A research project submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2002. / African migration to South Africa is not a recent phenomenon bu in recent history, dates back to about one hundred and fifty years when African men migrated from some southern African countries to work in the South African mines. During this period however, the apartheid regime restricted African entry into the labour market of South Africa to contract mine workers, who were obviously men. Due to the abolition of apartheid. African migration to South Africa now has a gender profile. SkPIed, professional and businesswomen of African origin are now migrating independently to South Africa. This new face oftAfrican migration is transforming South African society and culture. African women from other countries have migrated to South Africa with parts of their cultures (their dresses and their food). In South Africa, these women have acquired both positive and negative identities. The negative identities expose them to discrimination in South Africa. On the other hand, the positively acquired identities nave given the women economic independence in their families and an occupational identity in their professions. In their attempt to adjust to life in South Africa, African migrant women encounter difficulties as a result of the restrictionist immigration policy of South Africa. These women are not happy with such a policy which is based solely on economic considerations. African women claim that they struggled alongside South Africans to bring apartheid to an end and were promised by the ANC-in-exilc that they were going to be welcome in an apartheid- free South Africa. These women claim that Iliey are here to make a contribution, which is clearly portrayed by their occupational experiences. This study portrays the fact that African migrant women arc impacting on South African society and are being impacted by it as well. As tempting as it is. it would be a mistake by the South African government to dismiss the current contribution made by these women both in the formal and informal sector of the South African economy. Coining from other African countries which have been plagued with political turmoil, degrading poverty and worsening of peoples living conditions (especially with the consequences of the implementation of the structural adjustment programs), migrant women have learnt to use their initiative, especially in the area of small businesses. This has enabled the women to transform their financial situations in their families. Diverse strategies have been utilised in this transformation; the inherent but powerful social networks which aided in relocating to new or particular areas in South Africa, financial and social support from their "fictive kin" system. As a "modus operandi" for Ghanaian migrant women hairdressers, country men/wo men are employed from Ghana and brought to South Africa to work in their hair salons. Since South Africans believe that Ghanaians are the best hairdressers, the migrant women have decided to employ as many Ghanaians in their salons as possible, to keep their businesses busy even in their absence. Some of the migrant women have opened food shops where indigenous West African foods are sold to the migrant population. These shops are placed in strategic places, like in central Durban which is accessible to all living in KwaZufu-Natal. In the formal sector, most of (lie migrant women were among tlic first black women lo occupy certain positions, which were previously occupied by white South Africans. Positions such as supervisors in catering departments in Iiospitals. lecturers and head of departments at some universities are examples of the empowering contribution of migrant women to South African society. These women's lives have also been impacted by South African society, especially in the apartheid era. Considering the precarious conditions under which mizrant women from Zambia lived in KwaZulu-Natal in the apartheid era (they were considered as spies because Zambia hosted some of the A.N.C-in-exile and I.F.P dominated this area), it was in their best interest to watch every step they took because they could have been killed. However, they live to tell of how they narrowly escaped death. Migration to South Africa by migrant nurses which once was considered as an opportunity to "have their own share of the gold" has turned to disillusionment. They have been caught in the web of the immigration policy of South Africa. The conditions for a migrant to stay in South Africa depend on how scarce his/her skill is. Nursing which was considered a scarce skill in the 1990s is no longer scarce. This has led lo a second migration to England by the nurses. Despite the recent increase in this second migration, some have decided to use the opportunities of working and studying in South Africa to obtain university degrees, which they believe will improve their financial situations. According to the remarks made by some of the migrant women, th;y are happy lo be where they are, for, comparatively. South Africa still has the best to ofler migrant women in the African continent. However, the migration literature shows that researchers in the field of migration have been gender-blind. Independent skilled, career and businesswomen of African origin have been side-lined in scholarly research on migration in post apartheid South Africa. In collecting data used for this study, the snowball method of sampling was used because other me! hods were not appropriate. The population of study was made of a core sample often women, although interviews were conducted informally with a cross-section with other migrant women. The study of independent African migrant women is an example of an ethnographic account at its best.

This study explores the self-representations of cross-border migrant, female sex workers in Johannesburg and compares these representations to those created by public discourses around cross-border migration, sex work, and gender. With a focus on issues of agency, vulnerability, and power, the study questions the impact of prevalent representations of these women by others on their individual self-representations. The participatory approach of this study builds on previous participatory research projects with migrant sex workers in Johannesburg and employs creative writing as a methodology to generate narratives and thus adds to literature about alternative methodologies for reaching currently marginalised and under-researched groups. Organisations such as Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and Sisonke Sex Worker Movement have worked with sex workers to generate digital stories for advocacy; however, academic research employing storytelling as a methodology has not been done with migrant sex workers in South Africa. While existing evidence indicates that cross-border migrant, female sex workers are often marginalised by state and non-state actors professing to assist them, this study emphasizes the voices of the women themselves. Over the course of three months, I conducted creative writing workshops with five female Zimbabwean sex workers in Hillbrow, Johannesburg; the women generated stories in these workshops that became the basis for one-on-one unstructured interviews. I compared the self-representations that emerged from this process with the representations of migrant sex workers that I determined from a desk review of the websites of organisations that contribute to trafficking and sex work discourses in South Africa. With the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill close to becoming law in South Africa and the prevalent assumption that systemic trafficking problems are related to the sex industry and irregular migration, developing a better understanding of migrants involved in sex work in South Africa is particularly important. Furthermore, a national focus on reducing and even preventing immigration—and the stigma attached to migrants—adds urgency to the elucidation of the lives of migrants. This study investigates how female Zimbabwean sex workers in Johannesburg—often positioned as vulnerable and sometimes misidentified as trafficked—see themselves in a country increasingly concerned with issues of (anti-)immigration and (anti-)trafficking. Furthermore, sex work is criminalized in South Africa and social mores attach stigma to prostitution. Contrary to assumptions that all sex workers are forced into the industry or foreign sex workers trafficked into the country, the participants in this study spoke of active choices in their lives—including choices about their livelihood and their movement—and describe their vulnerabilities and strengths. Perhaps the most striking similarity between participants was the women’s acknowledgement of the dangers they face and the decisions they make, weighing risks and gains. This recognition of agency ran through the six key themes that I generated through thematic analysis: Conflicting Representations of Sex Work, Stigma and Double Existence, Health and Safety, Importance of Independence, Morality of Remittances, and Mobility. Throughout the analysis, I argue that the participants in the study present themselves as aware of the dangers they face and calculating the risks. The participants responded enthusiastically to the creative writing methodology—through their stories, discussions, and interviews, they portrayed a complex, at times ambiguous, portrait of migrant sex workers in South Africa. While recognizing their double vulnerability—as illegally engaging in sex work and, often, illegally residing in South Africa, they also emphasized their strength and agency.

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.

A Thesis Submitted to the School of Social Sciences, in the Faculty of Humanities, in Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Studies THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA NOVEMBER 2014 / This thesis is the culmination of medical aid work and 24 one-on-one interviews with undocumented Mexican women in the U.S.A. and Zimbabwean women in South Africa seeking lifesaving emergency healthcare access. The theoretical research combined with practitioner-based fieldwork, shows the direct and deplorable effects of xenophobic policies coupled with a demonstrable failure to enforce healthcare access rights.

MA (Sociology) / Department of Sociology / The study aimed to explore on the oral narratives of selected female migrants in South Africa. It was a case study of Thohoyandou in the Limpopo Province. Female migrants are faced with integration challenges such as political and socio-economic challenges. The study focused on reflecting on stories of selected female migrants who reside in Thohoyandou. The study was qualitative in nature and utilised a qualitative exploratory research design because it was aimed at exploring perceptions on oral narratives of selected female migrants. The researcher made use of non-probability sampling in the form of purposive sampling method and snowball. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Data was then sorted, coded, organised and indexed in a manner that made it easier for the researcher to interpret, analyse and present in content analysis. Text was summarised by checking key themes, phrases or passages that were used in a more detailed analysis. The process was guided by the original aim of the study. Findings of the study postulated that most female migrants came for economic reasons and discrimination is perceived to be an important barrier to integration. Other significant integration barriers include linguistic, educational, and institutional factors. Internal factors (social, cultural, and religious norms, immigrants' own opinions about themselves, lack of motivation and intergenerational mobility) are also serious barriers to integration.

Text in English / Disasters are global phenomena, often occurring without warning and with physical and psychological consequences among those affected. In May 2008, refugee and migrants living in South Africa were exposed to xenophobic violence, which may be described as a human caused disaster using the Shultz, Espinel et al. (2008) definition of disaster. Refugee and migrant women were particularly vulnerable during this time due to heightened risk for exposure to violence and pathology. During 2014, a mixed methods convergent study was conducted in Johannesburg to determine the presence of acute stress disorder symptoms (ASD), posttraumatic growth (PTG) and experiences of xenophobic violence among refugee and migrant women. One hundred and three refugee and migrant women completed a selfadministered questionnaire, while semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with a sub-set of 22 women.The quantitative results showed a positive, linear association between moderate ASD-total symptoms, as assessed by the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire (SASRQ) (Cardeña, Classen, Koopman, & Spiegel, 2014) and moderate posttraumatic growth-total, assessed by the posttraumatic growth inventory (PTGI) (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). All ASD symptom subscales were predictors of posttraumatic growth. The qualitative results from both the SASRQ open-ended responses and semi-structured responses showed that refugee and migrant women were adversely affected by the xenophobic violence, with a prevailing fear that the xenophobic violence would re-occur. There was convergence in the quantitative findings and the qualitative findings for the pathological and adaptive outcomes. Policymakers must address xenophobic violence by working towards prevention of this type of violence. In instances where policies fail to address or prevent xenophobic violence, disaster programmes should consider xenophobic violence in disaster planning. Further to this, mental health intervention programmes should not only focus on alleviating ASD symptoms but also emphasise enhancing PTG. / Psychology / M.A. (SS (Psychology))