1,720,979 research outputs found
The uses of social capital among Zimbabwean migrants in Johannesburg
No full textThis paper analyses the role of family and church networks as sources of social capital in
aiding migration, settlement and social integration of Zimbabwean migrants. It also shows how these networks sometimes inhibit migrant integration into the host community. The study was carried out among Zimbabwean migrants in Tembisa and Kempton Park in Johannesburg. This study adds to the growing literature on bonding and bridging social capital while at the same time revealing how social capital is both a blessing and blight to Zimbabwean migrants. This paper makes an important contribution to the literature by arguing that while sometimes migrant social integration is hindered by the activities of the host population (e.g. xenophobic attitudes among South African locals), in some cases, the migrants themselves could hinder their own social integration through their migrant social networks. I argue that this is an unintended consequence of migrant family and religious networks
Understanding the social exclusion of Zimbabwean migrants In Johannesburg, South Africa
No full textThis paper applies the social exclusion concept to understanding the experiences of Zimbabwean migrants in Johannesburg, South Africa. It argues that the experiences of Zimbabwean migrants are shaped by certain institutional, individual and social mechanisms of exclusion. The main institutions responsible for migrant exclusion are: the police; hospitals, banks and employers. The paper further argues that migrant social networks mainly used to deal with exclusion have unwittingly made it difficult for migrants to be integrated properly within the South African society. This is because migrant networks emphasise values of exclusivity and difference. The paper proffers a pragmatic view of understanding migrants as citizens of a global world. It maintains that the social exclusion of migrants must be understood from a cosmopolitan and
global perspective
A review of the challenges and survival strategies of University workers during the economic crisis: a case study of the Midlands State University (MSU) workers in Zimbabwe
No full textThis study explored challenges faced by the Midlands State University (MSU) workers and analysed the survival strategies used to deal with the identified challenges during the height of the economic crisis in 2007. Participants comprised 40 teaching and 21 non-teaching workers, of whom 35 were male and 26 female. Data were collected using a questionnaire and participant observation. Data analysis was through the SPSS programme and qualitative thematic analysis. The results revealed that, the six major challenges faced by MSU workers were lack of adequate remuneration, consumables, transport, electricity, office space and economic hardships. The most popular survival strategies to deal with such challenges were fiddling and escaping. The study revealed that most of the coping strategies employed by participants were not means of resisting the university but means of overcoming constraints paused by the university and thus facilitating university business
"Small houses": disruptions or re-ordering sexuality in Zimbabwe?
No full textThe article analyses the Zimbabwean phenomenon of small houses in order to determine whether or not involvement in such sexual arrangements liberate women. It analyses the level of subversion or disruption to sexual power caused by these relationships, and it documents the challenges these women encounter. In the course of the examination, it illuminates the reasons women opt for this type of relationship as well as the peculiar issues of ambivalence, conflicts, frustration, and agency they face within them. By raising questions about agency for small houses, the study simultaneously raises questions about attitudes towards sexuality and sexual desires that are held by small houses, visiting married men, and wives
Evaluating older persons’ perceptions on their quality of life in an old people’s institution: a Zimbabwean case study
No full textThis study evaluates perceptions on the quality of life of older adults and the extent to which they practiced self-determination in an institution. Participant observation, in-depth interviews, and life histories are used to study 16 older adults and 4 officials who are purposively selected and studied over 2.5 months between July and September 2002. Data are analyzed using the Miles and Huberman approach. Findings reveal that the ability to affect decisions pertaining to one’s care positively affects that individual’s perception of institutional life. The typical life course of an older male is also discussed. Older adults perceive their quality of life as negative and decreasing because they have little choice on their care and quality of life. The institution is affected by many adverse conditions in a socioeconomic environment, such as inflation at the rate of 4000% per annum, dwindling donor support, little government support, and negative attitudes of officials at Rubatsiro
Survival strategies of Zimbabwean migrants in Johannesburg
No full textThe study analyses Zimbabwean migrants’ strategies of survival in a largely xenophobic environment. The paper argues that exclusion of Zimbabweans in the labour market and other spheres of South Africa is largely a product of attempts by South African institutions and officials to draw boundaries separating insiders from outsiders. This inevitably limits the opportunity structure of most Zimbabwean migrants, pushing them from the formal to informal sector and further underground. Zimbabwean migrants survive by mainly concealing their identity. They adopt South African languages, ways of dressing, bribe the police and some engage in friendships, relationships and marriages with locals. Migrants also engage in self-employment,
crime and church activities. The study however reveals that migrants mainly use their ethnic and religious networks, which largely promotes bonding rather than bridging social capital. Such social capital may not really help them to be integrated into the local South African community. This study is based on qualitative research conducted among Zimbabweans in the Kempton and Tembisa areas of Johannesburg, South Africa in 2012
Zimbabwean migrant entrepreneurs in Kempton Park and Tembisa, Johannesburg: challenges and opportunities
No full textAbstract,The study explores the lives of seventeen Zimbabwean entrepreneurs studied in Tembisa and Kempton Park, Johannesburg in 2012. It analyses the structure of opportunity available to these entrepreneurs and argues that although migrants can create employment, they do not necessarily benefit the local populations
because their businesses are too small and also because of their reluctance to employ locals whom they consider lazy and troublesome. Zimbabweans originally migrated to South Africa in search of good salaried jobs rather than selfemployment. Self-employment is largely a result of dissatisfaction with theconditions of employment, inability to get desired jobs and having a bettercommand of human and social capital. These migrants have a short history inself-employment and are the first to establish such economic ventures in their
families. Their businesses thrive because of hard work, engaging in activities that they are familiar with (thus they do not venture into complicated, unfamiliar territory) and relying on the neighbourhood which serves as a market. All the entrepreneurs studied view South Africa as a land of opportunities where one can establish himself/herself and survive, although the environment is riddled with xenophobia. However, most can be classified as survival entrepreneurs
The migration experience and multiple identities of Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa
No full textThis study shows how South African authorities and locals create 'spoilt identities' for non-South
Africans through the makwerekwere image. It also shows how the non-South Africans, in this case
Zimbabweans, try to resist such claims creating their own strategies and moral defences against such
stereotyping. They also invent their own identity of South Africans. These Zimbabweans go on to
reinvent themselves and create new identities as injiva. My argument is that while the process of
identity formation is that of claims and counter-claims, it largely requires certain material, economic,
symbolic resources to be deployed for successful identity formation. The command of certain resources and ability to adapt quickly to the new environment determines the level of success in
evading the makwerekwere identity and also in carving a positive injiva identity
Just Joking? investigating sexual harassment in a departmental store in Gweru, Zimbabwe
No full textThis study investigates the reasons for sexual harassment, its nature and policy implications in a departmental store in Gweru, Zimbabwe. It also analyses the costs of sexual harassment on both the individual and the organisation. The study is based on a qualitative research conducted between January and July 2008. 24 respondents (14 females and 10 males) were studied using semi structured interviews and questionnaires. Results are analysed using the Miles and Huberman (1994) approach to data analysis. Results reveal that contract employment and lack of skills create vulnerability and dependency, a situation exploited by the powerful male superiors who sexually harass their subordinate females. Sexual harassment is institutionalised at Tatenda where management refuses to acknowledge it as a problem. The reluctance of management to craft policies on sexual harassment and grievance procedures added to women’s fear of reporting sexual harassment perpetuates a culture of silence at Tatenda
The effectiveness of urban agriculture as a survival strategy among Gweru urban farmers in Zimbabwe
No full textThe Nyanga Declaration signed by municipal authorities in 2002 represented a turning point in Zimbabwe as its accommodation and official recognition of urban agriculture heralded a change in the attitude of municipalities. Urban agriculture has great potential to improve household food security and survival, but as long as municipal initiatives only officially accommodate it without providing proper facilitation, like rearrangement and reallocation of resources, urban agriculture will continue to face many challenges
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