African Centre for Migration and Society

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Start date: 2010End date: 2015

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    Syria, cost-sharing, and the responsibility to protect refugees.
    (University of Minnesota., 2015) Achiume, E.T.
    The Syrian refugee crisis may soon be the largest since the Second World War. This Article is the first to analyze the devastating fallout of this crisis, and to propose a novel approach to a perennial international law problem at its center. Nearly all of the more than 4 million refugees that have fled the conflict in Syria are concentrated in five countries in the region. These countries do not have the resources to sustain these refugees and there is no principled basis for the current distribution of the responsibility of protecting Syrian refugees. Instead, geo-graphic proximity to conflict and porousness of borders remain the primary determinants of which nations bear the heaviest cost. The resulting distribution of refugees threatens Syrian lives, regional stability and international security. Despite the gravity of the Syrian refugee crisis, however, states can mitigate it if they cooperate to share the cost of protecting these refugees. Regrettably international refugee law offers no basis for achieving this cooperation. This Article proposes a means of achieving international cooperation to share the cost of protecting refugees fleeing mass atrocities, such as those fleeing Syria. It uses an as yet unexplored avenue to do so: the international doctrine of the responsibility to protect (RtoP). International actors and scholars have typically focused on when and how RtoP facilitates state cooperation for coercive international action against human rights violators. This Article argues for a new, non-coercive use of the existing doctrine — facilitating international refugee cost-sharing. It proposes a mechanism for achieving this refugee cost-sharing to address rising international displacement from conflict, and applies it to the Syrian refugee crisis to illustrate how the mechanism would function. Some scholars will question the suitability of RtoP as a frame for pursuing international cooperation for refugee protection, in light of the concerns that commentators have generally raised regarding the doctrine in other contexts. To overcome these concerns, this Article proposes a new approach to how international actors develop and apply RtoP even beyond the context of refugee protection.
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    Subjective health of undocumented migrants in Germany - A mixed methods approach Health behavior, health promotion and societ.
    (BioMed Central Ltd., 2015-09-19) Kuehne, A.; Huschke, S.; Bullinger, M.
    Background: Health of migrants is known to be above-average in the beginning of the migration trajectory. At the same time reports from non-government organisations (NGOs) suggest that undocumented migrants in Germany tend to present late and in poor health at healthcare facilities. In this paper, we explore the health status of undocumented migrants with a mixed method approach including complementary qualitative and quantitative datasets. Methods: Undocumented migrants attending a NGO based in Hamburg, Germany, were asked to fill in the SF-12v2, a standardized questionnaire measuring health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The SF-12v2 was analyzed in comparison to the U.S. American norm sample and a representative German sample. Differences in mean scores for HRQOL were evaluated with a t-test and with a generalized linear model analyzing the impact of living without legal status on HRQOL. The quantitative research was complemented by a qualitative ethnographic study on undocumented migration and health in Berlin, Germany. The study included semi-structured interviews, informal conversations and participant observation with Latin American migrants over the course of three years. The study focused on subjective experiences of illness and health and the impact of illegality on migrants' health and access to health care. Results: HRQOL was significantly worse in the sample of undocumented migrants (n∈=∈96) as compared to the U.S. American sample (p∈<∈0.005). Living without legal status displayed a significant negative effect on subjective mental and physical health (p∈≤0.003) in the generalized linear model when adjusted for age and gender compared to the representative German population sample. The ethnographic study, which included 35 migrants, identified socio-economic conditions, the subjective experiences of criminalization, and late presentation at healthcare-facilities as the three main factors impacting on health from migrant perspective. Discussion: The present research suggests a high morbidity and mortality in this comparatively young population. The ethnographic research confirms negative impacts on health of social determinants in general and stressassociated with living without legal status in particular, both are further aggravated by exclusion from health care services. In addition to the provision of health care it appears to be important to structurally tackle the underlying social conditions which affect undocumented migrants' health. Conclusions: Living without legal status has a negative impact on health and well-being. Limited access to care may further exacerbate physical and mental illness. Possibilities to claim basic rights and protection as well as access to care without legal status appear to be important measures to improve health and well-being.
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    Making Migrants ‘Il-legible’: The Policies and Practices of Documentation in Post-Apartheid South Africa.
    (2014) Amit, R.; Kriger, M.
    In South Africa, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) – the department charged with managing migration – has struggled to control growing migration flows, particularly the increased demand on the asylum system. The DHA has both relied on and sought to undermine documentation attempts as part of its migration management efforts. These shifting practices reveal an official ambivalence toward granting foreign migrants documents and the rights that accompany them. Ensuring that foreign migrants remain undocumented fulfils the DHA’s objective of facilitating their removal, but it undercuts the administration’s ability to know who is in the country, another expressed DHA goal. Examining two documentation schemes – the asylum system, and the three-month documentation programme targeting undocumented Zimbabweans – this article highlights these conflicting purposes. It explores the DHA’s administrative strategies and practices to withhold or deny documentation, and hence legal rights, to foreign migrants even when its stated goal is documentation. Looking at the role that documentation plays in state administration, the article argues that the street-level organisational approach and its focus on implementation best captures the actions of the DHA, underscoring the ways in which street-level bureaucrats can influence documentation policy and practice by determining who gets access to documents.
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    Urban livelihoods and the risk of HIV infection: lived experiences of young migrant women in Havana informal settlements in Windhoek, Namibia
    (2014-10-22) Shinana, Eveline M
    Informal settlements are associated with higher prevalence of HIV. There is empirical evidence that HIV prevalence is higher in the North-Western suburbs (Katutura) of Windhoek which primarily consist of low-income housing and informal settlements. It is reported that a large proportion of young women in these suburbs who are 25 years and younger are HIV positive. This study sought to explore the linkage between urban livelihood strategies and the risk of acquiring HIV among young migrant women (aged 18 to 24) in Havana informal settlement in Katutura in Windhoek, Namibia. The study focuses on the lived experiences of internal young migrant women to explore the linkage between their livelihood strategies and the risks of acquiring HIV. A desk review was undertaken in order to analyse existing documents related to urban livelihoods and HIV from studies that have been conducted in the City of Windhoek. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions as research instruments were administered to collect primary data. Thematic analysis has been employed to analyse the data to help extract descriptive information concerning experiences of young migrant women in Katutura informal settlements and construct meanings in order to be able to understand how livelihood strategies of young internal migrant women in Havana relate to the risk of acquiring HIV. The study reveals that young migrant women in Havana informal settlement moved to Windhoek in order to have their livelihoods improved. Based on the data, income; education; employment and housing are some of the social and economic factors found to be affecting the livelihoods of the young migrant women. Furthermore, the study unveils that young migrant women engage in risky sexual behaviours such as low condom use, transactional sex and multiple concurrent partnerships as a strategy to earn livelihoods. Engaging in risky sexual behaviour such as transactional sex enhances the risk of acquiring HIV once they are exposed, as it influences their sexual decision making due to their dependency on men. The study concludes that there is a linkage between urban livelihoods and the risk of HIV infection. Therefore, exclusion of migrant communities from services as well as their limited access to sustainable livelihoods encourages young migrant women to engage in risky sexual behaviour. The findings of this study do not portray that all young women in Havana informal settlement engage in risky sexual behaviour because young migrant women are a heterogeneous group however, participants who took part in this study are a representative of all young migrant women (aged 18-24) in Havana. Therefore, their risky behaviour can be one of the major factors contributing to high prevalence of HIV among young women in Katutura. KEY WORDS: Migration, HIV, risky sexual behaviour, urbanisation, livelihoods, informal settlements, urban poverty, Havana, Katutura, Windhoek
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    Giving birth in a foreign land : maternal health-care experiences among Zimbabwean migrant women living in Johannesburg, South Africa.
    (2014-09-11) Makandwa, Tackson
    The 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.
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    Memory and violence: Displaced Zimbabwean rural communities reliving the memories of the March 2008 political violence.
    (2014-08-26) Mvundura, Wellington
    This thesis is premised on the argument that a distinct kind of narrative (‘truth’) about political violence, a narrative of the first-person experience, a narrative that is valued for its power to counter totalising historical narratives, is thought to reside in the subjective experience of each individual. Be that as it may, this study aimed to answer the question: What meanings do rural Zimbabweans who were internally displaced by the March 2008 state-sponsored political violence attach to this violence? In particular, the study investigated these meanings in a context where the victims remain(ed) in close proximity to the perpetrators during and after the violence. It also examined these meanings in an alleged silence by the state and local communities, and how these meanings have shaped the victims’ present socio-political identities. In order to answer the question, in-depth narrative interviews were conducted with purposively selected respondents. The study assumed a qualitative exploratory design which was underpinned by the phenomenological and constructionist theoretical approaches. It was concluded that the victims’ interpretation of the state-sponsored political violence is negotiated and mediated in the course of interaction. The personal narrative of the memory attains some latent political and redemptive value when it is interpreted in a social context. The meanings of the violence particularly assume a complex moral and ethical plane in a scenario where the perpetrator remains a permanent feature in the victim’s physical and social space, without any recourse. The complexity is imminent as the victim has to contend with the socio-psychological effects of the daily direct interface with their unpunished aggressor especially due to the communal nature of rural life. It was also concluded that the 2008 state-sponsored violence was increasingly interpreted as unfinished business by the victims. More so, it was also understood to be synonymous and complicit with silence at the communal and national level. Thus, the silence was synonymous with adaptation to power relations, cultural censorship, and liminality. In terms of identity, the victims suffer an identity crisis. They have developed personalities that have arguably, failed to internalise a sense of self as trusting and trustworthy. Last, the identification of the violence as unfinished business has also led to the reaffirmation of the victims’ spiritual identities as they have invoked bewitchment to avenge the death of their loved ones and in the process try to reconnect with them spiritually by invoking their spirits to seek revenge.
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    Seeking goals in the urban estuary : how a personal migrant subjectivity is reified into productive strategies and generative social effects.
    (2014-07-28) O'Keefe, Peter
    Using a micro-level frame of analysis, and working from in-depth interviews in Johannesburg's migrant-rich ‘urban estuaries,’ this research report considers participants’ personal, subjective, understanding of their own migrant-ness. The paper argues that theirs is a migrant subjectivity linked to the praxis of goal seeking, rather than the achievement of belonging. The goal seeking subjectivity is reified into pragmatic social strategies of network building, trust, and opportunity creation that undermine the concepts of generalized trust, communal social capital, and the host/migrant dichotomy. Personal subjectivies are rendered social. Denizens fill the social space with presentations and assessments of ‘mutual beneficence,’ and seek out demographically ambivalent networks of commonality.
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    Microfinance as a livelihood strategy: A case study of forced migrants in Johannesburg
    (2014-06-13) Kamugi, Watetu
    Microfinance as a tool for development has been used all over the world in combating poverty and improving livelihoods. It is described as the provision of savings, credit and insurance services to low income earners and the very poor in society through Microfinance Institutions (MFI). Additionally, MFI provide vocational training in various skills such as hand crafts, business and language skills. Livelihoods on the other hand constitute the ways in which people access and mobilise resources that enable them to increase their economic security thus reducing the vulnerability created and exacerbated by conflict, and how these resources help them pursue goals necessary for their survival. As a livelihoods strategy for refugees, the services of MFI have mainly been employed in camp settings, with few projects run for urban refugees. Many reasons arise for the difficulty in employing it as a livelihood strategy in urban settings, with the most common being the fluidity and mobility of urban refugees that renders them a risky group to lend money, grants or training to. This study explores the accessibility of microfinance to forced migrants and refugees living in the economic hub of Africa, Johannesburg. The findings suggest that refugees and other forced migrants receiving microfinance heard about the MFI in this particular study- Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS), from their social networks of family and friends while those who had never heard about JRS or any other organization offering microfinance services were in completely different social networks and were of different nationalities from the beneficiaries. As such, the question of accessibility to microfinance is linked to availability of information through social networks. Language also proved to influence the livelihood strategies adapted by the different refugees. Refugees who could speak English and other South African languages were in employment or in trade ventures as they could communicate with host nationals. This is unlike those refugees who only spoke French and Lingala, languages not spoken by South Africans. As such, they needed language training so as to enable them to communicate. The study also found that the main problems faced by refugees in Johannesburg are lack of employment, problems with accommodation, difficulty in enrolling children in public schools and raising the required school fees and difficulties in accessing social services. The research report concludes by recommending solutions to MFI and other organizations whose mandate is to assist refugees and other forced migrants to embrace all vulnerable refugees within the MFI in an effort to make MFI available to all who require their services.
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    Effects of perceptions and negotiation of decision making on gender relations, masculinity and contested patriachy among immigrant-South African households in Johannesburg, South Africa
    (2014-01-31) Aaca, Lisa Rebecca
    The study aimed at understanding how immigrant men and South African women in heterosexual relationships perceive and negotiate gender relations arising from household decision-making; and the effects these have on notions of masculinity among couples living in Johannesburg, South Africa. In order to investigate the research question, I used qualitative descriptive approaches with a poststructuralist perspective. The study drew on Foucault’s conceptualization of power and identified eight (8) immigrant men originating from other African countries and eight (8) South African women using purposive and snowball sampling. All individuals recruited were of at least eighteen years of age and had lived with their partners for at least two years. I perceived a minimum of two years of living together as adequate for differences in culture and socialization of people in immigrant-South African relationships to manifest in the performance of gender; and to equip participants with different constructions of decision-making, gender relations and masculinity. I selected men from other African countries because of the exclusionary discourses surrounding them in South Africa. Data was collected using face-to-face in-depth semi structured interviews with open-ended questions. Data analysis was undertaken using both thematic and discourse analysis. In doing the thematic analysis, work by Braun and Clarke (2006) was drawn on while work by Parker (1994, 1997 and 2005) was focused on for the discourse analysis. The study found that immigration and difference in nationality shape the different perceptions that determine decisions on formation of immigrant-South African relationships; affect income inequalities and decisions on expenditures; as well as decisions related to children in immigrant-South African households; and that these affect gender relations and notions of masculinity. The study further found that there are contradiction between gender equality and traditionally acceptable gender roles; as well as patriarchal and anti-patriarchal socializations by immigrant men and South African women. It also found that immigrant men and South African women use similar strategies in reviving and silencing of transgressed masculinity.
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    Towards understanding the experiences of accessing antiretroviral treatment services among Congolese men at clinics in Yeoville, Johannesburg
    (2014-01-30) Swamba, Adrien Bazolakio
    Little is known about the experiences of Congolese men receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) services in the urban areas of South Africa. Johannesburg is home to many non-citizens who left their home country because of political or human rights reasons and in search of better economic opportunities in South Africa. In South Africa, adult HIV prevalence is highest in urban areas: 9% in formal urban areas and 18% in informal urban (Shisana et al., 2005). South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV infection and has the largest public sector antiretroviral programme with the health system enrolling a great number of people living with HIV for antiretroviral therapy (Boulle et al., 2008). Non-citizens have the same rights as South African citizens to access free ART services; however, challenges in access antiretroviral treatment for non-citizens have been documented (McCarthy et al., 2009). This research project explores the following question: What are the treatment experiences of Congolese men who are currently well and receiving ART services at a government and at a non-government clinic in Yeoville Johannesburg? The study involves interviewing six Congolese men receiving antiretroviral therapy services and twelve healthcare providers at a government, the primary healthcare clinic and at a non-government clinic, Nazareth HIV clinic. Understanding the experiences of Congolese men and non-citizens is valuable to contribute to the literature on the role of male health seeking behaviour, access to healthcare, and treatment experiences in Johannesburg inner city. The primary objective of this study is to explore the treatment experiences of Congolese men receiving ART services at a government and at a non-government clinic in Yeoville. The study takes a qualitative approach and collects data in the Yeoville clinic (a government primary healthcare clinic) and in Nazareth House HIV clinic (a non-governmental clinic) in the Yeoville suburb of Johannesburg inner-city. Findings from this research reveal different treatment experiences with respect to access - opening and closing hours, documentation, services available; other factors - including support networks, secrecy and stigma; and, survivalist livelihoods that affect access dimensions of Congolese men on ART at the two clinics. Recommendations are made on access dimensions: Extending opening and closing hours of the clinic, giving the training to frontline healthcare providers on the rights of migrants on access to healthcare services including antiretroviral therapy services, and extending number of staff members. On other factors: Providing soup kitchen, shelters and extended campaigns on HIV related services to non-citizen patients on antiretroviral therapy services at the clinic, are ways to solve some challenges face by beneficiaries who access to antiretroviral therapy in both government clinic and non-government clinic in Yeoville, Johannesburg.