Migrants and Urban Rights: Politics of Xenophobia in South African Cities

Abstract

In recent years there has been some critical intellectual reflections about who has rights to the city, and how such rights are realised. As the rights based discourse gains momentum, groups that have been previously excluded from participating in the social, economic and political life of the city, for example, migrants, are becoming more assertive and demanding inclusion. In the process of crossing borders and defining and claiming rights, there are social and political struggles over the appropriation of migrant spaces. Citizenship is not always automatic, and inevitably there is race, ethnic or religious discrimination. This paper examines the trials and tribulations of international migrants in the eThekwini municipality (or Durban). The paper argues that as a result of their illegal status migrants in Durban were subject to high levels of exploitation and xenophobia, and they led a tenuous existence. A key contention in this paper is that in Durban the local authority has yet to engage constructively in addressing the problems of migrants and refugees, and the policy response has ranged from one of benign neglect to active hostility. Almost all the major policy documents of the eThekwini local authority make no reference to migrants. Migrants survive through support from religious organisations, NGOs and informal networks. Any discussion of human rights and space inevitably raises questions of ethics, morality and social justice. The experience of migrants in Durban and other parts of South Africa gives credence to the view that human rights operate at the rhetorical level and that there appears to be lack of political will to translate them into tangible benefits.

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