Xenophobic Violence in South Africa: Critical Reflections on Current explanations Jean Pierre Misago ACMS-University of the Witwatersrand Jean. Misago@wits. ac. za HSRC Seminar Pretoria, 30 June 2015 www. migration. org. za
The African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits An internationally engaged; Africa-oriented; and African-based research and teaching centre dedicated to shaping academic and policy debates on migration, development and social transformation • Graduate degree programmes (Hons, MA, Ph. D) with students from across Africa, North America, and Europe; • Research in 12 African countries on issues related to migration, urbanisation, human rights, development, governance, and social change; • Partnerships in 4 continents; • Provides research services and support to government, international organizations, local NGOs, and rights advocates. www. migration. org. za
Main Arguments • Most current explanations are valuable in describing the socio-economic and political context but they fall short as scientific explanations for the occurrence of the violence • Only a multivariate explanatory model can account for all the determinants of the violence www. migration. org. za
Methods • A decade of ACMS quantitative and qualitative research; on-going • Ph. D work • All together, more than 30 case studies across the country (latest Soweto) Ø Focus on explaining violence and not attitudes Ø ‘Most similar systems’ approach to understand why violence in some areas and not in others www. migration. org. za
Conceptual clarifications • Xenophobia =/= Xenophobic violence: Violence is not a quantitative degree of conflict (Blubaker et al. 1999). Attitudes are not a good predictor of behaviour Ø This discussion about causal explanations of xenophobic violence and not of xenophobia. • Xenophobia or just criminality? Not mutually exclusive. Xeno violence is a bias-motivated crime • Afrophobia? Does not pass empirical test www. migration. org. za
Current Causal Explanations: Not these…. www. migration. org. za
Current Causal Explanations: These rather…. • Can be grouped into 3 main categories: Ø Economic and material: Competition for scarce resources and opportunities; poverty, inequality, unemployment; Service Delivery Failures; Mass Influx and Inadequate Border Control (invoking The ‘threshold of tolerance’ hypothesis: the greater the numbers of migrants in a context of deep dislike , the more violent the reaction (Relative deprivation theory). Ø Historical, political and institutional: the legacy of apartheid (segregation, isolation policies, etc. ), the impact of post-apartheid nation-building efforts and the failure to meet socio-economic expectations. Ø Psycho-social: cultural stereotyping, repressed historical trauma, culture of violence. www. migration. org. za
Current Causal Explanations: Shortcomings • Common and long standing: cannot explain violence in some areas and not in others with similar socio-economic conditions • Reductionist, one-factor, mono-causal explanations: can be at best partial or incomplete. Ø Biggest problem: they do not seem to recognise their limitations. They claim to be all encompassing i. e. to account for all the elements of the causal chain. Ø What these explanations really do is to describe the conditions prevailing in affected areas; they do not explain how these conditions exactly lead to mass violence targeting foreign nationals. www. migration. org. za
Determinants of Xeno violence (or elements of the violence causal chain) • Deprivation: real or relative • Belief: that foreigners are the cause of the deprivation • Collective discontent towards foreigners • Micro-politics & political economy: instrumental motives of instigators • Mobilization of the discontent: the trigger • Governance and social controls: favorable opportunity structure for violence. “Nothing happens in out community if leaders do not want it”, Alex respondent www. migration. org. za
Conclusion: Towards a Multivariate Model of Xeno Violence www. migration. org. za
www. migration. org. za
Xenophobic Violence in South Africa: Critical Reflections on Current explanations Jean Pierre Misago ACMS-University of the Witwatersrand Jean. Misago@wits. ac. za HSRC Seminar Pretoria, 30 June 2015 www. migration. org. za
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