Livelihood Precarity of Migrants: Perspectives of African Refugees in Durban, South Africa

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v18i01.67514

Keywords:

African migrants, Durban, livelihoods, migration, refugees, South Africa

Abstract

Migrants and refugees face numerous socioeconomic and institutional challenges in the host cities and countries. They are excluded from full participation in the labor market, which makes them vulnerable to poverty. To survive, migrants and refugees join the informal economic sector. Informed by the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF), the article examines how African refugees in Durban make and maintain their livelihoods, including their encounters with marginalization. Participants were drawn from Congolese, Rwandese, and Burundian community groups living in the inner city of Durban. The snowballing sampling method was key in identifying the participants, while face-to-face interviews were used for data collection. The findings show that African refugees in Durban pursue diverse forms of livelihood in the informal sector. They are faced with numerous challenges, such as a lack of start-up capital, weak social networks to protect themselves and their businesses, bureaucratic challenges, discrimination, and xenophobic attacks. Regardless of these challenges, migrants still forge ahead by starting their businesses and making a living under the circumstances of precarity and marginalization.

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Author Biography

Beatrice Samson Umbyeyi

Beatrice Samson Umubyeyi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7166-4785 is a Ph.D specialized in Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies. She is a Post doctoral research fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She has published book chapters, Journal articles in accredited journals, attended conferences, seminars. Write research progress report and final reports. She conducted community workshops on peacebuilding and conflict transformation in South Africa and Australia. She has teaching experience and supervision of postgraduate students, also has good academic networks and this is evident from numerous research conferences she attended in Africa and abroad. She has published numerous articles and book chapters. Her research areas include but not limited to entrepreneurship, family conflict and conflict resolution, conflict transformation, peace building, migration, regional integration, indigenous knowledge.

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Published

2024-06-30

How to Cite

Umbyeyi, B. S. (2024). Livelihood Precarity of Migrants: Perspectives of African Refugees in Durban, South Africa. Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 18(01), 7–15. https://doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v18i01.67514

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Articles