Document Type
Migration Policy Series
Publication Date
2022
Department
Balsillie School of International Affairs
Abstract
South Africa’s major cities are regularly wracked by large-scale xenophobic violence directed at migrants and refugees from other countries. Informal-sector businesses and their migrant owners and employees are particularly vulnerable targets during these attacks. Migrant-owned businesses are also frequently targeted in smallerscale looting and destruction of property. There is now a large literature on the characteristics and causes of xenophobic violence and attitudes in South Africa, based on quantitative and qualitative research in the country’s major metropolitan areas. One of the consequences of big-city xenophobia has been a search for alternative markets and safer spaces by migrants, including relocating to the country’s many smaller urban centres. The question addressed in this report is whether they are welcomed in these cities and towns or subject to the same kinds of victimization as in large cities. This report is the first to systematically examine this question by focusing on a group of towns in Limpopo province and the experiences of migrants in the informal sector there. Through survey evidence and in-depth interviews and focus groups with migrant and South African vendors, the report demonstrates that xenophobia is also pervasive in these smaller centres, in ways that both echo and differ from that in the large cities.
Recommended Citation
Crush, J. & Tawodzera, G. (2022). Small-Town Xenophobia and Migrant Anxieties in South Africa’s Limpopo Province. Waterloo, ON: Southern African Migration Programme. SAMP Migration Policy Series No. 84.