The Gendered Nature of Xenophobia in South Africa
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RESEARCH BRIEF: The Gendered Nature of Xenophobia in South Africa Romi Sigsworth, Collet Ngwane and Angelica Pino December 2008 The Gendered Nature of Xenophobia in South Africa 4 Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 7 Study Rationale and Context .................................................................................................................... 7 Study Objective and Methodology ............................................................................................................... 8 Demographic Data of the Qualitative Study Respondents .................................................................. 9 Table 1: Country of Birth of Respondents ............................................................................... 10 Table 2: Age of Respondents .................................................................................................. 10 Table 3: Marital Status of Respondents .................................................................................... 11 Table 4: Education Level of Respondents ............................................................................... 11 Table 5: Employment Status of Respondents ......................................................................... 11 Table 6: Legal Status of Respondents ....................................................................................... 12 Table 7: Respondents’ Ability to Speak and Understand any South African Vernacular Languages ..................................................................... 12 Table 8: Length of Stay in South Africa .................................................................................... 13 Table 9: Legal Status of Respondents ........................................................................................ 13 The Personal Lives of Migrants .................................................................................................................... 14 Table 10: Respondents who have ever been a Victim of Xenophobia in South Africa .............. 15 Table 11: Respondents who were Affected by the May 2008 Xenophobic Violence ................ 15 Compounded Trauma ................................................................................................................................ 15 Identity and Security .................................................................................................................................. 16 Integration versus Assimilation ................................................................................................................... 17 Familial Relationships: at Home and in South Africa ........................................................................... 18 5 The Gendered Nature of Xenophobia in South Africa The Gendered Nature of Xenophobia in South Africa 6 Gendered Relationships: Being Foreign and Female in South Africa ................................................... 20 Table 12: Reasons why South African Women Treat Foreign Women Differently ........................ 21 Daily Interactions with South Africans .................................................................................................. 21 Table 13: Respondents’ Experiences of South Africans in the first three months of their stay in South Africa ....................................................................................... 22 Table 14: Respondents’ Experiences of South Africans in the last six months of their stay in South Africa ....................................................................................... 22 Table 15: Frequency of Association with Migrants from the Same Country of Origin ................ 23 Table 16: Frequency of Association with Migrants from a Different Country of Origin ................ 23 Accommodation ........................................................................................................................................... 23 Employment and Livelihood ........................................................................................................................ 24 Public Transport and Public Spaces ........................................................................................................... 25 Interactions with the Public Sector and Government ............................................................................ 26 Hospitals ....................................................................................................................................................... 26 Table 17: Respondents’ Experiences at Public Hospitals and Clinics ......................................... 26 Table 18: Explanation for Respondents’ Experiences at Public Hospitals or Clinics .................... 27 Home Affairs ................................................................................................................................................ 28 Acknowledgements Table 19: Explanation for Respondents’ Experiences at Home Affairs ......................................... 29 The Police and the Criminal Justice System ............................................................................................. 30 We wish to acknowledge and thank Brian Mutale Ng’andu for his work on the research instrument Meaning-Making Systems ........................................................................................................................... 31 for the quantitative survey, developing the sampling design, and doing the statistical analysis on Resilience and Agency ................................................................................................................................ 32 the quantitative data. Table 20: Means of Coping with Life in South Africa ................................................................ 32 Westen Shilaho assisted with the literature review, the design of the interview schedule and Table 21: Biggest Challenges to a Migrant Woman in South Africa ........................................... 32 conducting interviews. Table 22: Factors that would affect Respondents’ Lives in South Africa ..................................... 33 Anu Pillay contributed in the conceptualisation of this project. Serena Thomas made a significant contribution to the analysis of the qualitative data and Words of Warning ......................................................................................................................................... 33 helped in compiling the recommendations. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 34 We would like to thank Dr Michelle Williams from the University of the Witwatersrand for Recommendations ...................................................................................................................................... 35 assisting with the design of the research methodology. Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................... 35 We would like to acknowledge and thank the following fieldworkers for collecting data for the quantitative survey: Freddy Nkosi in Cape Town; Mpendulo Nyembe in Durban; Pascal Sundi Mbambi, Frederick Tshialuse Buabua and Khangelani Moyo in Johannesburg. We would like to thank all the migrant women who took part in this research project for their time and enthusiastic engagement with the study – the study would not have been possible with - Abbreviations out their co-operation. We would like to thank Sonke Gender Justice in Cape Town and the Institute for the Healing of Memories in Durban for putting us in touch with migrant communities and for co-ordinating CBO community-based organisation the focus groups, interviews and feedback sessions. DRC Democratic Republic of Congo We also would like to thank the Union of Refugee Women of Durban for putting us in touch FBO faith-based organisation with refugee women women in Durban. NGO non-governmental organisation Marivic Garcia from the CSVR Trauma and Transition Programme facilitated our engagement SAHRC South African Human Rights Commission with migrant women in Johannesburg, for which we thank her. This research project was made possible with the generous support of Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Southern Africa Regional Office. The Gendered Nature of Xenophobia in South Africa 8 Introduction After the democratisation of South Africa in 1994, the influx of migrants from other African coun - tries increased dramatically. Despite reconciliation initiatives, old patterns of racism (deeply rooted in the country’s apartheid past) combined with new forms of discrimination, such as xeno - phobia, have played out through the country’s period of political transition. Migrants and refugees are, by their very status as foreigners, vulnerable to xenophobia, which can be defined as Fthe attitudes, prejudices and behaviour that reject, exclude and often vilify persons, based on the perception that they are outsiders or