‘If you can't beat them, be them!’ – everyday experiences and ‘performative agency’ among undocumented migrant youth in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article explores the challenges and coping strategies of undocumented migrant youth in Cape Town, South Africa. Drawing on a theatre-based case study conducted with a core group of 10 participants the article shows firstly that participants’ lives are affected by emotional, legal and practical challenges such as loneliness, discrimination and fear. Secondly, the article develops the concept of ‘performative agency’ to illustrate how participants cope with and contest their challenges. Specifically, the article shows that the young people's theatrical performances draw on stereotypical notions of vulnerability and victimhood as a means to denounce the discrimination and oppression they experience. In public interactions with others, by contrast, the young migrants use performative agency to emphasise their strengths and positive attributes, thereby enhancing their integration in a hostile environment. The insights provided by this study can help strengthen policy responses to better support undocumented migrant youth in South Africa and elsewhere.

KEYWORDS:

• Undocumented migrant youth
• South Africa
• performative agency
• xenophobia
• theatre-based research
• James Scott

Acknowledgements

I thank the participants of this study for their commitment and trust.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 A note on terminology: I use the terms ‘foreign’ and ‘migrant’ as well as the terms ‘children’ and ‘youth’ interchangeably. In order to avoid notions of pity and dependency sometimes associated with the term ‘migrant children’, and to acknowledge migrant children's agency and independence, I use the terms youth and young people when referring to the participants of this study. I use the term children when referring to the generally accepted legal age of childhood until 18 years or when referring to other sources that speak of children.

2 According to General Comment No. 6 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, ‘unaccompanied children’ (also called unaccompanied minors) are children, […] who have been separated from both parents and other relatives and are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so. ‘Separated children’ are children, […] who have been separated from both parents, or from their previous legal or customary primary caregiver, but not necessarily from other relatives. These may, therefore, include children accompanied by other adult family members (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2005).

3 ‘Makwerekwere’ is commonly used as a derogatory term for foreigners in South Africa.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) and the European Union EUSA_ID Mobility Programme.