Anti-Oppressive Perspectives on Social Work’s Responsibilities Towards Irregular Migrants in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This paper is centred on a critical incident involving the South African Department of Social Development (DSD) vis-à-vis a group of irregular migrant children that was intercepted in November 2017, while en route from Zimbabwe to their parents, who were awaiting them in Cape Town, South Africa. Upon this interception, a South African Children’s Court ruled that the children were in need of protection and placed them in the custody of the South African state, pending their repatriation back to Zimbabwe. Social workers employed by the DSD were instrumental in this process, in the course of which parents were denied physical access to their children. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the ethical dilemmas that arose from this case and critique the role played by the DSD and social workers in its employ, using an anti-oppressive framework. I argue that this framework provides an appropriate basis from which to explore social work’s complex role where they find themselves rendering irregular migrants voiceless, powerless, and, further exposed to interpersonal and structural violence, instead of helping to work out ways of protecting people rendered vulnerable by conditions beyond their control.

KEYWORDS:

• Irregular migrants
• social justice
• reflexivity
• anti-oppressive practice
• social work

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my thanks to Derek Clifford and my former lecturer and supervisor, Dorothee Hölscher, for their mentorship and support in conceptualising and writing this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Sheron Mpofu, Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Social Science (Social Work), University of KwaZulu Natal.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor change. This change do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Irregular migrants are defined by the United Nations [UN] (2014) as people who cross international borders without documentation and authorisation, they are also those people who enter foreign countries regularly, and overstay their visas and permits.