Migration In Southern Africa Research Articles

Communities at the Margin: Studies in Rural Society and Migration in Southern Africa, 1890-1980

The practice of social history is particularly advanced by the publication of collective volumes each consisting of fairly diverse studies. An outstanding feature of these publications is the comprehensive introductions in which historiographical, theoretical and comparative frameworks are provided. Communities at the margin: Studies in rural society and migration in southern Africa, 1890-1980 forms part of this valuable body of work. The authors are well-known scholars of African studies and African history, and the title makes an original contribution to research in these fields. The main focus of the work is on the struggle of communities at the margin of dispossession in colonial and post-colonial societies of Southern Africa. Although centred on the weak and impoverished, it tries to go beyond viewing them as victims. The aim is to form an understanding of the role and perspectives of those who lived their lives outside racial and ethnic elites, far from colonial capitals, and away from centres of white economic empowerment. According to the editors, these studies attempt to provide further evidence that the actions of the rural communities, no less than policies imposed from the colonial or industrial metropole, shaped the terms on which white rule and capitalist industrialisation developed throughout the African continent, but specifically in southern Africa.

Migration and the Lived Spaces of Southern Africa

When the Mail & Guardian reported on July 7, 1997, that two Mozambicans, a mother and child, had been devoured by lions in the Kruger National Park while their group tried to enter South Africa illegally, the story seemed to be little more than the perfunctory account of two lives lost in a part of the world that had seen more than its fair share of death. Park officials explained that about three hundred Mozambican refugees try to enter South Africa via the park every month and that some will die in the process. What else was there to say? It probably did not occur to the officials, the reporters, nor most of the readers that this incident also represented an aspect of the international relations of the region. Yet in a few short paragraphs, the story captured an important segment of the struggles and contradictions that constitute southern Africa--a glimpse at the subjective reality of migration in that region today. I hope to show in this article that such lived experiences, rather than being the residue left over after the machinations of grand have played themselves out, are a crucial component of international relations and that our theoretical understanding of the field will remain incomplete unless the experiences of everyday life are incorporated. In general, the analysis of international relations has eschewed the experiences of everyday life. A quick glance at the average IR textbook confirms that the field still exists in a rarefied realm occupied by statesmen (and sometimes stateswomen) and diplomats, the leaders of corporations, the media, and maybe even the leaders of transnational NGOs. The average person, however, be they worker, peasant or migrant, is not present in this space. No wonder, then, that the theories that emerge from this field tend to reaffirm this absence, thus masking the fact that international relations are, in the end, constituted in the very spaces of everyday life. I believe that the focus on the lived experience of international relations is crucial for a number of reasons. For one, IR theory has consistently ignored such experiences and it thus became a part of the mystification of global realities in which individuals encounter global politics as the sum of anonymously determined oppressive forces, rather than as the products of their daily practices in spaces articulated in complex social relations. Furthermore, an emphasis on lived experiences holds the potential to imbue IR theory with an emancipatory potential that it has historically failed to realize. It is in that the recognition of the contradictions between the lived experiences and the ideological claims in which they are embedded that a potential for emancipatory action exists and an IR theory that does not capture that dynamic fails to account for the lived reality it attempts to explain. This article's emphasis on labor migration in southern Africa is particularly suited to bring out the importance of these lived spaces to IR theory. Building on Lefebvre's approach to social space, I highlight patterns of spatial practice that have developed over the past century and a half and juxtapose these to hegemonic representations of space. The lived spaces--that is, the spaces where these contradictions materialize--are thus key to understanding the historical transitions in the region. Migrant workers, far from being exclusively victims of colonial and apartheid policies, emerge as active participants in shaping the space we recognize as southern Africa today. Furthermore, their notions of space may well be a foundation for a southern Africa in which the legacy of apartheid is overcome not only in abstract legal terms but also in the concrete spaces of everyday life. In the section that follows, I provide a short outline of Lefebvre's approach to everyday life and social space. Then three further sections analyzing the contradictions of social space that led to the historical trajectory of social space in the region. …

On Borders: Perspectives on International Migration in Southern Africa

On Borders: Perspectives on International Migration in Southern Africa

On borders: perspectives on international migration in southern Africa

On borders: perspectives on international migration in southern Africa

Lest the rhetoric begin:: migration, population and the environment in Southern Africa

In the spirited debate over cross-border migration in Southern Africa there is one issue that has been conspicuously absent: the environment. The issue is raised in this article not because it necessarily deserves to be part of the debate – it will be argued, in fact, that one needs to tread very carefully when drawing any linkages between migration and the environment – but because it has received an inordinate amount of attention in the academic and popular press in other parts of the world (particularly in the US) and could influence South African immigration policy and debates. In this article we look specifically at Thomas Homer-Dixon's influential work on environmental scarcity and migration and critically assess its relevance in the Southern African context. A brief review of the history of migration and immigration policy in the region is followed by a theoretical and empirical critique of Homer-Dixon's writings. It is acknowledged in the article that environmental degradation can (and does) contribute to forced migration and violent conflict in Southern Africa, but it is also argued that Homer-Dixon misses some fundamental points about the political economy of (post) apartheid Southern Africa and in doing so presents a very problematic interpretation of the causes and effects of migration in the region. The potential for these theories to lend themselves to a reactionary, closed-border approach to immigration in South Africa is also discussed and forms part of the impetus for the writing of this paper.

Community, Identity and Gender in Migrant Societies of Southern Africa: Emerging Epistemological Challenges

Immigration policy in South Africa is undergoing serious revision in response to unprecedented cross-border migration into the post-apartheid state. This article looks at the relevance of orthodox international relations theory to migration policy in South Africa, and argues that fundamental shifts in approach are essential if IR theorists of the region are to contribute effectively to understanding and managing migration in southern Africa. It builds on the results of interviews with migrants and considers the significance of the themes of identity, community and gender as areas of particular relevance to international relations theory.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND MIGRATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

(1997). INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND MIGRATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA. African Security Review: Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 38-45.

The relevance of research on emigration dynamics for policy makers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This paper provides an overview of research findings from Phase I for sub-Saharan Africa. Africa varies widely in population size, economic growth and structure, ecology, political systems, religion, and culture. There has been extensive migration and population displacement due to population pressure, poverty, poor economic performances, ethnic conflicts, and abuse of human rights. Economic factors have exacerbated conditions. John Oucho emphasized a need for subregional approaches to refugee flows in the northern parts of eastern Africa, labor migration and refugee flow in the southern parts of eastern Africa, and skilled labor migration from the north to the south and southern Africa. Ethnic composition differs throughout eastern Africa, and population pressure and severe climate changes are challenges to survival strategies. Dominic Milazi focused on labor migration in southern Africa. Sally Findley presented a paper on the population shifts from nine Sahel countries in the interior to coastal areas due to severe climate changes and low agricultural productivity. According to the policy discussion, there is a need to "harmonize" regional and subregional treaties and practices with national laws and administrative practice.

Identity, Culture and Consciousness: Industrial Work and Rural Migration in Southern Africa, 1860–1987

Identity, Culture and Consciousness: Industrial Work and Rural Migration in Southern Africa, 1860–1987

Gender Awareness in Migration Theory: Synthesizing Actor and Structure in Southern Africa

ABSTRACTRecent developments in migration theory mirror two concerns writ large across the development literature, namely the attempt to reconcile structure and agency and the importance of gender. Using the specific context of southern Africa, this article analyses the development of migration theory over the last forty years and the dialectic between gender and the structure‐agency dyad. It is argued that gender is an essential tool for unpicking the migration process and that a gender perspective has enriched and been enriched by a model of migration allowing analytical space for both the agency of migrants and the structures which surround them. Juxtaposing the various theories which have been brought to bear on migration in southern Africa also reveals the extent to which new models and classificatory systems have developed on the basis of agendas set by preceding conceptual frameworks, distinctions between competing models rarely being as clear‐cut as the mode of scholarship would have them appear.

The future of mine migrancy in the context of broader trends in migration in Southern Africa

The migration issue in Southern Africa has generally been seen as relevant in discussion about future regional economic cooperation in two main ways. First, the new democratic government's attitude to legal migration, particularly, but not only, to the mining industry, has been seen as a litmus test of real commitment to ‘reconstructing regional relations on new lines’. Second, the prospect of escalating clandestine migration has been seen as a real or potential threat underscoring the need for an equitable and mutually beneficial programme of regional economic cooperation. The discussion has, however, often proceeded as though the two aspects — legal and clandestine migration — operated in separate compartments without implications for each other. This paper examines recent trends in mine migrancy against the context of broader trends in clandestine or illegal migration to South Africa. It suggests that there are processes at work likely to result in a reduction in employment of citizens of neighbouring countries in the South African mining industry, and warns that there could well be a multiplier at work in which each job lost by a mineworker could create pressures for more than one family member to migrate clandestinely, unless regional cooperation programmes are able to promote economic growth and employment throughout the Southern African region.

An economic analysis of factors influencing rural‐urban migration in southern Africa

Rural‐urban migration is a serious problem being encountered by developing countries, including South Africa. A single‐equation model is formulated to test hypotheses concerning the determinants, namely personal and household characteristics, of the decision by household heads in Ciskei to migrate. The migration model was expressed as a dichotomous ordered‐response model using logistic regression. The results suggest that the personal characteristics of the household heads had a bearing on the probability of migration. The coefficients of the household characteristics, with the exception of the number of adults in the household, were found to have a statistically weak association with the decision to migrate.

Population and migration in Southern Africa in the 1990's

ABSTRACT As South and Southern Africa move into the post‐apartheid era, various new potential sources of conflict emerge. Many of these originate in the composition and nature of the population of the region and in the movement of population, that is, in migration. The latter takes various forms which impact on the potential for stability and development in varying ways. In Southern Africa the phenomenon of migration exhibits some unique characteristics or at least mutations of the broader problem. However, problems of population and migration are universal and therefore cannot be dealt with as exclusively domestic or even regional issues when solutions are sought.

Recent Trends and Prospects of Black Migration to South Africa

Migrantlabour from external sources has been exploited by South Africa during the past century for obvious economic reasons: it is cheap, easily available, and largely controllable. Short-run fluctuations may arise for a variety of reasons, but in the long run, as W. G. Martin has attempted to demonstrate, demand patterns for foreign migrant workers, particularly on the mines, have generally reflected prevailing economic conditions.1. Events over the past decade or so have, however, made it difficult to distinguish between the effects of economic and political influences which have so dramatically altered the face of migration in Southern Africa.

P. Mayer (ed.), Black Villagers in an Industrial Society: anthropological perspectives on labour migration in southern Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1980, 369 pp., £13.95. - W. R. Böhning (ed.), Black Migration to South Africa: a selection of policy-oriented research. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1981, 184 pp., £5 paperback, £7.50 hardback.

P. Mayer (ed.), Black Villagers in an Industrial Society: anthropological perspectives on labour migration in southern Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1980, 369 pp., £13.95. - W. R. Böhning (ed.), Black Migration to South Africa: a selection of policy-oriented research. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1981, 184 pp., £5 paperback, £7.50 hardback. - Volume 55 Issue 2

Emigration and Development in Southern Africa, with Special Reference to Lesotho

"The introduction defines development and describes the scope of the paper. Section two briefly describes the historical evolution of [labor] migration in southern Africa, the ambiguities of data, and recent quantitative trends. Section three discusses alternative theoretical perspectives. Section four examines the case of Lesotho as an extreme example of a sending country and provides occasional allusions to other southern African sending countries. Section five concludes that the most important effect of [labor] migration on development in southern Africa has been to trade short run income benefits for long run development difficulties."

Errata: "International Migration in Southern Africa"

Errata: "International Migration in Southern Africa"

International Migration in Southern Africa

In the context of Southern Africa the term migrant tends to be defined as meaning a worker who oscillates between his home and his place of work over a distance which is greater than can be traveled on a daily commuting basis. In terms of this definition migrants always Black in Southern Africa may be workers who live either inside or outside the borders of the Republic of South Africa or Southern Rhodesia but who either way are living at work without their families. On the gold mines of the Witwatersrand and the Orange. Free State for example virtually all (99 percent) of the three hundred eighty thousand or so Black workers employed during the first half of the 1970s were housed as single men in hostels or compounds each holding between one thousand and eight thousand persons who came both from within the Republic of South Africa as well as from countries further afield. From many employers points of view there is little difference between workers whether they come from Lesotho or from the Ciskei but for the purposes of this paper we shall be considering only those migrants whose homes are across international boundaries. Once one starts looking only at the international flows one must also take into account the movements of people for longer than the conventional contract periods of the oscillating migrants. In South Africa in Southern Rhodesia and in Zambia there has over the years been a certain amount of more permanent migration of foreign-born Africans moving in and setting. Nevertheless the most striking feature of the international migration within the Africa subcontinent is the extent to which it has been and still is of an oscillating nonsettled nature. (excerpt)

International Migration in Southern Africa

ILO pub-WEP pub. Working paper on migrant worker movements in Southern Africa, with particular reference to economic implications for countries of emigration (Lesotho, Malawi) and immigration (South Africa R, rhodesia (Zimbabwe)) - constitutes part of a WEP research project on migration for employment. References and statistical tables.

THIRD REPORT ON MIGRATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

THIRD REPORT ON MIGRATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA