Strengthening Strategic Engagement and Movement Building for Migrant Rights in South & Southern Africa

Immigrants in post-apartheid South Africa (particularly the poor amongst them) face widespread discrimination, hostility and violent exclusion by local communities and institutions. Civil society organisations continue to fight for tolerance, a right to services and markets, and full legal recognition. Yet these efforts have been overshadowed by nationalist populism and anti-immigrant campaigning which often disregard domestic and international commitments (SAHRC, 2018; Ziegler, 2020; Sutherland, 2022).

Once relegated to local streets, xenophobic populism and anti-migrant mobilisation have now moved to national mainstream politics (Misago and Landau, 2022). “More than one in ten adults living in South Africa reported […] that they had not taken part in violent action against foreign nationals – but would be prepared to do so. […] The results of this study show that millions of ordinary South Africans are prepared to engage in anti-immigrant behaviour” (Gordon, 2019). Public manifestations include everyday street-level abuse; discriminatory stereotyping and dehumanizing remarks, extortion by local gangs; threats; evictions from residences and business premises; and collective violence commonly known as xenophobic violence (Misago, 2021).

Faced with these challenges, migrant rights advocates and organisations – from migrant-led start-ups to institutionalised national bodies – need to recalibrate their campaigns, partners, and narrative frames. As institutional allegiances and incentives shift, advocates must identify novel opportunities and strategies to engage local, national, and regional partners and policymakers. Building on a previous report (Landau et al, 2023), this project will leverage and amplify the impact of South Africa’s lively and active migrant rights sector. Through research and strategic conversation, it hopes to address its ongoing shortcomings of being reactive “reactive; focusing on responding to migrant’s immediate needs at grassroots level” (Ibid:8). Working with partners it will support the sector to “craft new narratives and take a long-term strategic view on how to shift the policy narrative” (Ibid:7). By building deliberative processes around empirical analysis of the sector – organisations and their environment – it will provide a platform for more informed and strategic decision making to better counter threats to migrants’ economic, social, and physical security. 

READ the Report here.