Migration Studies Commons^™

No. 48: The Quality Of Immigration And Citizenship Services In Namibia, Ndeyapo Nickanor

Southern African Migration Programme

The Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration (MHAI) in Namibia has sole responsibility for implementing and managing migration policy and legislation; the registration of births, deaths and marriages; and the issuing of identity documents, passports and emergency travel documents. The Ministry also manages visa and permanent and temporary residence applications and approves work permits.

In 2005, the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) was asked by the Ministry to conduct a systematic survey of the quality of services offered to citizens and non-citizens (the Services Quality Survey or SQS). The main objectives of the SQS were as follows:

• To compare …

No. 49: Gender, Migration And Remittances In Southern Africa, Belinda Dodson, Hamilton Simelane, Daniel Tevera, Thuso Green, Abel Chikanda, Fion De Vletter

Southern African Migration Programme

Migrant remittances have become an important source of income for many developing countries, exceeding official development assistance. As a result, migration and remittance behaviour are becoming a growing focus of international attention. Understanding the processes and patterns of remittance behaviour can help shed light on their usage and impact, both on recipient households and on wider socio-economic development in migrant-origin countries. One key aspect of such an understanding is the gender dynamics of migration and remittance practices. Globally, there is evidence of the feminization of migrant flows, with women increasingly migrating as independent migrants in their own right. Female migrants …

No. 50: The Perfect Storm: The Realities Of Xenophobia In Contemporary South Africa, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

The world recently watched with dismay as South African citi­zens violently attacked foreign nationals in communities across the country. Tens of thousands of migrants were displaced, amid mass looting and destruction of foreign-owned homes, property and businesses. Senior officials and politicians seemed bemused and perplexed by the xenophobic violence. The media was quick to advance several theories about the mayhem. One focused on historical factors, particularly South Africa’s divisive and alienating apartheid past. Another blamed poverty and the daily struggle for existence in many of South Africa’s poorer communities. A third criticized the ANC govern­ment for poor service delivery and …

No. 45: Medical Recruits: The Temptation Of South African Health Care Professionals, Christian M. Rogerson

Southern African Migration Programme

Health workers are one of the categories of skilled professionals most affected by globalization. Over the past decade, there has emerged a substantial body of research that tracks patterns of international migration of health personnel, assesses causes and consequences, and debates policy responses at global and national scales. Within this literature, the case of South Africa is attracting growing interest. For almost 15 years South Africa has been the target of a ‘global raiding’ of skilled professionals by several developed countries. How to deal with the consequences of the resultant outflow of health professionals is a core policy issue for …

No. 47: The Haemorrhage Of Health Professionals From South Africa: Medical Opinions, Wade Pendleton, Jonathan Crush, Kate Lefko-Everett

Southern African Migration Programme

The health sector has been especially hard hit by the brain drain from South Africa. Unless the push factors are successfully addressed, intense interest in emigration will continue to translate into departure for as long as demand exists abroad (and there is little sign of this letting up.) Health professional decision-making about leaving, staying or returning is poorly-understood and primarily anecdotal. To understand how push and pull factors interact in decision- making (and the mediating role of variables such as profession, race, class, age, gender income and experience), the opinions of health professionals themselves need to be sought.

This paper …

Vol. 8, No. 1: South African Immigration Reform, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

No abstract provided.

No. 46: Voices From The Margins: Migrant Women’S Experiences In Southern Africa, Kate Lefko-Everett

Southern African Migration Programme

The concept of the feminization of migration traditionally refers to the growth in numbers and relative importance of women’s migration, particularly from and within developing countries. In Africa, for example, the proportion of female migrants rose from 42% of the total in 1 960 to almost 50% at the present time. This process is a result, first, of the continued impoverishment and marginalization of many women in developing countries; and second, of the increasing demand for female labour in the service industries of industrial and industrializing countries.

The United Nations suggests that the full implications of migration and mobility for …

No. 21: The Un Convention On The Rights Of Migrant Workers: The Ratification Non-Debate, Vincent Williams, Jonathan Crush, Peggy Nicholson

Southern African Migration Programme

In recognition of the need to explicitly define and uphold the rights of migrants, and in particular migrant workers and their families, the United Nations General Assembly approved the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (ICMW) on 18 December 1990 (Appendix A).

The significance of the Convention has been identified as follows:

• Migrant workers are viewed as more than labourers or economic entities. They are social entities with families and accordingly have rights, including that of family reunification.
• The Convention recognizes that migrant workers and members of their families, …

Vol. 7, No. 1: Deadly Links Between Mobility And Hiv/Aids, Belinda Dodson, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

No abstract provided.

No. 19: Irregular Migration To South Africa During The First Ten Years Of Democracy, Lyndith Waller

Southern African Migration Programme

Irregular migration poses a considerable problem for South Africa in migration management, population planning, infrastructure development, resource management, governance, social services, economic development and security. A government can only work with what it knows, with a reasonable margin of error. By its nature, irregular migration creates many unknowns. Where entry into South Africa is clandestine or fraudulent, no proper account can be kept of the migrant’s presence, movement, identity, nationality, health status or activities. Without the ability to measure the problem, the ability to address it remains elusive.

For years, figures on the number of irregular migrants present in South …

No. 16: South African Immigration Law: A Gender Analysis, Belinda Dodson, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

One of the last pieces of apartheid-era legislation to disappear from the South African statute books was the Aliens Control Act of 1991. Although amended in 1995, this Act was finally consigned to history only in March 2003, when the draft regulations implementing the new Immigration Act (no. 13 of 2002) came into effect (Republic of South Africa 2002 and 2003). While there is much in the new Act to be welcomed, and it certainly represents the advent of a more just and pragmatic immigration regime, many of its provisions give considerable cause for concern on gender grounds. The Act …

No. 43: Migration And Development In Mozambique: Poverty, Inequality And Survival, Fion De Vletter

Southern African Migration Programme

Despite Mozambique’s economic growth rate being one of the highest in Africa over the past few years, much of the growth is linked to the development of highly capital intensive “mega” projects with limited absorption of unskilled workers. The urban informal sector which has hitherto absorbed considerable numbers of the unemployed has become less attractive for the rural labour surpluses as increasing competition makes economic survival more difficult. Such limitations within the domestic economy, recently exacerbated by the current drought in the South, has forced many rural households to seek employment in South Africa. Although external migration to South Africa …

No. 44: Migration, Remittances And Development In Southern Africa, Wade Pendleton, Jonathan Crush, Eugene Campbell, Thuso Green, Hamilton Simelane, Daniel Tevera, Fion De Vletter

Southern African Migration Programme

Remittances by migrants are now a focus of attention of governments and development agencies worldwide. Globally, cash remittances by international migrants now exceed $250 billion per annum, easily outweighing the value of development assistance. Over a third of remittances to developing countries originate in other developing countries. International cash remittances are only part of the story. Remittances in the form of goods and commodities are also extremely important, as are internal remittances from urban to rural areas within countries.

Debate rages on the development impacts of remittances and how these can be maximized. Advocates of migration as a positive force …

No. 17: International Migration And Good Governance In The Southern African Region, Jonathan Crush, Sally Peberdy, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

Southern Africa has a long history of intra-regional migration, dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Migration was probably the single most important factor tying together all of the various colonies and countries of the sub-continent into a single regional labour market during the twentieth century. However, entrenched patterns of migration have undergone major restructuring in the last two decades. Southern Africa is now a region on the move (McDonald 2000). Several broader changes underly this shift towards greater and greater intra-regional mobility.

First, the end of apartheid, a system designed to control movement and exclude outsiders, produced new opportunities for …

No. 20: Migration Of Skills In South Africa: Patterns, Trends And Challenges, Lyndith Waller

Southern African Migration Programme

It is a human inclination to want to position oneself where conditions are best for personal fulfilment, growth and success. People migrate because they perceive their environment as inadequate in terms of what they desire or deserve. The more deserving they consider themselves the more likely they will be to leave a suboptimal environment in search of one in which they will be appreciated – through recognition or pay – and where they can develop their potential, live securely, work towards their goals and enjoy standards with which they align themselves.

Skilled people recognise that they have something to offer; …

No. 18: The Draft Protocol On The Facilitation Of Movement Of Persons In Sadc: Implications For State Parties, Vincent Williams, Lizzie Carr

Southern African Migration Programme

The migration of persons across international boundaries in search of better opportunities or as a result of war, conflict and political instability has risen substantially over the years. The UN Population Division estimates that there are currently 175 million people living outside of their country of origin which is more than twice the number a generation ago (United Nations Population Division 2002). As communications and transport infrastructure become more sophisticated and cheaper, this trend is likely to continue in the foreseeable future.

This movement of persons from their own countries of nationality or citizenship, to another country where they take …

Vol. 6, No. 2: Harmonisation Of Migration Policies In Sadc States, Vincent Williams, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

No abstract provided.

Vol 6, No. 1: Brain Drain, ‘Major Crisis’ For Southern Africa, Vincent Williams, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

No abstract provided.

No. 15: Migration, Urbanisation And Sustainable Livelihoods In South Africa, Loren Landau

Southern African Migration Programme

Crises present both opportunities and dangers. When facing turmoil in the 1980s, South Africa embraced an aggressive agenda of social, economic, and political transformation. The results are imperfect, but few question the underlying wisdom of this approach. Many of the country’s local and provincial governments now feel they are facing new crises. On one hand, they are empowered to create inclusive, secure, and prosperous cities. On the other, HIV/AIDS and an apparent influx of ‘surplus’ people from around the country and the continent presents the possibility of further economic and political fragmentation (see Tomlinson, et al, 2003; xiii; Landau and …

No. 40: Migration And Domestic Workers: Worlds Of Work, Health And Mobility In Johannesburg, Sally Pederby, Natalya Dinat

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africa is in the middle of a well-documented HIV/AIDS epidemic. Infection rates were calculated to be 22% of the adult population in 2003. A number of different reasons have been advanced to explain the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. They include poverty and economic marginalization; differing strains of HIV; and high rates of sexually transmitted diseases. However, migration patterns in Southern Africa have also been identified as one of the keys to understanding the high rates of infection in the region. Male migrants have been the focus of research on the relationship between HIV and migration. In the same …

No. 42: States Of Vulnerability: The Future Brain Drain Of Talent To South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Eugene Campbell, Thuso Green, Selma Nangulah, Hamilton Simelane

Southern African Migration Programme

This publication presents the results of SAMP’s 2003 Potential Skills Base survey (PSBS) in four SADC countries. The PSBS was also implemented in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

No. 41: The Quality Of Migration Services Delivery In South Africa, Yul Derek Davids, Kate Lefko-Everett, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

The South African Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is responsible for the implementation and management of migration policy and legislation, as well as the registration of births, marriages and deaths and the issuing of identity documents and passports. It is often criticised in the media and in private conversation for being administratively inefficient, cumbersome and unwieldy. South African and foreign customers reportedly regularly complain about the poor quality of services delivered by the Department. Such evidence and media reporting underpins the widelyheld belief that the Department is not easily accessible, is unresponsive to the needs of its customers, is riddled …

No. 13: The Rise Of African Tourism To South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africans display considerable ambiguity if not outright hostility towards Africans from other countries (Crush 2000). The extent of xenophobia was officially recognized in the Immigration Act of 2002 which gives government a statutory obligation to eliminate the phenomenon in its own ranks and amongst the citizenry. Foreign Africans in South Africa are regularly stereotyped as criminals, job-stealers, consumers of scarce public resources and carriers of disease. There is very little recognition of the positive economic benefits of the presence of other Africans in the country.

Africans come to South Africa for a variety of purposes and this needs to …

No. 14: Policing Migration: Immigration Enforcement And Human Rights In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

This paper examines reported incidents of human rights abuses and violence directed towards foreigners where government employees have been the perpetrators. We discuss both direct human rights abuses and incidents of violence (with examples drawn from policing exercises such as “Operation Crackdown” and from the detention of undocumented migrants) and institutional violence (such as migration policy development and other executive actions promoting or at least failing to prevent victimisation of foreigners). In many of the reported incidents, law enforcement officials have been the direct perpetrators of the human rights violations.

The South African government is legally responsible for ensuring adherence …

No. 12: Nepad, The City And The Migrant: Implications For Urban Governance, Caroline Kihato

Southern African Migration Programme

Migration is a growing phenomenon internationally. Between 1960 and 2000 international migrants in Africa increased from 9 million to 16 million. Although Africa has experienced a drop in the number of international migrants over the last two decades, it has more than double the number of migrants than Latin America and the Caribbean, and between a half and a third of the number in Asia. Flows of people from country to country across the continent are increasingly significant. Migration between cities across the continent is becoming a common phenomenon, as households attempt to secure their livelihoods.

In addition to cross-border …

No. 30: Regionalizing Xenophobia? Citizen Attitudes To Immgration And Refugee Policy In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush, Wade Pendleton

Southern African Migration Programme

The negative attitudes of South Africans towards non-citizens, migrants and refugees have been documented in several recent studies. Xenophobia has been officially recognized as a major problem by the state and steps have been taken by government and the South African Human Rights Commission to “roll back xenophobia.” Since anti-immigrant intolerance is a global phenomenon, should South Africans be singled out in this regard? This paper seeks to contextualize the South African situation by comparing the attitudes of South Africans with citizens from several other countries in the SADC; namely, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

In practical policy terms, …

Migrasi Buruh Antarabangsa Di Semenanjung Malaysia: Corak, Polisi Dan Implikasi Ekonomi, Mohd Firdaus Hussin

Student Works (2000-2009)

Transformasi ekonomi dari sektor pertanian kepada sektor perlombongan pada pertengahan abad ke-19 menjadi faktor pendorong kemasukan imigran terutamanya dari Cina dan India. Kegiatan ekonomi yang dijalankan tertumpu di kawasan penempatan imigran ini telah menyebabkan wujudnya bandar-bandar besar seperti Taiping, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baham dan Seremban yang menjadi pusat komersial dan pusat pentadbiran. Perkembangan ekonomi negara yang berlaku di bandar-bandar utama ini membawa kepada proses urbanisasi. Selepas mencapai kemerdekaan, pertumbuhan ekonomi yang pesat dipacu oleh sektor perindustrian, perkilangan dan pembuatan serta pengenalan Dasar Ekonomi Barn (1971 - 1990), telah menyebabkan Malaysia mengalami kekurangan tenaga buruh. Kekurangan tenaga buruh berlaku di sektor …

No. 11: Regionalizing International Migration: Lessons For Sadc, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

Research on unauthorised migration to South Africa has addressed a range of issues surrounding the effects of current immigration policy on migrants, and the impact migrants have on South Africa’s society and economy (DHA 1997: section 1.4.6). One finding that is particularly relevant to a discussion of regional labour migration regimes is that current South African immigration policy does not account for labour migrants who retain a social and domestic base in their countries of origin. Another is that most unauthorised migrants are temporary or contract workers who seek employment in industries—such as construction—that depend increasingly on this kind of …

No. 29: The New Brain Drain From Zimbabwe, Daniel S. Tevara, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

All the signs point to the existence of a growing exodus of skilled Zimbabweans from the country. Although the precise dimensions and impacts of this “brain drain” have yet to be determined, the Zimbabwean government has recently sought to stem the tide with various policy measures. The education and health sectors appear to be the hardest hit although professionals in other sectors have also been leaving in numbers.

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) has undertaken a multi-country study of the brain drain within and from the Southern African Development Community (SADC). SAMP’s primary contribution is to examine the skills …

No. 28:Changing Attitudes To Immigration And Refugee Policy In Botswana, Eugene Campbell, Johan Oucho

Southern African Migration Programme

For the last two decades, Botswana has had the reputation as a “country of immigration,” based on the large-scale import of skilled expatriates from Africa, Asia and the West. Successive census reports and immigration data, as well as previous SAMP surveys undertaken in the late 1990s, confirm the appropriateness of the designation. The SAMP surveys concentrated on three themes: (a) the attitudes and migration behaviour of skilled foreigners in the country; (b) the attitudes of Batswana towards cross-border migration to South Africa; and (c) the emigration potential of skilled Batswana. The surveys highlighted the tolerant and generally welcoming attitude prevailing …