
The greatest long-term threat to employment may not be the Zimbabwean mechanic, the Ghanaian trader, or the Nigerian entrepreneur. It may instead be a new generation of immigrants that neither require visas nor cross borders—artificial intelligence.
The New Immigrants Have No Passports
Historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari argues that artificial intelligence represents something fundamentally different from every previous technological invention. Unlike the printing press, the steam engine, or even the internet, AI is not merely another tool.
As Harari explains in Nexus, AI is an agent. It can generate ideas, learn from experience, make decisions, communicate with humans, and increasingly perform cognitive tasks that were once considered uniquely human. For most of history, humans were the only beings capable of converting words into persuasive arguments, negotiating contracts, analysing legal cases, diagnosing diseases, or writing complex reports. Today, AI systems can increasingly perform many of these tasks.
This changes everything.
An AI lawyer does not need a work permit. An AI accountant does not queue at immigration. An AI financial analyst crosses borders at the speed of light through cloud computing. These digital workers can simultaneously serve clients in Johannesburg, Accra, New York and Beijing without ever boarding an airplane.
The Real Competition Is Already Here
South Africa’s debate often assumes that employment is a contest between citizens and foreign nationals. But automation is rapidly changing that equation.
Around the world, businesses are deploying AI to draft legal documents, analyse medical images, write software, process insurance claims, answer customer enquiries, produce financial reports and perform administrative functions. Autonomous robots increasingly undertake manufacturing, warehousing and logistics operations with speed, precision and endurance unmatched by human workers.
Self-driving technologies continue to reshape transportation. AI-powered diagnostic systems assist doctors. Large language models support lawyers by reviewing thousands of legal documents within minutes. Financial institutions increasingly rely on AI for fraud detection, credit analysis and investment modelling.
The question is no longer whether AI will replace some jobs.
It already is.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 projects that while technological change will create many new occupations, it will also displace millions of existing roles, particularly in administrative, clerical and routine cognitive work. The challenge facing societies is therefore not simply immigration but technological disruption.
A Global Competition Beyond Borders
Political strategist Parag Khanna has long argued that the twenty-first century is increasingly shaped by networks rather than geography. In works such as Connectography (2016) and MOVE (2021), he contends that connectivity, technology, supply chains and digital infrastructure increasingly determine national prosperity more than traditional borders.
Artificial intelligence accelerates this reality.
The leading AI ecosystems today are concentrated primarily in the United States and China, whose companies develop increasingly sophisticated AI models deployed globally through cloud platforms. These systems can perform professional services for businesses thousands of kilometres away.
This means that a South African company may eventually outsource legal research, customer service, software development, accounting or medical documentation—not to another African country—but to AI systems operating on servers located elsewhere.
Unlike human migrants, these digital workers do not require housing, healthcare, transport or citizenship. They simply connect online.
Looking in the Wrong Direction
The irony is striking.
Many South Africans fear that African migrants are taking jobs, yet comparatively little public attention is given to the technological transformation that may eliminate entire categories of employment altogether.
If Harari is correct, societies should be asking much bigger questions.
How should countries prepare workers for an AI economy?
How should education systems evolve when machines increasingly perform knowledge work?
Should governments tax AI productivity to finance workforce retraining?
How can African countries develop their own AI capabilities rather than becoming passive consumers of technologies designed elsewhere?
These questions are far more consequential than blaming vulnerable migrants.
Africa’s Real Challenge
Artificial intelligence will not simply compete for jobs. It may also shape public opinion, influence elections, personalise propaganda, and increasingly participate in economic decision-making. Harari repeatedly warns that information itself is becoming programmable and that whoever controls advanced AI may exercise unprecedented influence over societies.
Africa therefore faces two simultaneous challenges.
First, it must continue addressing unemployment, inequality and weak economic growth.
Second, it must prepare for an AI revolution that could fundamentally transform labour markets across both skilled and unskilled occupations.
Violence against fellow Africans will not solve either problem.
Beyond Xenophobia
History shows that societies often blame outsiders during periods of economic hardship. Yet the greatest disruptions frequently arise from technological change rather than migration.
South Africa’s future prosperity will depend less on excluding African migrants than on preparing its people for an economy transformed by artificial intelligence. Investment in education, digital skills, innovation, entrepreneurship and AI governance will matter far more than building higher walls.
The new competitors are not arriving by bus from Harare or by plane from Accra.
They are arriving through fibre-optic cables, satellites and cloud servers.
And unlike human migrants, these AI immigrants never sleep, never tire, never demand visas—and they are already here.
Source: Dr. Emmanuel Odame
