Highly prevalent circular migration: Households, mobility and economic status in rural South Africa

Abstract

South Africa’s Apartheid-driven social engineering reshaped society to provide cheap labor for mines and industry while unemployed family members were legislated to remain in densely settled rural areas. High levels of circular migration became entrenched and continue to prevail. This context makes it important to explore contemporary household livelihood strategies, mobility and links with economic status in the rural area. The demographic surveillance system (DSS) of Agincourt can shed some interesting perspectives since it spans the decade during which apartheid was abolished. Literature on labour migration tends to focus on the urban side of the cycle, i.e. the destination perspective of circular migrants. This study however provides an opportunity to see the perspective of the rural sending population. Interestingly, the links between the urban areas and rural hinterlands are so strong that a sending- community perspective can explain key aspects of urban settlement patterns. Being a case study this paper invests more in description than explanation, however, the implications for theoretical development must not be overlooked, and some questions are flagged that might be addressed by these data.

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