|
|
AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
Show panel list
Majoni-joni: Organizing and survival strategies among Zimbabwean labour migrants in South Africa.
| Panel |
37. Political Economies of Displacement in Southern Africa
|
| Paper ID | 225 |
| Author(s) |
Muzondidya, James
|
| Paper |
No paper submitted
|
| Abstract | Since the beginning of the ‘Zimbabwe Crisis’ in 2000, a growing number of Zimbabweans have migrated to different parts of the globe in search of better economic opportunities. As a result of this post-2000 dispersal, Zimbabweans are now found in their hundreds of thousands in Europe, North America and the relatively prosperous neighbouring countries of Botswana and South Africa (by far the most important destination for both unskilled and skilled Zimbabweans seeking economic survival outside Zimbabwe). There is now an estimated two million Zimbabweans in South Africa, including both legal and illegal immigrants. Undocumented, unskilled migrants are believed to constitute the largest proportion of Zimbabweans in South Africa. Many of these migrants are seasonal workers who move back and forth across the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa more frequently.
Focusing on undocumented, unskilled Zimbabwean labour migrants in South Africa (‘majoni-joni’ in Zimbabwean urban lingua franca), this paper seeks to discuss the various modes of, or mechanism for, survival adopted by these migrants in their bid to cope with the vagaries of life away from home. The paper specifically looks at migration and settlement patterns of the migrants, as well as opportunities and constraints of life in South Africa and how the migrants negotiate their space within the highly competitive labour market and business environment of their host country. I examine both individually and collectively organized responses of the migrants to their drastically changed conditions of life outside and how migrants seek to integrate among local communities. I argue that the harshness of life in South Africa and other foreign lands has helped Zimbabweans to become more pragmatic and ingenuous in devising survival strategies. Many have become entrepreneurs in their own right, heavily involved in the informal, long-distance trading and micro-business sectors. From their new locations abroad, others have established informal networks of friends and relatives that help them to continue to support both their immediate and extended families left behind. Lastly, the paper examines how immigrants interact inside and outside their groups and I argue that migration and isolation from home have led to the growth of strongly identifying Zimbabwean communities, socializing and networking with each other in various ways.
|
|