The role of border municipalities in integrated socio-economic development: A borderless approach to understanding of migrant communities around border municipalities across South Africa. Author: Thanyani Alpheus Maremba, Statistics South Africa Email address: thanyanimar@statssa.gov.za Abstract In today ’ s increasingly interconnected world, international migration has become a reality that touches nearly all corners of the globe, often making distinctions between countries of origin, transit and destination obsolete. The number of international migrants worldwide has continued to grow rapidly over the past fifteen years reaching 244 million in 2015, up from 222 million in 2010 and 173 million in 2000, UN DESA (2016). If international trends are reflected in South Africa, migration patterns will become increasingly complex, involving diverse social groups and a combination of permanent and temporary migrants. There will be more youthful and women migrants, and a growing number of migrants moving from regions severely affected by climate change. The challenge to countries such as South Africa is on how to optimise the benefits and minimise the risks that come with migration. Apart from the significant number of migrants who live in metropolitan areas there are larger proportions of those who are found in border municipalities. The study seeks to show how focusing on the migrant population around border communities will assist in planning for border municipalities and making them destination of choice and subsequently contribute to economic growth. Keywords: Socio-economic development, international migration, neo-classical migration theory 1
Introduction Migration is an important phenomenon that affects various countries worldwide one way or another, whether as the recipients or as the senders of migrants. There are well documented benefits in socio-economic development among countries receiving immigrants associated with migration. Migration is not an exogenous variable, but an integral part of wider social and development processes, the development impacts of migration are also fundamentally heterogeneous, de Haas H (2010). Migration is also an important factor in the erosion of traditional boundaries between languages, cultures, ethnic group, and nation-states. Even those who do not migrate are affected by movements of people in or out of their communities, and by the resulting changes. Migration is not a single act of crossing a border, but rather a lifelong process that affects all aspects of the lives of those involved. The majority of immigrant population in South Africa are in metropolitan municipalities and mining municipalities, however, the high proportion of immigrants from countries sharing part of their borders with South Africa are found in border municipalities. The study mainly looks at the homogeneity among border municipalities ’ population and heterogeneity between population in border municipalities and non-border municipalities. Literature review In trying to understand the migration reasons in municipalities, the neo-classical theory of migration is considered. According to this theory, migration is driven by geographic differences in labour supply versus demand, and the resulting differentials in wages between labour-rich versus capital-rich countries Kurekova L (2011). Cross-border migration, particularly for employment purposes within the SADC region was prevalent long before the 1990s. In fact, international labour migration within the Southern African region for wages dates back at least 150 years Williams V (2002). 2
The relatively unrestricted movement of labour across the region and the continent can contribute significantly to more inclusive economic growth. Migrants have played an important role in South Africa ’ s economic development and regional integration since the late 19th century and it is likely that this trend will continue, Williams V (2002). In August 1992, following the start of the process of transition in South Africa, what was formerly the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) was transformed into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and one of the objectives was the achievement of development and economic growth and the alleviation of poverty to enhance the standard and quality of life of the people of Southern Africa (Williams, 2002). Migration as a global phenomenon is fundamentally about individuals, whether skilled or unskilled, searching for better opportunities. On the other hand, the availability of migrants as a source of cheap and easily exploitable labour, particularly in sectors such as agriculture, construction and the services industry (hotels, restaurants, domestic employment etc) mitigates against attempts in many parts of the world, including Southern Africa, to regularise the status of migrant workers and to protect their rights (Williams, 2002). Methodology The target population of the study are immigrants from Southern Africa countries that share borders with South Africa. Immigrant population of neighbouring countries are people born outside South Africa, i.e, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia as well children born to parents from those countries . Data for immigrants were further enriched by including children born to the immigrants in South Africa. The criterion for inclusion was those respondents in the Community Survey 2016 data who indicated that they are children, sons or daughters of the head of household. 3
Proportions of immigrants from the neighbouring countries where calculated for each municipality in South Africa using Community Survey 2016 data. Municipalities were further ranked by proportions from the largest to the lowest. Only top ten municipalities were selected for each country resulting to sixty municipalities. Out of sixty municipalities only forty-six municipalities were unique which implies that some municipalities appeared to be top ten in more than one country. Municipalities with higher proportions of immigrants were classified into border, non-border and metro. Border municipalities are those that share part of their boundary with neighbouring countries or they are separated by non-residential area (for example, Kruger National Park). Non-border municipalities are those municipalities that do not share any part of their boundary with the neighbouring countries and they are not metropolitan municipalities. The purpose the separation is to enable a more focussed study of the immigrant population within the border municipalities. The neo-classical theory of migration was tested based on the reasons of movements as reported in the South African Community Survey 2016 as well as looking at the proportion of skilled migrants within the border municipalities. 4
Results and Discussion Results National distribution of immigrants Figure 1: Distribution of migrant ’ s concentration across South African municipalities Figure 1 shows the municipalities that are among the top 10 destinations of immigrants (based on proportions on immigrants from each country) from neighbouring countries of which some of them share part of their boundaries with those South African municipalities. Other known characteristics of the population in border municipality are that some of these bordering municipalities are already integrated culturally, for example, some residences in these areas already possess dual citizenships. Figure 2: Migrant population from neighbouring countries by border, metro and non-border 5
Number of children born to immigrants in South Africa seems to be higher in border municipalities as compared to the rest of the municipalities; metro and non-metro (see Figure 2). In the population literature on linkages with the environment (e.g. Green, Richard and Goldstein 1992; UNFPA 1991) most attention focuses on population and if the processes which influence population size and growth are explicitly taken into account at all, it is fertility which is considered. Migration is one of the major contributors to population growth. Figure 3: Population Pyramid for of immigrants from neighbouring countries Figure 3 shows the population structure for migrants residing in border municipalities from the neighbouring countries has a large number of children below five years and the youth between 25 and 30. Majority of migrants 9.0% moved to South Africa for job opportunities and a small percentage of those moving for business opportunities, while 3.6% moved to live with or be closer to spouse, (see Figure 4). Among the reasons to move there are those who moved looking for better lives with the reasons including, 6
settlement, health, education and better municipal services. Regardless of level of educational attainment children born to unskilled migrants and live in with them are educated in South Africa and become contributors to skilled work- force. Figure 4: Reasons for moving Educational attainment is one of the variables directly related to employment in skilled jobs. The study shows that there are very few adults (less than 2%) who have attained higher education qualifications and other vocational education. On the other hand the majority of migrants (16.7%) have primary school and 10.8% have secondary education. It is not surprising that the 3.4% of migrants children are attending pre-school and this result to sustainability of services related to kindergarten service providers. 7
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