Attitudes towards foreigners in informal settlements targeted for upgrading in South Africa: A gendered perspective

abstract

Using intersectionality as the organising theoretical framework, this article argues that the attitudes of informal settlement residents towards foreigners are complex, varied and moulded by a multiplicity of factors. Gender intersects in complex ways with social class, space (urban/rural) and political/ideological leanings, among other variables, to shape attitudes. The socially constructed characterisation results in inclusion or exclusion. Indeed, the attitudes held by individuals and groups depend on social and economic positioning as well as the spaces they occupy within the urban/rural/class divides. This serves to explain reticence, denialism and/or justification of violence by different groups in informal settlements, and the distinctions between males and females, and between employers and workers.

Therefore, the argument put forward by this article is that attitudes of informal settlement dwellers (as distinct from slum dwellers) in South Africa towards foreigners, and the resulting unequal outcomes, are explicable from multiple forms of oppression, advantage and disadvantage, and hegemonic power structures. These attitudes are dynamic over time. They are fashioned by interconnections and kinship ties between citizens and foreigners. In addition, contestations over resources and opportunity, as well as notions of identity and citizenship, play a part in how the former view the latter. Crucially, gender intersects with social class and region to form the attitudes that are displayed by citizens towards foreigners in South Africa.

keywords:

• gender
• xenophobia
• informal settlements
• intersectionality
• kinship and identity politics

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Catherine Ndinda

CATHERINE NDINDA is a Chief Research Specialist at the Economic Performance and Development unit of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). She holds a PhD in Social Science and an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning (Development Studies), with extensive experience in the design and implementation of Social Science research and evaluation of the effectiveness of national policies. Her current interests are in monitoring and evaluation, and she has conducted and contributed to evaluation studies, including ‘Design assessment of the South African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Policy’ (principal investigator); ‘South Africa’s Revitalized Response to AIDS and HIV’ (SARRAH) (expert evaluator), ‘Audit Survey of the Housing Association of Blaauwberg’ (HAB) (principal investigator) and ‘Baseline Assessment for the Future Impact Evaluation of Informal Settlements Targeted for Upgrading’ (2014–2016) (principal investigator). In population and health Catherine has been involved in studies including ‘An exploratory study into the nature and extent of Substance Abuse in Mpumalanga’ (2012)(co-principal investigator), ‘Circular Migration in Eastern Cape’ (2013) and ‘Situation analysis of Population and Development in Eight Priority Districts in Eastern Cape and KZN’ (2013).

Catherine has been involved in policy development and policy analysis and she currently holds a research fellowship on ‘The analysis of non-communicable disease policies in SA’. Given her research in analysing the post-apartheid housing policy, she has published widely on subsidised housing in SA and gender. She is author of the book Women and Subsidised housing in KwaZulu-Natal published by Lambert Publishing (2011), and co-authored a text on Women’s Activism for Gender Equality in Africa. Her work has appeared in high impact development and gender studies journals.

Tidings P. Ndhlovu

TIDINGS P. NDHLOVU obtained his PhD from the University of East Anglia in the UK, and is a Senior Lecturer in Economics in the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, having previously taught at the University of Manchester, UMIST (now part of the University of Manchester), University of East Anglia and the University of Essex. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Graduate School of Business Leadership (GSBL), University of South Africa, Nanjing University, China, and the University of Caen, France. Tidings is also external examiner (postgraduate programmes) at the University of Fort Hare, SA, and supervises PhD candidates at the Uganda Management Institute, Durban University of Technology and GSBL in SA.

He was involved in founding the International Academy of African Business and Development (IAABD) 16 years ago, including the organisation’s journal, The Journal of African Business. He has been Executive Secretary of IAABD for the last 3 years. He has also been Associate Editor of the Journal of Green Economy and Development (JGED) since its inception in 2014, and chair of the annual JGED Conferences.

Tiding’s research focuses on commodity agreements, such as the EU/African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Sugar Protocol, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and subsidiary questions, the impact of EU aid programmes on developing countries, and theoretical Marxian and Keynesian/neo-Ricardian issues. In addition, he has worked on issues of development, including globalisation, global (financial) crises, structural adjustment policies, foreign direct investment, and Intensive Alternatives to Custody (UK), entrepreneurship, food ‘crisis’, sustainable development and service delivery, corporate social responsibility and corporate social investment, decent work and livelihoods strategies, and development of crafts for export, particularly with reference to SA. He has visited SA numerous times during 2005–2015 to conduct interviews and initiate joint research projects and/or collaboration with colleagues and institutions in SA. Email: [email protected]