Foreigners have been forced out of their homes and businesses. Some have been physically attacked. Tens of thousands have fled the country.

Anti-immigrant sentiment is spreading in South Africa, driven by accusations that have become familiar across the world — that foreigners are committing crime, taking jobs and using valuable public resources.

South Africa is the largest economy in Africa, attracting many migrants from neighboring countries. There are about three million documented immigrants living in the country, and many more who are undocumented.

But are the accusations against immigrants in South Africa true? Here is what data and research say about three common arguments used against them.

1. Do they commit more crime?

South Africa reports one of the world’s highest murder rates. But police statistics show that immigrants are arrested at low rates.

While foreign nationals are about 5 percent of the population, they accounted for just 3 percent of arrests over the past five years, according to South African police data that was provided to The New York Times in response to a public records request. They accounted for just 1.2 percent of arrests for violent crime.

The data shows that nearly one in five arrests of foreigners is for immigration violations. At the same time, other statistics show that foreigners occupy South African prisons at a disproportionately high rate.

Last year, South Africa’s corrections department reported that more than 12 percent of inmates serving sentences in the country’s prisons were foreigners.

2. Are they are stealing jobs?

South Africa’s unemployment rate has hovered over 30 percent for the past several years, and many South Africans say that they haven’t reaped the benefits of living in Africa’s most developed economy.

The sight of foreigners waiting tables at restaurants or running convenience stores has only amplified their disappointment.

Foreigners hold less than 4 percent of formal jobs in South Africa, a rate that has remained mostly unchanged for more than a decade, according to an article published in June by researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. One in five participants in the informal economy — which includes roadside vending — is a foreigner, the researchers said.

As many South Africans turn to the sector because of the high unemployment rate, competition has increased.

But a report by the World Bank in 2018 also found that immigrants tended to take more business risks than South African citizens and that immigrant workers generate jobs for South Africans.

3. Do they abuse public resources?

A common refrain among anti-immigrant activists is that foreigners use taxpayer-funded resources, like public health clinics and schools, depriving South African citizens.

South Africa has a school-choice system, and the best public schools fill quickly. Many South Africans argue that immigrant children are taking those prime slots.

Data does not support that argument. Foreigners account for just 2 percent of students in public schools, according to government statistics.

Government officials have raised concerns over the years that foreigners place a significant strain on the budgets of public medical facilities.

A 2023 government report found that at one of the country’s largest medical facilities, Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Johannesburg, over 40 percent of the patients were foreign nationals.

The researchers at Witwatersrand found that financial mismanagement by the government had squeezed public services, leading to longer wait times at medical facilities and larger student-to-teacher ratios. Those pressures have the potential to increase anti-immigrant sentiment in the coming years, they wrote.