About 117,000 people born in South Africa were living in the United States in 2020, up 80% in two decades.

The US is also the preferred destination for South African refugees seeking asylum.

Statistics SA’s latest migration report does not give reasons why South Africans sought asylum in the first place, but it does show that one-third of the total 4,258 asylum-seekers in 2022 hoped to get into the US.

Their chances appear to be pretty slim. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, 56 South Africans were granted asylum between 2013 and 2022. There are three years (2014, 2016 and 2017) when data was ‘withheld to limit disclosure’, so that number may be higher.

People seeking residence status in the US for more conventional reasons seem to be more successful. There was a sharp uptick in the number of South Africans obtaining permanent residence in 2022.