The impact of immigrants on the labour market in the South African context has always been a long standing issue with both government and natives’ fearing for the latter’s displacement effect, pressure on wages and resources. Migrants are blamed for poor labour market conditions of a host country. Literature reviewed from Africa and elsewhere shows that migrants have negative outcomes on the host country’s labour market. For this study an Error Correction Model on time series data from 1980-2006 has been estimated. The study estimated two models that is the unemployment and the wages models. The variables used for estimation are immigration, inflation and the Gross Domestic Product. The study surprisingly found a positive impact of immigrants on wages but the effect on employment was negative and significant. It is important to note here that the calculated impact is only for the documented immigrants the impact the illegal ones is not known.

South Africa is currently experiencing ever-increasing rural-urban migration with many citizens from the former homeland areas migrating to cities to seek employment. Despite long-term residence in urban areas, many township dwellers do not consider these places to be home. Research into circular migration patterns reveal the lifelong relationships that migrants (amagoduka) have with their family home (ekhayeni). This study aimed to explore this relationship, looking in particular at the meanings imbued in the locality of home. In addition, the role of natural landscapes and social components in constructing meanings and attachments to ekhayeni for Xhosa-speaking migrants in Cape Town townships, who have family linkages to rural villages in the Transkei, was also explored. The study found that the landscape of home remains central to migrants’ cultural identity, belonging and well-being. Childhood experiences in nature, and cultural and recreational activities that continue to take rural inhabitants into these landscapes, remain key to this relationship. The rural area, as a geographical entity embodied with social and cultural/spiritual components continued to supply and satisfy many human needs for migrants, which were seen as crucial for psychological, mental and spiritual well-being.

This study explores the perceptions of women who had migrated to Gqebera, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, from Zimbabwe, in terms of their own identity. In-depth interviews were conducted, situated within a phenomenological paradigm with a feminist epistemological orientation, in order to describe the rich detail of a woman’s quotidian existence subsequent to the migratory experience. Findings suggest that women’s identities are constructed in relation to other people, both those who form their in-group and their out-group. The process of migration and difficulties associated with assimilation into the host community impacts on felt ethnicity, strengthening ties to the homeland and to fellow Zimbabweans. Identity is also impacted on by spatiality, or lived space, in terms of both memories of home and present space occupied. Migration incorporating even the post-migration period may well form an extended liminal experience for women.

MA (Youth Development) / Institute for Gender and Youth Studies / See the attached abstract below

PhDGS / Institute of Gender and Youth Studies / The existence of humans has always been associated with movement, owing, among other reasons, conflicts, to disasters and search for more habitable areas and better living conditions. Historically, migration of women has not been given much attention by scholars; international migration literature has always been dominated by data on male migration. However, almost half of the immigrants coming into South Africa are women. Young female immigrants are considered more vulnerable than their male counterparts. Through a qualitative approach, this study aimed at investigating the vulnerability of young Zimbabwean female immigrants in Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city and its industrial and commercial heartland, in order to develop a comprehensive strategy to minimise their vulnerability. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used for data collection, and Atlas.ti qualitative analysis software was used to analyse the data. The population of the study was young female immigrants between the ages of 18 and 35 years residing in Johannesburg, and experts in the field of migration. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to select the participants. The findings of this study highlighted that the young Zimbabwean female immigrants are vulnerable to abuse, discrimination, xenophobia, poor health, and social and economic problems. The abuse, discrimination and xenophobia were perpetrated by their partners, the society, colleagues in the workplace, employers, and the authorities who are supposed to protect and provide services for these immigrants. These problems were a result of the intersecting factors that cause the young women’s vulnerability. These include nationality, gender, legality, language barriers, type of work, poverty (and the desperation it generates), and competition over job opportunities. The study indicated that these female immigrants do not look for the law’s protection because they are afraid of being deported, and they are afraid of the police, who are reluctant to protect them, and often further abuse them. The study recommends the adoption of the Multistakeholder Comprehensive Migration Strategy which was developed in this study to minimise the young women’s vulnerability. This strategy promotes the collaboration of different parties at all levels – individual, community, civil society, regional and national – in achieving this all-important purpose. All these stakeholders should collaborate in initiatives to promote and protect the rights of these young women, and ensure gender equality in migration. / NRF

Afrikaans text / Die doel van hierdie studie is om die rol van die maatskaplike werk professie in die hantering van slagoffers van xenofobie te verken en te beskryf, ten einde aanbevelings te maak aan maatskaplike werkers. Die deelnemers was praktiserende maatskaplike werkers in die Kaapse Wynland Overberg Distrik wat gesinsorgdienste lewer. Die kwalitatiewe navorsingsbenadering, tesame met die fenomenologiese, kontekstuele, verkennende en beskrywende navorsingsontwerpe was benut. Data is binne die raamwerk van Tesch se stappe vir kwalitatiewe data-analise geanaliseer. Guba se model vir data verifikasie is benut om die geldigheid van die studie te verseker. Die navorsingsbevindinge het die navorser in staat gestel om aanbevelings aan maatskaplike werkers te maak in terme van die oorsake van xenofobie, die rol van die maatskaplike werk professie rakende dienste aan slagoffers van xenofobie, tipe maatskaplike dienste wat aan slagoffers van xenofobie gelewer moet word en hulpbronne wat benodig word vir effektiewe dienslewering. / The goal of this study is to explore and describe the role of the social work profession regarding interventions aimed at victims of xenophobia in order to make recommendations to social workers. Participants were practicing social workers in the Cape Wineland Overberg District who provided family services. The qualitative research approach, together with the phenomenological, contextual, explorative and descriptive research designs, was implemented. Data was analysed within the framework of Tesch’s steps for qualitative data analysis. Guba’s model for data verification was used to ensure the validity of the data. The research findings assisted the researcher to make recommendations to social workers in terms of the causes of xenophobia, the role of the social work profession regarding services to victims of xenophobia, the type of services that should be rendered to these victims and resources needed for effective service delivery. / Social Work / M.A. (SW)

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Social Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Arts in Migration and Displacement, July 2017 / This research is encouraged by the recent developments in the migration patterns of Zimbabweans in South Africa in the period 2009-2016. The absence of secure livelihoods due to the political stalemate in Zimbabwe resulted in Zimbabweans looking for a safe haven in different parts of the world. South Africa is among many other countries which has been a recipient of both undocumented and documented Zimbabweans. Most Zimbabweans in South Africa were undocumented and in 2010 the South African government made an initiative to regularise the positions of Zimbabweans living in South Africa, yet there is limited academic research on the livelihoods of regularised Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa. The rationale behind the implementation of the Zimbabwe Documentation Process (ZDP) in 2010 and the renewal of the process through issuing the Zimbabwe Special Permit (ZSP) in 2014 is noteworthy. However, this study explores the livelihood experiences of regularised Zimbabweans in Johannesburg, South Africa. The research examines the livelihood strategies, challenges, opportunities and outcomes of regularised Zimbabwean migrants. The purpose of this formative qualitative study is to investigate if the access to livelihood opportunities and outcomes among regularised Zimbabwean migrants are strongly dependant on documentation. This is an important area of study given the ongoing special dispensation for Zimbabweans in South Africa and the wider migration scholarship in the country. Based on 15 semi structured interviews with regularised Zimbabwean migrants and 1 key informant conducted in Turfontein and Florida my assertion in this study is that the reported livelihood experiences of regularised Zimbabweans highlight a complex connection between documentation and livelihoods. On one hand findings show that documentation has improved the economic and social wellbeing of regularised Zimbabwean migrant in Johannesburg and on the other hand, documentation is undermining the livelihood options of regularised Zimbabwean migrants. For individuals who are in search of secure and sustainable livelihoods, findings show that mostly regularisation is offering limited protection and temporary rights to migrants who are likely to live in South Africa for years to come. Key words: documentation, livelihood experiences, regularisation, regularised Zimbabwean migrants, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Documentation Project, and Zimbabwe Special Permit. / XL2018

Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities, at the University of the Witwatersrand, July 2017 / Just over ten years ago on night of the 28th of August 2006, angry mobs took to the streets of Masiphumelele township outside Fish Hoek, near Cape Town, and attacked and looted foreign national spaza shops in the neighbourhood. The attacks shocked the city, and prompted the provincial government to initiate an intervention to address the underlying causes of the violence. The outcome comprised an agreement between foreign national and South African spaza shopkeepers that permitted foreign nationals to return on condition that they did not open any new shops in the township. These mediation efforts comprised the beginning of many governance interventions in Cape Town and across the country that were aimed at curtailing foreign national spaza shops in South Africa. This thesis examines formal and informal attempts to govern foreign national spaza shops in South Africa, and seeks to understand what they reveal about the nature of politics in South Africa, as a postcolonial and developing country. In doing so it locates itself in the theoretical framework of law and society, as it examines legal phenomena from a social science perspective. Its findings are based on case study methodology involving qualitative interviews with key participants and stakeholders, as well as document collection, participant observation, and media reports. The research finds that many governance actors’ anxieties towards foreign national spaza shops relate less to shopkeepers’ particular activities and more to South African traders’ abilities to incite local socio-economic discontent against these shops, and thereby threaten political establishments. However, governance interventions rarely unfolded as intended due to resistance by competing interest groups who sought to advance their private economic concerns rather than public and political rights. This invokes features of Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben’s theories of the ‘social’ or ‘biopolitics’, which argue that the entry of economic concerns into the political sphere is characteristic of the modern age. The thesis therefore reflects on Arendt, Foucault and Agamben’s theories in assessing what governance efforts reveal about the nature of South Africa’s political sphere. It finds that the social realm in South Africa differs from their accounts in two significant respects. First, the social sphere is conflicted between various economic goals – with parties seeking to foster basic life and sustenance, as well as to advance the emancipation of citizens from the colonial legacies of apartheid through economic mobility and opportunity. This makes finding a path to advance overall economic advancement in the country more difficult and contentious. / XL2018

Thessis (M.Sc.(Development Planning))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning, 2006 / Migration is indubitable one of the most complex and urgent phenomenon that will emerge as a robust agenda in global cities’ policy and spatial planning trajectory. Internal migrants have been recorded as constituting a relatively significant part of the population of Gauteng and Johannesburg, and any development policies for the City need to account strongly for in-migration (Peberdy, et al, 2004). The importance of migration was also strongly highlighted by the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo in his 2004 State of the City address: “Johannesburg has become a magnet for people from other provinces, the African continent, and indeed, the four corners of the world”. He also referred to the challenges posed by migration; “While migrancy contributes to the rich tapestry of the cosmopolitan city, it also places a severe strain on employment levels, housing and public services”. Kok (2003) postulated that the relationship between migration and City spatial development planning will definitely influence the country’s future and that many cities cannot absorb new entrants in the labour market and this means that high population growth will constitute a major future challenge for cities. Kok et al (2004) postulated that the bulk of the research has been conducted on why migrants leave rural areas to urban areas, but little on how they organize, prepare, survive, network, and organize assets and resources, and access services in urban areas. The livelihood strategies that in-migrants depend on when they arrive in the “unknown urban territory” remain an enthralling phenomenon. The aim of the study was to investigate and provide a conceptual insight into the urban livelihood strategies of in-migrant newcomers in the City of Johannesburg, and to reflect on the City of Johannesburg municipality’s policy agenda particularly, Growth and Development Strategy (2006) and Human Development Strategy (2005) and other pertinent strategic planning frameworks-responses to internal migration. Qualitative research informed by surveys, interviews, with open-ended questions and observations in the form of fieldwork was followed. Twelve respondents were interviewed, comprising of seven females and four males coming from the Eastern Cape Province, currently based in Johannesburg, Yoeville suburb. The study unmasked that in-migrants find their foothold in income generation or employment through family, kin, partner and friend network connections predominantly derived from members coming from the same province of origin. Their livelihood strategies are negotiated and limited to background networks; beyond network connections is what the researcher view as an “incessant impediment in their lives”. Regrettably, most in-migrants encountered lacked training, skills, close-knit social networks, market intelligence and education tools necessary to climb the economic ladder in the urban terrain. Generally, those who are unemployed were not engaged in income generation activities while those employed supplemented their wages by income generation activities such as spaza shop and shebeens. A glaring reality is that respondents were not taking advantage of the booming informal market economy of Johannesburg which has a potential to sustain a livelihood. This is also compounded by the fact that none of the respondents participated in the civic society sector as way of participating in the City developmental trajectories and also a way of sustaining a livelihood. In a nutshell, a mere background network connection to the person from the area of origin, predominantly family member and friend was found to be the core livelihood strategy to access basic needs and employment opportunities for Eastern Cape internal migrants. The documented response of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan strategic policy agenda is seen through two broader policies. Firstly, iv Growth and Development Strategy in its principle of “proactive absorption of poor”. Secondly, Human Development Strategy which focuses on interventions such as; safeguarding and supporting poor and vulnerable households in their efforts to access local and provincial social safety nets, championing rights and opportunities for those who suffer the effects of structural inequality in the City; and building prospects for social inclusion by developing partnerships between the City and its residents. Both GDS & HDS policy responses to migration are discussed at length in the report. The current study argues that the City must devise novel robust policy and planning strategies to understand the profound urbanization trends, socio-economic context of migration patterns and how these impacts on the City infrastructure planning in the long-term growth of the City. Future studies in this line of investigation must consider taking forward this kind of research to a highest level. It will be proper to extend the study by investigating livelihood strategies of migrants in Johannesburg coming from different provinces and those from the selected African countries for the purpose of comparison using the qualitative approach. It will be appreciated to include investigation of broader urbanization impacts and readiness of City infrastructure provision, planning and growth.

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Sociology, March 2017 / This study sought to explore how undocumented workers in the construction industry and their employers manage the employer – employee relationship in the absence of citizenship and (de facto if not de jure) labour rights for employees. Put simply, it sought to address the question, what governs workplace relations outside labour laws? Because of ‘illegal’ status in receiving countries, the literature has largely made it a norm to portray undocumented workers’ experiences as hyper-exploitative characterised by antagonistic relations with their employers. However by focusing on this subsection of the construction industry made up of Zimbabwean immigrant workers and their employers I was able to get a detailed picture of how labour relations take place in the absence of recourse to the law. Instead of antagonistic relations I found a more complicated picture which was nonetheless more harmonious and cooperative. This goes to show that while ‘illegality’ is an issue in the literature, it is less of one in a sector where ‘skilled’ work is important. These workers are able to assume greater leverage and negotiate (with employers) to a greater extent than the literature on precariousness and migrant labour reveals. This research thus calls for more investigations into spaces of negotiation in undocumented workers’ workplaces and relationships with employers so as to highlight more nuances and avoid generalising conclusions. In presenting these spaces of negotiation and workplace nuances, this study drew on narratives and experiences from both Zimbabwean employees and their employers who were in most instances subcontractors who also originated from Zimbabwe. These were obtained through in-depth interviews with workers and employers conducted between October 2016 and January 2017 and participant observations. / XL2018