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Item Children moving across borders: equitable access to education for undocumented migrants in South Africa(2023-09) Blessed-Sayah, Sarah Enaan-MasephSouth Africa is experiencing an increase in intra-regional migration, and the management of migration in the country is increasingly becoming highly securitised. Individuals who move intra-regionally across borders include children – accompanied by parents or caretakers, unaccompanied, and those seeking refuge because of untenable and oppressive circumstances in their home country. Also, individuals who move to South Africa without legal documentation often give birth to children within the State, who are then undocumented. Without documentation, these children cannot access education, which means that achieving their educational right becomes impossible. This happens partly because of legal contradictions that exist in immigration and education policy frameworks. For instance, the Bill of Rights, as contained in Section 29(1)(a) of the Constitution of South Africa (The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa No. 108, 1996), states that everyone has the right to basic education, and further states in subsection 2 that the State (being South Africa) is obligated to respect this right. Additionally, the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 (Republic of South Africa, 1996) states that public schools are obliged to admit children without any form of discrimination on any grounds. However, the Immigration Act No 13 of 2002 states that no ‘illegal foreigner’ should be allowed on the premises of any learning institution (Republic of South Africa The Presidency, 2002). Thus, the question remains whether undocumented migrant children are included in the ‘all’ or ‘every’ because of existing legal contradictions between the Constitution and the Immigration Policy. Furthermore, the need to consider how the educational right of undocumented migrant children is upheld comes from the evident nationalist view on migration in South Africa, which is projected through government, and in local communities. Although some studies have evaluated the extent to which this right is protected or ensured, and others have considered the barriers to exercising the right to education in South Africa, only a few specifically focus on the right of undocumented migrant children to equitable education, and strategies to ensure its fulfilment. Thus, an explanation of equitable access to education in South Africa entails developing an approach for understanding undocumented migrant children’s educational experience, because this approach would provide a platform to achieve workable ways to ensure the fulfilment of their right to basic education. This research explores the difficulties undocumented migrant children experience in relation to education. Given this, an explanation regarding access to education for undocumented migrant children, from an equity viewpoint in South Africa, is developed. Thus, this study had three major aims. Firstly, to develop an understanding of equity in relation to access to education. Secondly, to investigate the impact (problems) of migration on undocumented migrant children in relation to equitable access to education in South Africa. Thirdly, to develop strategies that can ensure that these undocumented migrant children have their right to basic education protected in South Africa. Using the capability approach combined with Unterhalter’s (2009) description of equity as a three-fold concept as the study’s conceptual framework, I argue that ensuring equitable access to education for undocumented migrant children in South Africa requires an integrated approach, which goes beyond top-down strategies and highlights the role of agency. Each finding under the study’s objectives serves as evidence that support my overall argument for an integrated approach. A qualitative research design, from an interpretivist phenomenological lens provided me with the opportunity to carefully interact and bring forward the contextualised lived experiences of undocumented migrant children. This brought about an in-depth description of equitable access to education for them. The study was conducted with an NGO working with undocumented migrant children in the eastern region of the Johannesburg area in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The criterion used for selecting participants was based on the fact that the Project staff members, children who attend the Project, and their parents understand the social environment in which the children reside. They were able to give detailed and in-depth explanations on the impact of migration on their access to education, in an equitable manner. Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) officials who deal with undocumented migrant children, and South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) staff who deal with education also understand the impact of migration on these children’s chance to equitably access education and were included in the study. A total of 45 participants who were conveniently selected, based on the inclusion criteria, made up the sample size. Nineteen undocumented migrant children (n=19), eleven parents of undocumented migrant children (n=11), and fifteen professionals participated in this study (n=15). I served as the primary tool for data collection while employing different qualitative methods, including individual semiistructured interviews and focus group discussions. The method of data analysis I used for this study included an inductive and deductive approach using the NVivo QSR 12 software. From this method of data analysis, I identified three key themes relating to the specific objectives of the study. Objective 1: I found that undocumented migrant children, their parents, and professionals who deal with this group of children perceive equity to mean ‘the opportunity to thrive’ and ‘fairness’. In addition, under the first objective, it was found that equitable access to education is closely linked to being able to attend schools. While the undocumented migrant children described this in terms of the right to attend school and learn educational skills, the parent and professional participants explained it as a fundamental human right which should not be constrained by one’s legal status in South Africa. Along this line, it was also revealed that equitable access to education is important for various reasons including access to other services; capabilities, functioning, and the platform to achieve other human rights; and the avoidance of social ills. In all, equitable access to education strongly supports the human dignity of undocumented migrant children. Objective 2: Under objective two, I found that the impact of migration to South Africa, as it concerns equitable access to education for undocumented migrant children, was negative. Various problems faced by these children were identified. Firstly, the overarching problem was the lack of documentation which affects the opportunity for undocumented migrant children to equitably access school. This lack of documentation includes the non-issuance of proper birth certificates and so, the non-registration of the births of these children; and the fear of going to renew or apply for permits at the South African Department of Home Affairs (DHA) because of fear of police arrest. Secondly, the problem of continued discrimination, and xenophobic attacks and attitudes was also experienced by undocumented migrant children and their parents. These attacks affected their chance to access education. Thirdly, the lack of access to basic services presented itself as a difficulty which affects the opportunity to access schools, in an equitable way. Fourth, policy gaps, including ambiguities and non-implementation of recent court judgments, also served as problems which affect access to education for these children. Lastly, Covid-19 and the effects of the pandemic further compounded already existing difficulties undocumented migrant children face concerning their equitable access to education. Objective 3: The study revealed that strategies to address the problems experienced by undocumented migrant children include government-level, community-level, and individual-level strategies, and a combined, planned approach (integrated approach). Under government-level strategies, it was found that undocumented migrant children need to be issued birth certificates with identification or registration numbers and so, be appropriately registered at birth. Existing policies about education and immigration also need to be revised, and recent court judgments like the Phakamisa Judgment must be implemented. Also, stakeholders must be trained to ensure the proper implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and recent judgments on equitable access to education for undocumented migrant children. As part of community level strategies more assistance from NGOs, who bridge educational gaps for undocumented migrant children, would be useful in ensuring undocumented migrant children get educated. Individually, promoting social cohesion between migrants and non-migrants was highlighted. Also, parents of the identified children were encouraged to acquire documentation for their children. However, these different levels, on their own, are not sufficient to ensure equitable access to education. Thus, this study advocates an integrated approach to addressing the problems experienced by undocumented migrant children and their parents, regarding their children’s equitable access to education. Supporting this, the professionals interviewed recommend that all levels of society need to work together, in an organised way, to achieve access to education for the identified group of children. Also, the role of the agency and a bottom-up approach to ensuring access to education in an equitable way were highlighted through the integrated approach. Based on the findings, I argue that the various strategies identified require an integrated approach (for thinking and doing), which includes recognising the agency (individually and collectively) of undocumented migrant children. This approach draws on both top-down and bottom-up approaches with the significant roles of policy implementation, monitoring, and evaluation as well as agency (in both individual and collective forms) highlighted. Important is that this integrated approach (for thinking and doing) will be based on a thorough knowledge of the context. The findings thus serve as supporting empirical evidence for the overall thesis which is that to ensure equitable access to education is achieved, equity must be explained in detail, as a multi-faceted notion, and combined with the capability approach, which allows us to identify and interrogate specific structural limitations.Item Giving birth in a foreign land : maternal health-care experiences among Zimbabwean migrant women living in Johannesburg, South Africa.(2014-09-11) Makandwa, TacksonThe republic of South Africa has a “health for all” policy, regardless of nationality and residence status. However, challenges still exist for non-nationals and little is known regarding migrants’ maternal healthcare experiences. This study explores the maternal healthcare experiences of migrant Zimbabwean women living in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on the lived experiences of women aged 18years and above, who engaged with the public healthcare system in Johannesburg during pregnancy and childbirth. A desk review of the literature was undertaken. The theoretical framework in this study draws from three concepts (1) the Social determinants of health framework (WHO 2010), (2) the Access to healthcare framework (McIntyre, Thiede and Brich 2009) and (3) the “three-delays (Nour 2008). Primary data was collected through the use of open-ended semi-structured interviews with a sample of 15 migrant Zimbabwean women who have been in Johannesburg for a minimum of 2 years, and have attended and given birth or are currently attending antenatal care in inner city Johannesburg. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data since it helps to extract descriptive information concerning the experiences of Zimbabwean women in Johannesburg and to construct meaning in order to understand their perceptions and opinions about the healthcare system in the city. Although the findings indicate that documentation status is not a key issue affecting access to healthcare during pregnancy and delivery, a range of other healthcare barriers were found to dominate, including the nature of their employment, power relations, language, and discrimination(generally) among others. Language was singled out as the major challenge that runs throughout the other barriers. More interestingly the participants raised their desire of returning home or changing facilities within the Public sector or to private institutions in case of any further pregnancy. This study concludes that the bone of contention is on belongingness, deservingness and not being able to speak any local language, that runs through the public health care institutions and this impact on professionalism and discharge of duties.Item Climate change-related human security threats to border integrity and safeguarding for South Africa(2014-07-11) Vorster, Magriet;Climate change is a very current and contentious issue that has received a lot of attention during the past two decades because of its global influence and impact. Climate change affects the entire globe and the impact is mostly continental and regional and is not limited along state borders. Whether a person or group believe in the existence of global warming or not, the scientific evidence leaves no doubt that the climate is changing (Mazo, 2010: 9). Climate change influence the environment people live in and have a direct impact on all aspects of their daily lives. In a globalized world almost all problems cross borders, and environmental issues have long been recognized as among the most international and the most transnational of all (Parsons, 2009: 5). Climate change acts as a “threat multiplier” by exacerbating existing vulnerabilities, and must be analysed in relation to the adaptive capacity of those affected (individuals, communities and states), taking account of the wider political, socio-economic and demographic context (ACCES, 2011: 9). Although climate change has a global impact, the African continent is likely to be more severely affected than other regions of the globe and it will have a profound negative impact on all facets of human security. Long-term shifts in the climate seem likely to catalyse conflict by creating or exacerbating food, water and energy scarcities, triggering population movements, and placing larger groups of people in competition for more and more limited resources. Increased climate variability, including the greater frequency of extreme weather events, will also complicate access to resources, thereby exacerbating conditions that are conducive to promoting conflict. Southern Africa is described as a predominantly semi-arid region with high intra- seasonal and inter-annual rainfall variability, with extreme events such as droughts and floods occurring frequently. In Southern Africa, there has been an increase in inter-annual variability of rainfall over the past 40 years, with more intense and widespread droughts. Floods and droughts in Southern Africa are gradually increasing in number and frequency as well and already the entire region is considered a climate change "hotspot". As can be seen from the findings of the various chapters, climate change has a very complex predicted impact on all the dimensions of human security and a few major key issues in this regard came to light. These issues include urbanisation, migration, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, water scarcity, spread of diseases, slow onset climate change, economic decline and poverty, criminality and conflict. The most profound issues that will have an impact on South African border integrity and safeguarding include urbanisation, migration, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, water scarcity, spread of diseases, economic decline and poverty, criminality and conflict. Migration can be singularly highlighted as it has the potential to amplify and exacerbate all of the abovementioned issues. States have national security strategies and policies in order to guide policy and legislation to adequately protect the state from threats and to determine national security priorities. Border safeguarding is an important aspect of state security and strategy, policy and legislation, informed by the national security strategy and policy, constantly have to evolve and adapt to changes in the threat pattern affecting states. The border safeguarding environment of any state is very complex and faced with multiple external and international threats. Climate change-related human security threats will further amplify and complicate these threats as the impact of climate change becomes more pronounced in the southern African region. In order for South Africa to successfully address these threats in the border safeguarding environment it is important that a sound National Security Strategy and Policy provide focus and priorities for all government departments involved. This is a very complex field with multiple factors and only the key issues are highlighted and discussed in this paper.Item Living between compassion and domination? : an ethnographic study of institutions, interventions and the everyday practices of poor black Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa.(2014-01-10) Beremauro, ReasonThis thesis is about a specific locality- the Central Methodist Church- and it details the lives and experiences of a large group of migrants who lived within this locality. The study also examines the activities of a wide range of humanitarian organisations that instituted interventions at the church and analyses how individuals’ suffering is dealt with by humanitarian organizations. The individuals who inhabited the church were a product of large-scale structural factors- political conflict, economic decline and fragmentation and social despair. These individuals were however following traditional mobile livelihoods routes that have been part and parcel of the Southern African labour migration history. The central questions that this study examines are how and in what ways experiential suffering is dealt with and how the different ways and technologies of managing suffering, impinge upon individual and collective subjectivities in the specific locality of the church. In addition the study examines the categorizations and representations of indigent Zimbabwean migrants within South Africa and how these representations have been constructed and transformed over time. The findings made in the study are drawn from a year of ethnographic fieldwork, which combined a number of different methods. These included archival research, participant observation, in-depth interviews and narratives with individual migrants, state officials and officials from humanitarian organizations. The study also made use of diaries in order to detail the everyday lives of individual migrants and capture the texture of everyday life at the church. The findings indicate that the migrants emplaced within the Central Methodist Church were not only victims of structural, political and socio-economic factors as has been the common refrain in recent literature but were also victims of the ‘invisible’, silenced, unrecognized and unacknowledged violence and exclusionary nation-building mechanisms and processes in post-independence Zimbabwe and post-apartheid South Africa. The study finds that the ways through which organizations deal with suffering is mediated by numerous factors and humanitarian interventions interact and articulate with the aspirations of individuals in complex and unpredictable ways often with perverse outcomes. One of the key findings that emerges from the study carried out within a specific locality challenges the notion of places such as refugee camps and asylum holding centres as being ‘exceptional spaces’ where individuals are bereft of rights and even their sense of individuality and worth. Rather such places ought to be understood in terms of contextual, material and historical realities. These places ought also to be understood in terms of the meanings that are attached to them by those who inhabit them. In this regard the study shows the Central Methodist church building to be a material and political resource used by the inhabitants and it’s also an economic and political resource utilized by NGOs and other actors. The thesis shows that the ways through which humanitarian interventions are deployed leads to the creation of categories of victimhood and oftentimes these categories are negotiated and constantly reconfigured at times without necessarily interacting with the realities of the beneficiaries in the manner intended. The thesis shows that the everyday lives of indigent individuals are characterized not only by hardships but the manner in which these individuals attempt to assist each are processes fraught with tension and ambiguity. By so doing, the study challenges the romanticization of the lives of the poor which is often depicted as resilient and where the poor assist each other. The thesis makes a contribution to the anthropology of humanitarianism. In addition, the thesis contributes to broader debates on the intersections between migration, indigence, victimhood and the logics and practices of humanitarian institutions.Item Determinants of condom use among migrant farm workers in two South African provinces.(2013-08-06) Musariri, LindaABSTRACT Background: Previous studies have shown that HIV prevalence rates are relatively high while condom use is low in migrant communities in South Africa (Zuma 2003, Weltz 2007, IOM 2008). This study seeks to investigate factors associated with condom use in selected commercial farms in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa. Methodology: This study is a secondary data analysis of the Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance Survey (IBBSS) implemented by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in 2010 among 2,810 farm workers. The study population comprises all sexually active non-South African nationals who have worked on the farm from a period of less than one year to over ten years. Majority of the migrants are from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland. The outcome variable is condom use at the last intercourse while the explanatory variables include sex, age, marital status, financial stability, sexual abuse, condom availability, transactional sex, attending an HIV function and period worked on the farm. Data analysis was undertaken in three stages. Firstly, univariate analysis of the variables was done to provide descriptive statistics of the study population. The second stage was bivariate analysis producing unadjusted odds ratios to examine the association between each of the predictor variables and the outcome variable. The final stage was multivariate analysis using logistic regression and producing odds ratios to examine the association of more than one predictor variable with the outcome variable. Results: The results show that access to free condoms, having sex while drunk, financial stability and living arrangements with spouse are the factors associated with condom use among migrant farm workers in Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Among migrant men financial stability and access to free condoms were significant while among women, marital status, having attended an HIV function, having sex while drunk and living arrangements with spouse are the significant factors associated with condom use. Unexpectedly, socioeconomic factors such as transactional sex, forced sex and demographic factors such as age, proved to be insignificantly associated with condom use. Conclusion: It was noted that condom use levels and determinants vary between male and female migrants. Although men portrayed exhibiting more high risk sexual behavior, women proved to be more vulnerable. Policies and programmes targeting migrant farm workers should be gender sensitive.Item The effect of migration on urban migrant women's perceptions of domestic violence.(2009-02-11T08:37:59Z) Kiwanuka, MonicaThis qualitative study conducted in Johannesburg and Pretoria, explores the effect of migration on domestic violence. Drawing on the social constructionist and feminist theory, the study investigates how migrant women understand and explain the effect of migration on domestic violence. Participants were identified using purposive and snowball techniques and narratives of fifteen migrant women were employed in data collection using a semi-structured interview guide. Data for this study was analysed using a combination of content, narrative and discourse analysis. Analysis of the data revealed that the context in which domestic violence is experienced greatly shaped how urban migrant women understood and explained domestic violence. Participants explained the meaning and effect of migration on domestic violence mainly drawing on discourses related to their experiences of migration. In addition, their definitions of domestic violence differed from the classical definitions that group domestic violence in categories; given that they drew on actual experiences in the context of migration as opposed to their home country to explain what domestic violence meant and how migration affected it. Further analysis, shows that broader factors in the context of migration including migrant women’s legal status, xenophobia, poverty, unemployment as well as immigration policies, intersected broadly with gender and unequal power relationships to increase migrant women’s vulnerability to domestic violence. Migrant women in this case, drew mainly on such migration related discourses to explain reasons that they felt led to increased domestic violence and to show how and why they endured domestic violence for survival in the absence of love for their spouses. 2 Factors including being migrants, women’s legal status, xenophobia, lack of networks, dependency caused by poverty and high crime rates in South Africa were also seen by migrant women as heightening their fear of public violence leading to the tolerance and preference of private violence as the only available option. Migrant women also idealised their home country as safer from domestic violence to show the negative consequences of migration on women and how it increases domestic violence. In doing so, they drew on the discourse of culture which they understood as tied to place to explain its role in prohibiting and minimising domestic violence, and to justify not using available services for responding to domestic violence in South Africa. In employing such discourses, they intended to show how services for responding to domestic violence in the host country1 were culturally inappropriate for migrant women and the attachments they held towards their home country and culture.Item Investigating the role of transnational networks on migration decision timing: the case of immigrants in the Johannesburg inner-city(2009-01-22T12:29:39Z) Nshimiyamana, TheogeneAbstract It is no longer contested that migrant transnational linkages are becoming a replacement social organization where nation-states’ institutions and regulatory capacities are increasingly failing to guarantee decent livelihoods or, at least peace, to their citizens, and where potential destination countries’ policies are restrictive of immigrants. This essay explores the patterns and correlates of the contemporary migration decision-making and its timing, focusing on the role of transnational networks in that process. It is a quantitative study that uses a comprehensive dataset that Forced Migration Studies Programme collected in 2006 on the South African, Mozambican, Congolese and Somali immigrants residing in the Inner-city of Johannesburg. Based on personal experience of 594 international immigrants among those, the study challenges the well established argument in international migration theories that position economic opportunities as the primary explanatory factor underlying the contemporary migration decisions. While the study recognize the importance of economic factors, the study reveals that the entrenched history of migration between countries of origin and destinations and the resultant web of transnational ties explain better than economic factors the contemporary African migration decisions and their timing. With its relatively new approach to analysis of the patterns and correlates of migration decision timing, the study manages to position the importance of transnational ties in migration decisions and to show how they command the swiftness of migration decision-making processes.Item The development of ethnic minorities: A case study of west Africans in South Africa(2006-11-16T09:55:06Z) Petkou, Chamba LawrenceThis thesis is a study of how West Africa immigrants experience immigration into South Africa, and how they are affected by their new context. Based on interview schedule (survey), in-depth interviews, observations (direct and indirect), primary and secondary sources, some 112 Cameroonians and Nigerians (72 Cameroonians and 40 Nigerians) were studied between May 2001 and December 2003. The study revealed that, xenophobia, discrimination, and the South African affirmative action, make it difficult for West African immigrants to achieve their goals in the country. From an overall perspective, these immigrants are not allowed to work or study; they suffer harassment, social exclusion and gross human rights abuses in the country. While the majority of these immigrants have actually abandoned their home countries for South Africa, various reasons account for their immigration into South Africa. A study of the factors influencing West African immigration into South Africa, found that, although several factors account for West African immigration into South Africa, the factors are interlinked to one another, and not independent in themselves. I showed that, although push and pull factors, such as political, economic, socio-cultural factors, communication and technological advances, proximity, precedence and tradition of migration influence West African immigration into South Africa, the role of family pride, usually ignored in most migration studies is fast becoming an emerging push factor of migration in the West African sub-region. In South Africa, West African immigrants interact with the general public, as well as some government institutions most notably, the Department of Home Affairs. An examination of past and current immigration policy, the Department of Home Affairs, and the general public found that although immigrants enter South Africa with the hope of improving their lives, and those of family members back home, they are socially excluded; suffer from serious human rights abuses, discrimination and xenophobic hostility. The Aliens Control Act of 1991, the new Refugee Act of 1998, negative attitude of some officials, interpreters and the general public, a simultaneous increase in the iii number of immigrants with unemployment, lack of socialization between South Africans and West Africans, apartheid isolation and indoctrination of South Africans, and the role of the media have all contributed to the high levels of discrimination and xenophobic hostility West Africans experience in South Africa. I have termed this fear and dislike of West Africans, and the resultant negative reactions by South Africans ‘Westaphobia’. The study saw West African immigrants as socially excluded in South African. An examination why, revealed the factors and the reasons as another facet of discrimination and xenophobia. It was found that, immigrants adapt in various ways to resist discrimination and xenophobia, and in the course of adapting, modify their personal identities, giving rise to multiple identities. Such hybridities were evident in immigrants dressing, dancing and hairstyles, expressive gestures, having more South African friends, changing legal status, joining, forming and organizing social functions. Despite experiences of discrimination, xenophobia and exclusion, the study found that immigrants implement certain strategies to ensure their survival in South Africa. In the midst of these problems, some immigrants still manage to succeed in their businesses and other under takings. Immigrants’ high concentration in Hillbrow with its commercial and locational advantages, initial capital through immigrants’ networks, the use of family labor, are all added advantages. The study also found that through small business activities, and the trading of ethnic goods, immigrants are able to survive and send remittances back home. At the same time, trading in and consuming ethnic goods help strengthened immigrants self-identification, unify and link them to their roots. Further revelations saw some of the immigrants as transmigrants, who develop hybrid identities, and live their lives across boundaries. In this way, they are able to succeed despite their status as the undesirables in South Africa. Others are pushed to the wall, and are forced to transgress various margins of the law, to ensure their survival, resist discrimination and xenophobic hostility in South Africa. For some, transgressing margins of the law is the fastest means of amassing wealth to be able to live a better live in South Africa, and still take care of family members in their home countries.