Youthscapes: the politics of belonging for ‘Makwerekwere’ youth in South African schools

Abstract

This article is framed within the global context of immigration and the resultant debates around citizenship, belonging, inclusion and exclusion. The task of schools as social institutions is to ‘integrate’ and ‘educate’ immigrant youth and as such they can be seen as the primary sites where the politics of belonging and struggles over belonging and citizenship are waged. Drawing on the conceptual framework of ‘youthscapes’ and the theoretical framework of critical race theory, this article engages with the contradictions inherent in schools and the manner in which the South African education system is implicated in constructing different ‘kinds’ of citizens and reproducing hierarchies of belonging, even in its efforts at inclusivity.

Keywords::

• immigrant students
• inclusion/exclusion
• identities
• citizenship
• critical race theory

Notes

^1. Black – the term ‘Black’ derives from the apartheid racial classifications of the different peoples of South Africa and is inclusive of Coloured, Indian and African. The use of these terms, although problematic, has continued through the post-apartheid era in the country. The term African refers to the indigenous black people of South Africa. In this article, I use these terms grudgingly to help present the necessary context for my work.

^2. Makwerekwere: people who were identified as not properly belonging to the South African nation. This is a prejudicial term that suggests the ‘non-belonging’ of those to whom it is applied.

^3. Gauteng: One of nine provinces of South Africa that was established after the advent of democracy in South Africa.