Based on ongoing ethnographic research among post-1994 first generation Afrikaner
immigrants in Australia, in this paper I argue that the majority of them bases its decision
to emigrate from South Africa on their perception of reality rather than on reality itself.
The primary reason why they are leaving their home country is affirmative action, which
they view as racist policies that lead to ‘reverse discrimination’. They believe that their
children do not have a future in South Africa because of the fact that they have white
skin. However, the preliminary results of this study show that in reality, only a very small
number of participants has had an actual experience with affirmative action, and
secondary sources demonstrate that white privilege still prevails in post-apartheid South
Africa. Thus, the underlying, subconscious reason why Afrikaners are emigrating is their
fear of the threat that affirmative action poses to their children’s future. As such, it can be
analysed according to Maslow’s human needs theory, which shows that they are
fundamentally in search of survival