SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

MIGRATION, DISPLACED PERSONS & CHILDREN

SERVICES UNIT (MDCS)

Presenter: Mr Robinson Sathekge

Panel 5: Social cohesion and

community resilience: countering
discrimination and xenophobia
against migrants: 16 October 2020
 BACKGROUND

• The City of Johannesburg has over a number of years sustained an interest in the issue of social
cohesion and incorporated it into its planning. The Joburg 2040 GDS acknowledges that as the largest
metropolitan centre, “Johannesburg has become increasingly diverse and cosmopolitan. Migrants
(both national and cross-border) are making Johannesburg their home, adding to the already culturally
diverse and plural city. As such, issues of social cohesion and inclusion have become more pertinent
as Joburg strives to fully benefit from the unique blend of its people”.

• While a great deal of xenophobia went largely unnoticed by broader society, it became impossible to
ignore with outbreaks of violence targeting foreigners in 2008. In recognition of the policy gap and the
responsibility to deliver services at local level and deal with the challenges presented by migration into
the city, particularly that of foreign migrants, the City of Johannesburg Council has approved a
number of strategies to enable it to play a proactive role in managing migration in the city. The first
was the Human Development Strategy of the City approved in 2004, which gave an expression to the
city’s intent to address the challenges of social exclusion. One of the key Integrated Development
Plans for the 2005/2011 was the Counter Xenophobia and Common Citizenship Programme coming
out of the long term goal that sought to ensure that “social exclusion is addressed through the building
of prospects for social inclusion amongst all Johannesburg communities”.
 VISION OF THE CITY

• In 2007 the Migrant Help Desk Strategy was approved which, amongst others, developed an advisory
committee of non-governmental groups working with and representing cross-border migrants to
advise the City, with working groups proposing ways to resolve major challenges experienced by
migrants. This developed into the Johannesburg Migration Advisory Panel (JMAP), which continues to
convene monthly. Subsequently, the Migration Mayoral Sub-Committee was establishment in 2008,
followed by the Johannesburg Migration Advisory Committee (JMAC) in 2009 to coordinate city efforts
to address the challenges of migration comprehensively.

• The Migrant Help Desks provide advocacy, advisory and referral services. The actions are based on
all sorts of challenges facing migrants.

• The City of Johannesburg Council approved the Policy on Integration of Migrants in March 2011. The
aim of the policy is to facilitate the integration of migrants to a level where immigrants have similar
participation patterns to the non-immigrants citizens in community structures, fulfillment of civic duties,
contribute to the economic, cultural, religious and social life system in Johannesburg. The policy is
guided by national legislation, namely, the Refugee Act of 1998 and the Immigration Act, (Act No 13
of 2002).
 UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL COHESION

• Understanding social cohesion is not only a matter of combating social exclusion and poverty, but
creating solidarity in society such that exclusion will be minimised. At the same time, in so far as
poverty and exclusion continue to exist, there is also a need to take specific measures to help
vulnerable members of society.

• The City of Johannesburg has identified a need within the municipality in terms of policy or guiding
principles which relate to social cohesion. A crucial point for the city in this respect is better
understanding of the social composition of Johannesburg and the attitudes of residents of
Johannesburg to social diversity. Social differences are experienced in generally positive terms, with
people learning one another’s languages, taking an interest in one another’s cultures and building
communities, friendships and indeed families which incorporate social difference.

• In addition other kinds of social intolerance and bias shape our social landscape including class
prejudice; sexism; xenophobia, homophobia; religious intolerance; ethnic tensions; intolerance of
people with disabilities and diseases; intolerance towards internal migrants.
DISCRIMINATION AND XENOPHOBIA AGAINST
MIGRANTS

• The migrant help desk is facilitating Counter-Xenophobia initiatives to build tolerance between
migrants and locals. This includes the Inter-sectorial collaboration with stakeholders to advance
social cohesion and the integration of migrants in the city. Counter xenophobia dialogues and
trainings, human rights workshops, human trafficking workshops are conducted in the identified high
risk areas throughout the city with the aim of changing perceptions of communities towards cross
border migrants. The aim is also to promote tolerance and understanding amongst cross border
migrants and local communities and build social cohesion.

• It is vital to acknowledge challenges of poverty, inequality, underdevelopment and unemployment as

common national problems. Gender equality and gender based violence pose a risk and, therefore,
there is a need for mainstreaming of gender equality to include measures to fight violence against
women. Most women have challenges with mix marriages and children being undocumented. Many
communities are struggling with social assistance and due to age group they are unable to find
employment. There is a concern over the current worrying situation of human trafficking, especially
young women, local and migrants, who are promised jobs in South Africa.
DISCRIMINATION AND XENOPHOBIA AGAINST
MIGRANTS

• The challenge is that more people are working under horrible conditions and do not know their rights.
Others have their documents kept by their recruiting agencies. Many domestic workers do not have
proper documentation and this leads to abuse and exploitation. This includes child labour.

• There is also a challenge with the spiraling migrant spaza shops within communities. Communities
feel that if these spaza shops are not properly regulated they will lead to more criminal activities and
more xenophobic tendencies and violence will be experienced.
 IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MIGRANTS

• Recognizing the importance of including migrants and refugees as vulnerable groups, it is necessary
to establish the means of socio-economic support for them to prevent human suffering during the
Covid-19 crisis. This can be done in partnership with all spheres of governments, the private sector,
civil society, communities and individuals. This will also assist to provide for a durable recovery in the
post-crisis environment.

• Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has released the third and final round of a series of three online
web-based surveys to measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals in the country.
The third round of the survey (Wave 3) focused on migration and education issues for persons
residing in South Africa who are 18 years and older. The survey aimed to provide information that
could be used by government and other service providers to better understand the impact of the
pandemic on migration and education and to devise interventions to assist the population.
 IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MIGRANTS

• With regard to international migration, data showed that about 90% of the respondents in the sample
indicated that they were born in South Africa (non-migrants), whilst about nine per cent were
international migrants (respondents who indicated that they were born outside of South Africa). Data
pertaining to foreign-born respondents’ countries of birth shows that almost half of lifetime migrants
were born in Zimbabwe (22, 6%) and Europe (22, 6%). One-third of respondents were born in
countries that are part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Other areas
featured were South America, North America, the rest of Africa (outside the SADC region) and Asia.

• More than four-fifths (82%) of migrant respondents remained in South Africa rather than return to
their countries of birth when the lockdown was announced because they considered South Africa as
their home, while 11% felt that the COVID-19 pandemic was global and that they would still be at risk
regardless of whether they moved. Five per cent of migrant respondents indicated that they were
concerned that if they left South Africa they would be unable to re-enter South Africa.
 IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MIGRANTS

• According to the survey, more than twenty per cent of migrant respondents indicated that they did not
send remittances during lockdown because they could not afford to send money. The results show
that, generally, migrant respondents were more vulnerable than non-migrant respondents. A much
higher percentage of migrant respondents (22, 5%) were unemployed as compared to non-migrants
(9%). Findings from the report emphasizes the important role of mobility and migration on the South
African economy during the national lockdown.

• There have been complaints of discrimination around the communities in the distribution of the social
assistance, especially food parcels, during the early stages of the pandemic. Migrants and refugees
are told that the food parcels are only meant for SA citizens who are able to produce SA Identity
documents. This is despite the fact that they are equally affected by the lockdown caused by Covid-19
and most of them are part time workers where the ‘no work no pay policy’ is applied. Despite these
challenges that come with being a migrant and a refugee, they are still expected to pay rentals, pay for
water and electricity, among other expenses yet they have no income.
 WAY FORWARD

• In responding to challenges, the city, in collaboration with various stakeholders endeavours to,
amongst others,:

 Organize workshops that bring together all nationalities for discussions on issues affecting them
in South Africa and their respective countries;

 Collaborate with the Departments of Health, Social Development, Home Affairs and other bodies,
where possible, that they put more effort in attending to issues that relates to medication, food,
shelter, and asylum papers for refugees and asylum seekers;

 Organize workshops on understanding discrimination and xenophobic attitudes and developing

good practices for effective management of diversity and understanding human rights;

 The communities must be encouraged not to take the law into their hands and also to participate
in the community activities so that it will be easy to escalate such challenges to the relevant
departments.
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THANK YOU

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