‘Signs of our passage’: Examining how Tanzanian irregular transit migrants create a sense of place through their mobile and immobile experiences: a Durban-based case study.

Abstract

In 2020, there were reportedly 281 million international migrants, roughly 3.60 percent of the global population. While most people participate in legal migration, a significant portion of global migration is irregular due to economic, social, environmental and political instability. Africa witnessed a 68 percent increase in transnational migration between 2000 and 2017, originating from the continent. However, scholarship on African mobilities prioritises irregular migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe through the Maghreb region. Furthermore, studies on migration in Southern Africa tend to characterise South Africa as a destination country. Situated within the global phenomenon of irregular transit migration, this study aimed to understand and describe the unique experiences of a Tanzanian irregular transit migrant and stowaway community as they created a sense of place through social and material practices in heterotopic sites in Durban, South Africa. Additionally, the study aimed to understand the community members’ mobile and immobile experiences as they travelled from Tanzania to South Africa with one intention: to stow away on a ship to Europe or the Americas. The data for this project was collected through 11 qualitative semi-structured interviews with community members and associates. A Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) approach was utilised to interpret the stories elicited from the research participants. The findings contradict research that characterises irregular migrants as passive victims or unscrupulous criminals by demonstrating the polysemic nature of ‘heterotopias of deviance’ as contradictory, intense, and transformative places where identity and belonging are actualised. This perspective departs from the dichotomy of dominance and resistance in spatial thinking. Additionally, the accounts reveal that Durban represented an open-ended pause for this community, which confronted harsh conditions and dangerous encounters through their mobile and immobile experiences en route, in Durban and at sea. This study indicates the need to humanise precarious migrants’ attitudes, motivations and lived experiences to comprehend the complex phenomenon of global irregular transit migration.