3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Livelihoods at the margins how do practices of transnational mobility shape the livelihood strategies of migrant women in host societies: a case study of Somali women in Mayfair, Johannesburg(2019) Sango, AnnaIn the African context, cross-border mobility has been a livelihood strategy since the precolonial era and has provided individuals and communities with improved survival means, expanding their opportunities, and maintaining and building social relations across various contexts (Nyamnjoh, 2006: 2). The migration of women is increasingly becoming a normalised and essential livelihood strategy for African communities “amidst failing economies, a deterioration of quality of life, civil wars, and the absence of viable choice” (Kihato, 2013: 62). However, South African cities are shaped by contradictory practices of urban governance, development planning practices, as well as policies and attitudes towards cross-border mobility (Nyamnjoh, 2006 and Kihato, 2007). Practices of mobility destabilise the legitimacy and authority of the state (Kihato, 2007), as well as notions of how we understand space. This has direct implications on development planning thought and practice which, due to colonial legacies, often fails to accommodate the socio-spatial strategies of marginal actors in African cities (Harrison, 2006). This study acknowledges the challenge that mobility poses for development planning in Johannesburg by exploring the diversity and hybridity of urban practices shaped by migration. Through a focus on the experiences of Somali women living in the Somali transnational social space of Mayfair, Johannesburg, the study seeks to uncover the interrelated relationship between gendered power relations, transnational mobility and the agency behind migrant women’s livelihood strategies. The study employs an analytical feminist framework of ‘gendered geographies of power’ (Mahler and Pessar, 2001) in order to explore the ways in which patriarchal, classist and nationalist practices shape processes of mobility and urbanisation. Ultimately, the study aims to question and confront the ways in which the intimate power dynamics within migrant groups in host cities, and across African borders, facilitate new ways of seeing and thinking about the African cityItem Inclusion and isolation in refugee social networks - a comparative analysis of Parkistan, Turkey and Kenya(2017) Bule, Kabiri NomvulaMigrant social networks and their effects have dominated international migration discourse over the past few decades. The importance of social networks and social capital in migration decision-making is underscored by large volumes of research across many disciplines. There are however few comparative analyses of the refugee experience across disparate geographical spaces particularly cities in the so-called global ‘South’. Drawing on original survey data collected from refugees in Pakistan, Turkey and Nairobi in mid-2016, this paper argues that access to social networks and the value of the social capital embedded in these networks, is strongly dependent on the pre-migration social, political, cultural and economic contexts of migrants and refugees. Social networks generate positive social capital in some contexts and negative social capital in others. Logistic regression and correlational tests of association were used to analyse the relationship between social networks, employment, and well-being of refugees in the three cities mentioned. The findings speak of the complex economic and social environments refugees often find themselves, and networks of personal relations either hamper or facilitate the ability of refugees to secure employment.Item Marikana youth: (re)telling stories of ourselves and our place(2016) Moleba, Eliot MmantidiPrior to and immediately following 1994, South African youth literature has largely focused on atypical groups, especially young people’s participation in political protest and violence (Marks 2001; Ntsebeza 1993; Seekings 1993; Straker 1992; Van Kessel 2000). The challenge for new research is to grapple more broadly with the question of how young people construct ordinary lives and identities amid the changing and transforming socio-cultural, economic and political landscape. As such, this study aimed to focus on the ordinary, quotidian narratives of youth in an extraordinary place of Marikana, where the massacre of striking mineworkers took place in 2012. Face-to-face, individual interviews were conducted with 8 participants (aged between 19 and 31 years) living in Marikana, including people who were born in or had migrated to Marikana. Both structural and thematic analyses were used to analyse the transcribed texts. The structural analysis was used to examine how poverty plays a role in the form of stories told. The thematic analysis focused on the content of the narratives, drawing linkages across participants’ stories to understand how they make meaning of events and experiences in their lives. The themes identified were organised as follows: Marikana (nostalgia about the place of Marikana, and belonging to the place of Marikana), childhood in Marikana and elsewhere (growing up in Marikana, and growing up elsewhere), families and their structure (single-parent headed and transnational families, (grand)mothers as pillars of family, and (inter)generational absence/presence of fathers), education (lack of funds for schooling), and possibilities for the future (dreams and futures deferred, and fantasies of escape). The findings indicate that the trauma and violence of the Marikana Massacre was remarkably marginal in their narratives. Instead, participants stressed poverty as a systemic problem that is far more pervasive in how they (re)produce(d) their stories. This core finding reveals poverty as a perpetual structural violence, a repeated state of trauma that is inflicted on their lives and reflected in their stories. Further findings show that many biological fathers are absent in the lives of their children, mostly due to migration or death. Consequently, sons follow in their fathers’ footsteps, leaving their new families behind (some becoming transnational parents). This produces a prevalent intergenerational absence of fathers in Marikana. As a result, mothers and grandmothers are the main breadwinners and emotional pillars of the family.