Migration Studies Commons^™

No. 76: Refugee Entrepreneurial Economies In Urban South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Cameron Mccordic, Sujata Ramachandran

Southern African Migration Programme

More than 60% of the world’s refugees now live in urban areas, according to the UNHCR. The social and economic impacts of refugee movements are therefore increasingly being felt in the towns and cities of host nations. The notion of “refugee economies” has been adopted to highlight the strong involvement of refugees in the many overlapping processes of production, consumption, exchange and entrepreneurship. As urban refugees increasingly become the norm in the urbanizing Global South, more research on the specifically urban economic impacts of protracted refugee situations is therefore urgently needed. Identifying the economic advantages and benefits associated with the …

No. 77: Living With Xenophobia: Zimbabwean Informal Enterprise In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Abel Chikanda, Daniel Tevara

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africa’s crisis of xenophobia is defined by the discrimination and intolerance to which migrants are exposed on a daily basis. A major target of the country’s extreme xenophobia – defined as a heightened form of xenophobia in which hostility and opposition to those perceived as outsiders and foreigners is expressed through violent acts – is the businesses run by migrants and refugees in the informal sector. Attitudinal surveys clearly show that South Africans differentiate migrants by national origin and that Zimbabweans are amongst the most disliked. Zimbabweans are certainly not the only small-business owners to have become victims of …

No. 74: Informal Entrepreneurship And Cross-Border Trade Between Zimbabwe And South Africa, Abel Chikanda, Godfrey Tawodzera

Southern African Migration Programme

Informal cross-border trading in Zimbabwe has become more than a survivalist strategy and should be seen as an important pillar of the country's economy. This report, part of SAMP’s Growing Informal Cities series, seeks to provide a current picture of informal cross-border trading in Zimbabwe and provides detailed insights into the activities of traders from the capital, Harare, who travel regularly to Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of their business. The traders make a monthly profit that far exceeds the salaries of most Zimbabweans in formal employment. Furthermore, many traders have been able to grow their businesses to such an …

No. 79: Rendering South Africa Undesirable: A Critique Of Refugee And Informal Sector Policy, Jonathan Crush, Caroline Skinner, Manal Stulgaitis

Southern African Migration Programme

To understand the policy environment within which refugees establish and operate their enterprises in South Africa’s informal sector, this report brings together two streams of policy analysis. The first concerns the changing refugee policies and the erosion of the progressive approach that characterized the immediate post-apartheid period. The second concerns the informal sector policy, which oscillates between tolerance and attempted destruction at national and municipal levels. While there have been longstanding tensions between foreign and South African informal sector operators, an overtly anti-foreign migrant sentiment has increasingly been expressed in official policy and practice. This report describes the strategies being …

No. 78: Comparing Refugees And South Africans In The Urban Informal Sector, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Cameron Mccordic, Sujata Ramachandran

Southern African Migration Programme

This report compares the business operations of over 2,000 South Africans and refugees in the urban informal economy and systematically dispels some of the myths that have grown up around their activities. First, the report takes issue with the perception that South Africans are inexperienced and unmotivated participants in the informal economy. Many have years of experience and have successfully grown their businesses. Second, it contests the view that refugees enjoy a competitive advantage because they come to South Africa with inherent talent and already honed skills. On the contrary, over 80% of those surveyed had no prior informal sector …

No. 71: International Migrants In Johannesburg’S Informal Economy, Sally Pederby

Southern African Migration Programme

This report provides a rich view of the activities of migrant entrepreneurs in the informal economy of Johannesburg. It is hoped that the information will facilitate understanding of the informal sector and its potential, and not just in the context of migrant entrepreneurs. The informal economy plays a significant role in the entrepreneurial landscape of the City of Johannesburg and is patronized by most of the city’s residents. The research presented here challenges commonly held opinions about migrant entrepreneurs in the City of Johannesburg and shows that they do not dominate the informal economy, which remains largely in the hands …

No. 72: Food Remittances: Migration And Food Security In Africa, Jonathan Crush, Mary Caesar

Southern African Migration Programme

By drawing attention to the importance of food remittances for urban and rural food security and identifying the current knowledge gaps, this report contributes to the study of the relationship between migration and food security and creates a platform for the design of a new research agenda. Across Africa, there is considerable evidence of a massive informal trade in food, including staples, fresh and processed products. While most cross-border trade in foodstuffs is a result of commercial transactions by small-scale traders who buy in one country and sell in another, an unknown proportion is actually food remittances on their way …

No. 73: Informal Entrepreneurship And Cross-Border Trade In Maputo, Mozambique, Inês Raimundo, Abel Chikanda

Southern African Migration Programme

Cross-border trading is an essential part of Mozambique’s informal economy, with the traders playing a key role in supplying commodities that are in scarce supply nationwide. This report presents the results of a SAMP survey of informal entrepreneurs connected to cross-border trade between Johannesburg and Maputo. The study sought to enhance the evidence base on the links between migration and informal entrepreneurship in Southern African cities and to examine the implications for municipal, national and regional policy. In Mozambique, cross-border trading is primarily done by women with men mainly involved in the sale of the products brought back from South …

No. 69: Calibrating Informal Cross-Border Trade In Southern Africa, Sally Peberdy, Jonathan Crush, Daniel Tevara, Eugene Campbell, Inês Raimundo, Maxton Tsoka, Nomsa Zindela, Godfrey Tawodzera, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Chileshe Mulenga, Thuso Green, Ntombi Msibi

Southern African Migration Programme

Informal cross-border trade (ICBT) is a significant feature of regional trade and international mobility in Southern Africa. The exact number of participants and economic importance of this trade is unknown because no official statistics are collected. Despite its obvious presence at every border post throughout the SADC region, ICBT remains largely invisible to policy-makers. Indeed, in government circles it is more often associated with smuggling, tax evasion and illegality than with innovation, enterprise and job creation. On the research side, there is a growing body of case study evidence that ICBT plays a critical role in poverty alleviation, food security …

No. 68: Entrepreneurship And Inclusive Growth In South Africa, Zimbabwe And Mozambique, Jonathan Crush, Caroline Skinner, Abel Chikanda

Southern African Migration Programme

While increasing attention is being paid to the drivers and forms of entrepreneurship in informal economies, much less of this policy and research focus is directed at understanding the links between mobility and informality. This report examines the current state of knowledge about this relationship with particular reference to three countries (Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe) and four cities (Cape Town, Harare, Johannesburg and Maputo), identifying major themes, knowledge gaps, research questions and policy implications. In many African cities, informal enterprises are operated by internal and international migrants. The extent and nature of mobile entrepreneurship and the opportunities and challenges …

No. 70: International Migrants And Refugees In Cape Town’S Informal Economy, Godfrey Tawodzera, Abel Chikanda, Jonathan Crush, Robertson Tengeh

Southern African Migration Programme

This report is the most comprehensive study yet of the contribution of migrant and refugee entrepreneurs to Cape Town’s local economy. The survey of over 500 entrepreneurs engaged in trade, services and manufacturing in different areas of the city dispels some of the more prevalent myths that often attach to the activities of migrants. The vast majority are not “illegal foreigners”, but have a legal right to be in South Africa and to run a business. Most are highly motivated individuals who enter the informal economy to earn revenue to support themselves, their families, and because they have a strong …

No. 30: Zimbabwe’S Exodus To Australia, David Lucas, Barbara Edgar

Southern African Migration Programme

This paper focuses on emigration of Zimbabwe-born migrants to Australia, partly because Australia is largely omitted from the important text, Zimbabwe’s Exodus even though it has become an important destination, and partly because the data is better for Australia, and for New Zealand, than for other major destination countries. This profile discusses the characteristics of persons born in Zimbabwe and of Zimbabwean ancestry, by undertaking primary analysis of the 2011 Australian Census using the TableBuilder software of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, together with the settlement reporting facility of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP).

No. 29: Zimbabwe’S Return Migrants – Before & After Challenges, David Mandiyanike

Southern African Migration Programme

Various countries in the developing world have implemented policies and incentives to encourage the participation of their respective diasporas in development. The ‘best case’ countries include the Philippines, India, Mexico, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya and Ghana, and there seems to be a positive correlation between reforms meant to facilitate diaspora participation and the level of actual participation. The reforms and policies not only contribute to the diaspora maintaining social and psychological links with their home countries but also serve as vehicles for promoting remittances and investments. However, diaspora participation in the (re)development of the country of origin can never be …

No. 67: Migrant Entrepreneurship, Collective Violence And Xenophobia In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Sujata Ramachandran

Southern African Migration Programme

The remarkable growth of informal migrant entrepreneurship in South Africa since 1990 would have been much lauded had it not been for the striking detail that the actors in question are seen as “foreigners” or “outsiders”. As such, they are uniformly viewed as undesirable and disadvantaging poor South African citizens. The growing presence of migrants in the informal sector has created various tensions in South Africa, including in government circles, ignoring the fact that in the free market economy of South Africa, immigrants and refugees, like citizens and commercial enterprises, would otherwise enjoy the freedom to establish, operate and expand …

No. 65: Brain Drain And Regain: The Migration Behaviour Of South African Medical Professionals, Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda, Ivy Bourgeault, Ronald Labonté, Gail Tomblin Murphy

Southern African Migration Programme

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa has experienced a significant outflow of health professionals. The out-migration of health professionals from the country is part of a broader global trend of health professional migration from the Global South to the Global North. In the health sector, this “brain drain” has led to a significant decline in the quality of care in affected countries. The costs of health professional migration for countries of origin are usually measured in terms of lost investment in training and the gaps in medical care left by their departure. One recent study, for example, estimated that …

No. 66: Xenophobic Violence In South Africa: Denialism, Minimalism, Realism, Jonathan Crush, Sujata Ramachandran

Southern African Migration Programme

Violent xenophobia has become a regular feature of South African life. Everyday animosity frequently spills over into violence against individual migrants and refugees and their economic enterprises. Some of these incidents reach the scrutiny of the media and officialdom, but most remain invisible and unremarked. The fact that most of the violence occurs in marginal urban locations of informal settlements, townships and inner-city suburbs in South Africa has prompted intense debate over the nomenclature and identification of the underlying causes. Explanations for the large-scale anti-migrant violence that swept the country in May 2008, and continues in more isolated and sporadic …

No. 64: Soft Targets: Xenophobia, Public Violence And Changing Attitudes To Migrants In South Africa After May 2008, Jonathan Crush, Sujata Ramachandran, Wade Pendleton

Southern African Migration Programme

No abstract provided.

No. 27: Migration And Development In Contemporary Mauritius, David Lincoln

Southern African Migration Programme

Mauritius is a society descended of involuntary and voluntary migrants. After two-and-a-half centuries of settlement as a plantation colony and by the time of its independence from colonial rule in 1968 the island nation’s population had grown to seemingly insupportable levels. But having faced the afflictions of overpopulation, social division and economic despair (and sizeable emigration) at the dawn of its independence, it took just a decade and-a-half for despondency to fade and for Mauritius to begin resembling a tropical idyll of sorts. Though poverty persisted as the small island successfully transformed its economy from colonial plantation to mostly industrial …

No. 62: Heading North: The Zimbabwean Diaspora In Canada, Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda, Belinda Maswikwa

Southern African Migration Programme

Studies of the Zimbabwean diaspora tend to focus on migrants in South Africa and the United Kingdom. This is the first major study of Zimbabwean migration to Canada. The report presents and discusses the findings of a SAMP survey conducted across Canada in 2010. It first discusses the recent history of migration from Zimbabwe to Canada and then provides a demographic and socio-economic profile of the Zimbabwean diaspora in Canada. The report also examines the linkages that Zimbabweans in Canada maintain with Zimbabwe, and the potential for return migration.

According to the 2006 Canadian Census, there were 8,040 Zimbabweborn people …

No. 61: Unfriendly Neighbours: Contemporary Migration From Zimbabwe To Botswana, Eugene Campbell, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

Although Zimbabweans have often crossed into Botswana for various reasons, the numbers involved escalated dramatically after 2000 as Zimbabwe entered a prolonged economic and political crisis from which it has still not recovered. While considerable research and policy attention has been given to the migration of Zimbabweans to South Africa, their movement to Botswana has a much lower profile, except when the two countries engage in charges and counter-charges over issues such as the building of electrified fences between the two countries or the corporal punishment of Zimbabwean migrants in Botswana. At such moments, relations between these two close neighbours …

No. 60: Linking Migration, Food Security And Development, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

Two issues have recently risen to the top of the international development agenda: (a) Food Security; and (b) Migration and Development. Each has its own global agency champions, international gatherings, national line ministries and body of research. Global and regional discussions about the relationship between migration and development cover a broad range of policy issues including remittance flows, the brain drain, the role of diasporas and return migration. Strikingly absent from these discussions is any systematic discussion of the relationship between population migration and food security. If the global migration and development debate sidelines food security, the current international food …

No. 58: The Disengagement Of The South African Medical Diaspora, Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda

Southern African Migration Programme

Conventional wisdom holds that the ‘brain drain’ of health professionals from Africa is deeply damaging to the continent. Recently, a group of North American and European neo-liberal economists has challenged this conventional wisdom, variously arguing that the negative impacts are highly exaggerated and the compensating benefits many. The benefits include various forms of “diaspora engagement” in which those who have left then engage through sending remittances, direct investment, knowledge and skills transfer, return migration and involvement in diaspora associations. A previous SAMP study of Zimbabwean physicians outside the country provided clear evidence for the “diaspora engagement” hypothesis (see No 56 …

No. 63: Dystopia And Disengagement: Diaspora Attitudes Towards South Africa, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

In 2008, South African Brandon Huntley was given refugee status in Canada by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). The unprecedented decision, based on Huntley’s claim that as a white South African he was the victim of racial persecution in South Africa, caused a firestorm. Interest in the case was particularly intense in South Africa itself where the decision was derided in the media and the South African government lodged a formal protest with the Canadian government. Over 140 high-profile South African academics also filed a petition protesting the decision with the Canadian High Commission in Pretoria. Within weeks, …

No. 59: The Third Wave: Mixed Migration From Zimbabwe To South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda, Godfrey Tawodzera

Southern African Migration Programme

Migration from Zimbabwe to South Africa has been extremely well-documented by researchers. In this paper, we suggest that there is a need to periodize these migration flows in order to understand how and why they have changed over time, not simply in terms of the volume of migration but the changing drivers of migration and the shifting nature of the migrant stream. Few previous studies have taken a longitudinal approach to Zimbabwean migration, primarily because most research takes place at one point in time. SAMP is in the fortunate position of having a large database at its disposal which allows …

No. 57: Patients Without Borders: Medical Tourism And Medical Migration In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

No abstract provided.

No. 26: Social Media, The Internet And Diasporas For Development, Jonathan Crush, Cassandra Eberhardt, Mary Caesar, Abel Chikanda, Wade Pendleton, Ashley Hill

Southern African Migration Programme

The recent focus on diasporas by policy-makers researchers has highlighted the rich potential of migrants as a force for shaping development activities in their countries of origin. The study of diasporas in development presents researchers a number of significant challenges. As Vertovec and Cohen suggest, ‘one of the major changes in migration patterns is the growth of populations anchored … neither at their places of origin nor at their places of destination’. The fluid, multi-sited and multi-generational nature of diaspora groupings poses considerable methodological challenges of definition, identification, location, sampling and interviewing.

As the nature of African diasporas are constantly …

No. 25: Complex Movements, Confused Responses: Labour Migration In South Africa, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

The end of apartheid undermined the rationale for apartheid-era immigration. Immigration from Europe (which had been declining in the 1980s) dwindled to almost nothing as the new government dissociated itself from the racist immigration policies of the apartheid era. At the same time, downsizing and mine closures in the 1990s led to a dramatic decline in employment opportunities for African migrants in the mining industry. Tens of thousands of local and foreign migrants were retrenched. Although the industry has recovered somewhat, and continues to employ some foreign workers, the overall numbers of temporary migrant workers remain far below the levels …

No. 24: South Africa's Two Diasporas: Engagement And Disengagement, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

The African diaspora is increasingly viewed as a key to realizing the development potential of international migration. At the same time, there remains considerable confusion about who exactly constitutes the diaspora and which groups should be targeted for “diaspora engagement.” For some, the diaspora consists of all migrants of African birth living outside Africa. The African Union’s definition of the African diaspora, for example, “comprises people of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality.” The World Bank goes a step further to distinguish between an involuntary and a voluntary, a historical and a contemporary, component …

No. 56: Right To The Classroom: Educational Barriers For Zimbabweans In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera

Southern African Migration Programme

This report examines the obstacles to access by Zimbabwean children and students to schools and tertiary institutions in South Africa. There is a common assumption in South Africa that these children and students have no right to an educa­tion in South Africa. In fact, this view contravenes various international human rights conventions to which South Africa is a signatory. At the regional level, it is inconsistent with the SADC Education Protocol. At the national level, it violates the South African Constitution as well as legislation and stated government policies concerning the access of all children in the country to education. …

No. 55: The Engagement Of The Zimbabwean Medical Diaspora, Abel Chikanda

Southern African Migration Programme

Despite the well-documented negative impacts of the ‘brain drain’ of health professionals from Africa, there is an argu­ment that their departure is not an absolute loss and that transnationally-oriented medical migrants (or diasporas) can act as development agents in their home countries. Financial remittances, in particular, are said to have significant transformative development potential. African countries are also expected to benefit from knowledge and skills transfer through the return of health professionals from abroad. Other diaspora engagement initiatives that do not require permanent return (such as short term work assignments, technological transfer to country of origin and ‘virtual’ participation of …