Hidden migration, livelihoods, identities and citizenship : Malawians in the city of Durban.
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Date
2004
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Abstract
This thesis is an investigation into the undocumented migration of
Malawians to the city of Durban, and the influences on their livelihoods,
identities and continued links to Malawi. In this context the thesis raises the
issue of migration and citizenship. In the past Malawians were involved in
contract migration system tightly controlled by the mining industry and the
state, and in which their freedom of movement and association was
circumscribed. This thesis argues that there is a new, emerging new form of
migration, which may be termed transnational migration that has taken root
since the early 1990s. It involves a web of links and networks created by
transmigrants between Malawi and Durban. For a variety of reasons this
transnational migration pattern is less visible, and largely hidden from the
official gaze of the state.
The reasons for migrating to Durban are mainly, through not exclusively
economic ones, that is, about creating a livelihood, or multiple livelihoods.
Malawian migrants become enmeshed in a series of livelihood itineraries as
part of the chain of migration from towns and villages en route to, and in
Durban. In pursuing their livelihood itineraries they begin to use their
networks and other resources such as their ethnic and religious identities,
family and friendship ties, nationality, accumulated experiences, skills and
entrepreneurship to insert themselves in the city, and in the process, seek,
find or create work in both the formal and informal sectors of the local
economy. In this context they develop a sense of belonging to and being
part of the city and begin to institutionalise their presence, contributing in
many ways, both socially and economically to the city. The thesis argues
that their presence, practices, dispositions and accomplishments in the city
of Durban, and continued links to Malawi raise pertinent issues around the
question of citizenship and migration.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2004.
Keywords
Malawians--KwaZulu-Natal--Durban., Immigrants--KwaZulu-Natal--Durban., Theses--Anthropology.