Trading in Johannesburg, Living in Manicaland: tracking a Zimbabwean circular migrant Le commerce à Johannesburg, Vivre à Manicaland: le suivi d'un migrant circulaire du Zimbabwe Stephen Rule , Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC), South Africa Abstract The 2011 Census in South Africa documented more than 2-million foreign-born residents, large proportions originating from Zimbabwe (28%) or Mozambique (17%), with other major sources being Nigeria, India, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Most migrants are aged between 20 and 40 years (StatsSA, 2013) and many are affected by xenophobic hostility, especially those operating small businesses in urban townships and low-income settlements (Masuku, 2006; HSRC, 2008). The paper aims to elucidate the circular migration trajectory of a Johannesburg-based survivalist entrepreneur, male and aged 30 years, with a home and family in Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe. He has been a personal acquaintance for several years and has given me permission to research and share his story anonymously. The applicability of some theoretical approaches (Ravenstein, 1889; Boles, 2002; Mabogunje, 1970; Zelinsky, 1971; Kaufman et al, 2004; Potts, 2010; Worby, 2010; Morawska, 2012; Gavelstad, 2013) in explaining his migration decisions and experiences is assessed. Challenges have included the economic costs of regular travel; family obligations and extended periods of separation; bureaucratic hurdles; and a negative host community. Factors conducive to migratory inertia In order to achieve the goal of transferring oneself either temporarily, permanently or intermittently, with regular trips between origin and destination, to escape the poverty trap, and to pursue better life opportunities, a range of hurdles must be overcome. The first of these comprise economic barriers in terms of the immediate distance and cost of making the trip, and the second is the initial cost of survival in the receiving country. Third, are the social barriers in the form of family or community support for the trip at the point of origin, and the availability of buy-in. Fourth, are the bureaucratic hurdles of obtaining the correct documentation to be able to leave the country of origin and to enter the destination country. Fifth, capacity and perseverance in dealing with potentially hostile or negative responses from the host community into which one migrates is a critical success factor for settling. For many migrants, the trajectory is not once-off and in one direction. Patterns of circular migration exist within and between countries, especially between rural origins and urban or metropolitan destinations, over lengthy periods. Ties with rural home communities are retained and persist reciprocally, with migrants earning hard income and remitting payments or physically returning to their families, who in turn maintain the nurturing and educational roles for the next generation. In respect of internal rural-urban migration in South Africa, the fragmentation of households over the last century as a consequence of circular or “oscillating” (Spiegel et al, 1996) migration is often a “carefully calibrated means for survival” (Hall, 2016 :3) of an extended family. It constitutes an intentional strategy, formulated as a means to “maximise household income, minimise economic risk, and increase exposure to social resources” (Collinson et al, 2006: 195). Migrant entrepreneurs in South Africa Figures from the 2011 Census suggest that 3 ,3% or about 1,7 million of the country’s 51, 7 million people were born outside of South Africa, a small proportion of the global estimate of 175 million people who lived outside of their country of birth (Kok, 2006). According to AfricaCheck, data collated by the World Bank and the UN, suggests a migrant population of about 1,86 million people. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that the total migrant population (legal and irregular) rose from 2% of population in 2000 to over 5, 5% in 2015, which aligns with the census projections (Republic of South Africa, 2016, 26). In Gauteng, the wealthiest and most populous province, almost half of the more than one million net migrants during the period 2001-11 originated outside of South Africa, as were approximately one-third of the 300 000 migrants arriving in the Western Cape during this period (Ziehl, 2016). Faced with barriers to formal employment and social benefits, foreign migrants have a high propensity to utilise their entrepreneurial skills as informal traders. One in seven (14%) of respondents to a survey of street traders in Johannesburg during 1995 were non-South Africans (Jennings et al, 1995a; Jennings et al, 1
1995b), a trend corroborated by later studies (Rogerson, 1997; Peberdy, 2000). The largest proportions of foreign street traders in the Peberdy (2000) study were found to be males aged between 20 and 29 years with origins in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Mozambique or Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)). Almost half indicated that they had become street traders as a means of earning income or simply surviving. Most transported saleable goods (mainly curios, wooden or stone carvings) to Johannesburg from their home countries. Additionally, more than half took clothes, electronic goods, groceries or other items with a modal value of about R2500 back to sell at home more than eight times per year. Reasons for migrating specifically to South Africa were tourist industry opportunities (27%), strength of the economy (24%), and other attractions (17%) such as the new democratic order and ‘lack of corruption’. Border challenges were the experience of almost two-thirds (63%) of those interviewed in the Peberdy (2000) study, who said “some resented the haggling with customs officials at the border, as well as the inconsistency, bribery and over charging” (Peberdy, 2000, 217). More recently, studies on migrants in South Africa have focussed on the xenophobic environment (Nyamnjoh, 2006; Morris, 2008; Charman & Piper, 2012; Piper & Yu, 2015; McMichael, 2015; Gordon, 2016) with which foreign traders and other migrants are forced to contend. South Africans are often suspicious of and antagonistic towards migrants from Asian or other African countries. Additionally, current migration policy and legislation is less than conducive to migrant arrivals in the country. Case study This paper focuses on an individual circular migrant entrepreneur who has overcome the international hurdles and currently operates a business in Johannesburg. I have personally befriended him during the last five years and have informally collected data from conversations as well as by means of social media, using WhatsApp and Facebook messenger. He agreed to my use of the material for this research. His identity remains confidential for normal ethical reasons. This man is 30 years old and he originates from Chigodora in eastern Zimbabwe. I name hi m ‘Tariro’ for the purposes of this analysis. With his wife and 3-year old son, he rents rooms in Mutare, where he stays when not on visits to Johannesburg. Tariro has a younger half-brother who is dependent on him, both parents having died. Toriro completed O-levels in four subjects at secondary school with some financial assistance from an international NGO. As a child, his grandfather taught him the skill of carving realistic-looking zebra, lion and other animals from local timber. A friend who purchased some of his creations, encouraged Tariro to expand his hobby into a business and Tariro to this end, started visiting Johannesburg in 2010. While in Johannesburg, he shares a flat in the CBD- Joubert Park area, located in one of the six central Johannesburg wards where at the time of the 2011 Census, more than 20% of residents were non-South African born. His flatmates are three other men from Zimbabwe, each paying a R200 share towards the R600 monthly rental to a Malawian landlord. He spends 14 days at a time in Johannesburg, each day marketing his animals as well as wooden bowls, along the main shopping streets of some wealthy northern suburbs of Johannesburg, especially Melville, Greenside and Parkhurst, to which he travels by local minibus taxi. Figure 1: Zimbabwean circular migrant entrepreneurs in Johannesburg 2
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