The economic lives of migrant women in a South African city: informal work, gender, and transformative possibilities

ABSTRACT

This article explores the economic lives of 30 migrant women who recounted their oral histories as part of a project on migration, gender, and inclusion in the city of Durban, South Africa. The oral histories include narratives from internal migrants, South African women migrating from rural areas, as well as women arriving from other African countries. These narratives illustrate tangled and complex strategies and coping mechanisms deployed by the women to build economic livelihoods. This kaleidoscope of strategies works in both opposition and alignment with the contemporary structures of neoliberal capitalism and patriarchy. The article argues that intersubjective narratives are useful to make sense of how women navigate life and livelihoods when faced with the materiality of patriarchal social relations and a capitalist economy. Changes in women’s economic earnings and responsibilities have not coincided with large-scale dismantling of patriarchal ideologies, or neoliberal structures. Given this, there are limitations for transformative gender relations through engaging in forms of work. These fine-grained explorations of lived experiences require equally textured social and economic policies, which recognise how the workings of neoliberal capitalism rely on, and support, forms of oppression linked to gender and migration.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration;
• gender;
• economic lives;
• patriarchy;
• neoliberalism;
• oral histories;

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Nomkhosi Xulu-Gama for her valuable contribution in collecting the isiZulu oral histories, as well as the Democracy Development Program and the African Solidarity Network for their partnership and support. We would also like to thank the Cities Alliance for funding this research work (CA/CATF/710/01).

Notes

¹ See Buckland, Lees, and Silverman (2019) for an analysis of Thokoza Hostel as home in the city.

^2. This article draws from the project’s research report (Erwin and Grest 2018), but focuses on the economic lives of the migrant women in this study. For more on the project please see: http://durbanmigration.org.za/.

³. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Durban University of Technology (IREC 128/16) and participants are anonymised.

⁴. The oral history archive is available online at http://durbanmigration.org.za/.

⁵. https://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/a130-98_0.pdf

⁶. The South African Department of Home Affairs, with the help of two UN offices, aimed to finally address a backlog of over 153,000 applicants waiting for decisions on their refugee status, some it was reported for between 10 and 20 years (Independent Online 16 March 2021).

⁷. ID stands for Identification Document, allocated to South African citizens and South African permanent residents (after 5 years of holding a refugee permit you are able to apply for permanent resident).

⁸. Currently this stands at R20 an hour (https://www.gov.za/speeches/new-nmw-base-rate-come-effect-march-%E2%80%93-department-employment-and-labour-24February2020-0000#:~:text=In%20terms%20of%20the%20new,a%20minimum%20wage%20of%20R15.).

⁹. A derogative term in South Africa for people viewed as foreigners.

¹⁰. How class positionalities shape motivations for migrating is not explored here as fully as we would have liked. See Kihato (2007b) for a useful discussion on this.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Cities Alliance [CA/CATF/710/01].

Notes on contributors

Kira Erwin

Kira Erwin is an urban sociologist, and Senior Researcher, at the Urban Futures Centre at the Durban University of Technology in Durban, South Africa. She focuses largely on race, racialisation, racism, and anti-racism work within the urban context. Her projects explore narratives of home and belonging within the city. She is currently working on two environmental justice projects with a collective of researchers, activists, civil society organisations, artists and informal workers on inclusive ocean governance, and zero-waste in the city. She makes use of creative participatory methods, and collaborates with colleagues in various creative fields to produce forms of public storytelling that extend research beyond the walls of academia.

Monique Marks

Monique Marks is a professor at the Durban University of Technology and the head of the Urban Futures Centre. Initially trained as a social worker, she holds a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Natal, and writes predominantly in the field of criminology. Over the past five years she has developed a special interest in drug use disorders and drug policy. She, together with a team from TB HIV Care, led South Africa’s first opioid substitution demonstration programme. She has published widely in the areas of drug use; policing; youth social movements, police labour relations, police organisational change, and urban safety.