Refugee status as a patronage good? The interaction of transnational party mobilization and migration policy in the global south

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the transnational operations of the Zimbabwean opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to mobilise migrant supporters living in South Africa during the 2000s. Drawing together a variety of empirical sources, including extensive original interviews with former MDC party officials and Zimbabwe diaspora civil society organisers, this article explores the challenges of diaspora engagement within contexts of poverty, legal precarity, and political violence in both origin and residence countries. Bringing together emerging research on transnational party mobilisation with the robust literature on distributive politics and clientelism, I show how assistance with asylum became a patronage good, distributed to party members in exchange for participation in party activities and electoral support. Moreover, the plight of Zimbabweans in South Africa illuminates how the line between forced and voluntary migration is both difficult to delineate and has increasingly dire consequences for populations that do not fit precisely within legal determinations of mass refugee movements. Keywords: Diaspora, Political Parties, Refugee Policy, Elections, Africa