Böcker av Jonathan Crush

The UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration commits signatories "to eliminate all forms of discrimination, condemn and counter expressions, acts and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, violence, xenophobia and related intolerance against all migrants in conformity with international human rights law." This commitment puts the onus on signatory governments, including South Africa, to deal with the threat that increasingly accompanies global mobility: rising xenophobia in countries of migrant destination. The global migration and development agenda puts great emphasis on the positive development impacts of migration. This report argues that, in South Africa, two decades of xenophobia governance by denial and displacement has in fact intensified xenophobia on the ground as there is no countervailing discourse about the benefits of migration. The police and justice system seem generally unable or unwilling to bring perpetrators of xenophobic violence to book and xenophobic sentiment is licensed by hostile policies towards refugee protection and migrants in the informal sector. With official policies of xenophobia denialism and blaming in place, there seems little hope that South Africa will address the core commitments of the Global Compact on Migration and, in this environment, the consequences for migrants will continue to be extremely deleterious and deadly.

Concerns about the negative impact of the "brain drain" of health professionals from Africa have led to a dominant narrative in which those who migrate are a permanent, and costly, loss to the country of origin and a permanent, and valuable, gain for the country of destination. In the new world of transnationalism, a global skills market, and greatly increased mobility by health professionals, it is unlikely that the traditional permanent-exodus model of the brain drain narrative adequately captures all forms of migration by South African doctors. This report first examines the temporary employment opportunities for South African doctors in countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and Australia. This report draws two major conclusions: first, the dominant brain drain narrative overlooks the complex nature of South African physician migration and ignores the fact that a significant number of doctors have temporary employment experience outside the country. Second, it suggests that temporary employment overseas increases the chances of permanent emigration later.

This is the first research report to examine the nature and drivers of food insecurity in the northern Namibian towns of Oshakati, Ongwediva, and Ondangwa. As well as forming part of a new body of research on secondary urbanization and food security in Africa, the report makes systematic comparisons between the food security situation in this urban corridor and the much larger capital city of Windhoek. A major characteristic of urbanization in Namibia is the perpetuation of rural-urban linkages through informal rural-to-urban food remittances. This survey found that 55% of households in the three towns receive food from relatives in rural areas. Urban households also farm in nearby rural areas and incorporate that agricultural produce into their diets. The survey showed that over 90% of households in the three towns patronize supermarkets, which is a figure far higher than for any other food source. Overall, food security is better in Namibia's northern towns than in Windhoek, where levels of food insecurity are particularly high. However, just because the food insecurity situation is less critical in the north, the majority of households in the urban corridor are not food secure. Like Windhoek, these towns also have considerable income and food security inequality, with households in the informal settlements at greatest risk of chronic food insecurity.

In late 2006 SAMP undertook a national survey of the attitudes of the South African population towards foreign nationals in the country. The data from this survey allows us to analyze the state of the nation's mind on immigration, immigrants and refugees in the period immediately prior to the recent upsurge of xenophobic violence in South Africa. By comparing the results with those of previous surveys conducted by SAMP in the 1990s, we are also able to see if attitudes have changed and in what ways. Are they better now than they were in the days that prompted the South African Human Rights Commission to set up its Roll Back Xenophobia Campaign and partner with SAMP in a study of immigration, xenophobia and human rights in the country? Has xenophobia softened or hardened in the intervening years? Are xenophobic attitudes as widespread and vitriolic as they were then? How many South Africans were poised, in 2006, to turn their negative thoughts about foreign nationals into actions to "cleanse" their neighbourhoods and streets of fellow Africans?

The Southern African Migration Project is a collaborative project and this paper is published jointly by IDASA in Cape Town and Queen's University, Canada. It seeks to establish a background for understanding the complex and dynamic linkages between urbanisation, migration, HIV/Aids and urban food security in Southern and Eastern Africa. It documents the key dimensions of the connections. The linkages between HIV/Aids and urban food security are particularly less well-established, and in documenting them here, the authors simultaneously link them with migration, the first to examine these dynamics at a regional level. Jonathan Crush is the Director of the Southern African Migration Project, the Director of the Southern African Research Centre at Queen's University, Canada, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town.Miriam Grant is a Professor at the University of Calgary.Bruce Frayne is a Research Fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Coordinator of the Regional Network on Aids, Livelihoods and Food Security.