3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item 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, PeterUsing 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.Item The role of social networks in migrant access to housing in Lenasia(2009-06-18T10:40:07Z) Desai, AnisaMigrant social networks have become somewhat of a trademark of global migration. Social networks and their development cannot only be recognized as a by product of migration, instead what has been noted is that social networks have emerged as primary actors in the migration process as seen in the incidence of the Asian migrant population in Lenasia. The use of social networks by migrants allow for migrants to accrue a range of benefits such as access to accommodation, employment, security and participation in social activities. With regard to the research report, the use of social networks by Asian migrants to access accommodation in Lenasia has been the focus of the study. Initial assumptions about this transient community entailed that migrants in Lenasia were generally unable to access accommodation through other formalised mechanisms such as rental companies therefore they relied on social networks. This has however been proven incorrect and what was found was that the migrant population had in fact never considered or utilised the services of a rental company because their social networks had always successfully met their accommodation needs. The occurrence of migrant social networks in Lenasia has initiated further migration into the area, and subsequently led to the development of migrant enclaves operating in isolation from the pre-existing community. The effect the creation of migrant enclaves in Lenasia has had on the area’s development trajectory is explored in the research. In addition the consequences of migrant enclaves and separate social networks between the pre-existing and migrant community are investigatedItem The short arm of the law: Migrants' experiences of policing in Johannesburg(2007-03-01T13:38:00Z) Nyaoro, Dulo CProponents of migrants rights often posit that distinct legislation not only secure migrants rights in host countries, but also enhance the ideals of liberal democracies in which policing is regulated by the rule of law, impartiality and respect for due process. The potential for discrimination by host communities to some categories of migrants is deemed to underscore the importance of migration laws. Critics argue that such laws undermine the very rights they are supposed to protect in that they set different standards for the treatment of migrants. In this study, based on evidence from research with Somali migrants in Johannesburg, South Africa, study I argue that legal documents as evidence of legal status have little significance in the policing of migrants. This paradox can be explained by three main reasons; first, the issuance, retention and renewal of these documents is characterized by irregularities and corruption that undermine the legitimacy of the document, giving the police enough grounds for suspicion. Second the political and social context in which policing of migrants is done undermines the significance of their legal status. The anti-migration sentiment among the nationals effectively sets different standards for policing of migrants. Third, the legal framework gives the police the dual and potentially conflicting responsibilities of regulating migration on the one hand and protecting migrants on the other hand. The police have taken their regulation responsibility to be synonymous with that of gate-keeping whereby migrants are separated and denied access to government services. This role of gate – keeping is manipulated by the police for their own ends while citizens and politicians directly or indirectly sanction their extra-legal actions when dealing with migrants.