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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Alien Strangers in Our Midst: The Dreaded Foreign Invasion and 'Fortress South Africa'
Author:Murray, Martin J.ISNI
Year:2003
Periodical:Canadian Journal of African Studies
Volume:37
Issue:2-3
Pages:440-466
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:violence
urban society
immigrants
migrant workers
labour migration
Ethnic and Race Relations
Politics and Government
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/4107246
Abstract:The unsettled circumstances of urban living in the 'new South Africa' have proven a fertile breeding ground for a variety of alarmist fantasies about unwanted foreigners. In all South African cities, migrants face many difficulties ranging from discrimination and prejudice to outright violence and intimidation, but the epicentre of anti-immigrant xenophobia is the Greater Johannesburg metropolitan region. Like similar cities, Johannesburg has become a magnet for 'bipolar migration': on the one hand, it has attracted cosmopolitan professionals aiming to preserve or enhance incomes and lifestyles to which they have grown accustomed in their countries of origin; on the other hand, it has drawn into its orbit a large corps of marginalized people seeking a foothold in low-wage work or the informal economy. It is difficult to investigate poor treatment of immigrants, because the available evidence consists largely of anecdotal, sketchy stories sensationalized in newspaper accounts or passed on in urban legend. Despite these evidentiary limitations, this article pieces together a portrait, or montage, of anti-immigrant violence derived from 'empirically grounded vignettes' in and around the Greater Johannesburg metropolitan region. It also pays attention to official and unofficial responses to urban violence against immigrants. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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