The paradox of impermanence: Africanist political imaginations and rights claiming in Johannesburg

Abstract

New ways of conceptualising patterns of human mobility and the political, economic and social effects of these movements are driving current migration research. Furthermore, there is a call to develop greater understanding of both the spatial and temporal aspects of migration. This includes understanding how these aspects affect the experiences of migrants in claiming rights and establishing a sense of belonging in a host state. The following research report responds to this call by developing a theory around ‘the paradox of impermanence’ which I construct from empirical research conducted with migrants living in Johannesburg, South Africa. This paradox identifies two distinct forms of impermanence which are caused by the following factors: insufficient access to state immigration documentation that regularises a migrant’s stay in South Africa (state-imposed impermanence); and the personally expressed desires of migrants to return to their home countries (self-imposed impermanence). Further analysis develops the concept of ‘African brotherhood’, which I argue provides an explanation for how migrants construct their political imaginations in order to claim rights, in spite of their experiences of this paradox of impermanence