The Gendered Nature of Xenophobia in South Africa

In May 2008, a wave of xenophobic violence broke out across South Africa, shocking the nation and attracting international condemnation. However, migrant women in South Africa consider that period as an example, albeit extreme, of what they experience as an unavoidable aspect of their daily lives as foreigners in South Africa.

Research by the CSVR amongst migrant women in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban – before, during and after the May xenophobic attacks  – found that the impact of daily experiences of xenophobia on migrant women in South Africa is far-reaching. While some forms of xenophobia are experienced by both men and women migrants alike – such as lack of access to housing, healthcare and unemployment, as well as discrimination at the hands of the police and the Department of Home Affairs – some manifestations of xenophobia are particularly gendered.

Foreign migrant women are often made more visible, and therefore more vulnerable, through various ‘markers of difference’ that set them apart from South Africans. These include the languages spoken, traditional clothing, and cultural practices. The study found many foreign women adopting a self-imposed silence as a measure of safety, not speaking in public for fear of being identified as foreign. Changing their dress code was considered a survival strategy among some migrant women, as one woman explained: ‘So we change our behaviour just to be like the people we live with ...because we thought if we continue to dress the same way we did in our country, the people will segregate us’. Perhaps most disturbing was the reaction of nurses in a local hospital to a migrant woman giving birth, and on whom female circumcision had been performed: the nurses called colleagues to come and look at the woman’s genitalia, all the while asking, while the woman was in labour, ‘What is wrong with this lady? What happened to her?’ In this situation, the migrant woman had become a spectacle: it was not her welfare but the display of her anatomical differences that had the attention of the nurses, exacerbating the woman’s discomfit and humiliating her.

As women are generally considered to be the traditional bearers of culture, the issue of identity and belonging becomes a distinctly gendered problem for women migrants. In this study women expressed a need to preserve their identity after losing so much through their displacement: however, holding onto their ‘distinguishing’ identity in the South African context impeded their integration into their new communities. In many cases, the inability to return home (for whatever reason) coupled with the inability to fully and successfully integrate in South Africa means that migrant women feel caught between two systems, unable to fully belong to or identify with either of them: migrant women in this study spoke of their continual fear, and consequent loss of freedom, in South Africa. A woman migrant’s relationship with her family also renders her experience of displacement very different to a man’s. Women migrants often face long periods of separation from loved ones, for reasons of family support, security, practicality and even education, resulting in a keen sense of loss.

The power imbalances inherent in any male-female relationship are exaggerated in situations where women are more vulnerable; in this case, migrant women are particularly vulnerable to abuse, not only from South African men, but also from their own husbands. Migrant women often start working and have their own money for the first time when they migrate to South Africa, meaning that they begin to exercise their rights. Their husbands can find this situation unfamiliar and threatening, which can result in domestic violence and/or separation. In addition, many migrant women felt sexually preyed upon by South African men, who exploit their vulnerability as foreign women in an unfamiliar context, often in risky employment, without recourse to the law, and without community support and protection.

Migrant women are, however, surprisingly resilient in a context that does not provide them with many opportunities. Their agency was evident in the efforts they make to earn a living, educate their children, and provide for their families. Many educated migrant women were working as car-guards in order to make ends meet: some of them had used this opportunity to earn enough money for further education or to start their own business. In addition, women employed a variety of coping mechanisms which included belonging to religious groups, and support groups accessed through migrant organisations. Their resilience in the face of such hardship and within such an unforgiving context pays tribute to the strength and perseverance of migrant women in South Africa.