Navigating Insecurities in Foreign Territory: The Experiences of Zimbabwean Irregular Immigrants at a South African Informal Settlement

Abstract

This article discusses the insecurity challenges faced by irregular Zimbabwean immigrants as well as mitigatory strategies they deploy to survive in an informal settlement in Pretoria East, South Africa. Globally, immigrants (especially irregular immigrants) have been and continue to be viewed and treated as societal and state security threats in the host societies. In response to this perceived or real security threat, a raft of often punitive ‘defensive’ measures is implemented by the host state and society. By contrast, the insecurity experienced by the immigrants themselves at the hands of the host state and society is rarely highlighted, but rather glossed over or at worst played down as non-events. More so, their defensive survival strategies are heavily policed if not criminalised. This article analyses the range of short- to long-term individual and collective strategies deployed by the state, its agents, the host society and immigrants alike in navigating and negotiating insecurity. The article concludes by noting that the varied security strategies deployed are underlined by self-interest on the part of the many actors involved in the security–insecurity matrix, hence the recurrence of insecurity over time.