Living in, out of, and Between Two Cities: Migrants from Maputo in Johannesburg

Abstract

Using quantitative data and ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Johannesburg and Maputo between 2005 and 2007, this article explores the meaning of city life for Southern Mozambican migrants in Johannesburg. First, I analyze the trajectories of migrants in Maputo and Johannesburg, before and after migration to South Africa. Second, I propose an explanation of the absence of political organization and the weakness of social links among Mozambican migrants, probably the major characteristic that distinguishes them from other African migrants in Johannesburg. Third, I focus on Mozambicans' everyday life in Johannesburg to illustrate the nature and extent of adaptation and transformation within the city. In focusing on differences linked to workplace and residence, I show how a foreigner moves from being a total outsider to becoming part of the metropolis by learning to cope with the city, establishing good relationships with his neighbors, and building a minimal level of trust with his work mates.

Large-scale land acquisitions aggravate the feminization of poverty: findings from a case study in Mozambique

“…As masses of refuges returned home, the increase of freedom to circulate facilitated more flexible domestic and international labor flows to the formal and the increasingly important informal sector (Mercandalli and Anseeuw 2017). Currently, Mozambican migrants are oriented toward large Mozambican and South African cities where many of them work in the construction sector or as street vendors or hawkers (Vidal 2010). In addition, the mining industry has continued to absorb a substantial part of the Mozambican male workforce.…”

Translocal urbanism in Southern Africa: between Johannesburg and Maputo

“…referring to processing at border facilities, which in Shangana and Ronga Mozambican national languages sounds like 'mukhero' (Raimundo, 2005) It refers to Mozambican informal cross-border trading, mainly conducted between South Africa and Mozambique, though commuting flows encompass multiple scales, going from the regional level (in the case of trade between different provinces with neighbouring countries) to the international one (including trades with Brazil, Thailand, Hong Kong, Dubai and China). In this last case, the trade concerns the purchase of synthetic hair and cheap cosmetics in countries like Brazil and China to be resold in the booming Mozambican cosmetic industry, as E., a former mukhero guy I interviewed on a bus from Maputo to Johannesburg (Vidal, 2010) connecting southern Mozambique with eastern South Africa, that has been shaped by migration and extensive informal cross-border trading. This transnational space has been constructed by alternate historical events connected to the shifting economic and political systems in effect during and after apartheid.…”

“…It dates back to the beginning of 1900, when it was created by the social figure of the young male adventurer predominantly coming from rural areas of Mozambique and working in South African mines. It was the product of the work system based on temporary migration of the apartheid-era, that periodically forced migrant workers to go back home in order to retard their self-organisation (Vidal, 2010). , that is the increase on a global scale of women choosing to move to other countries particularly for work opportunities and in most of the cases migrating independently, rather than accompanying or joining husbands in host countries (Nkomo, 2011).…”

Practice of Citizenship: Mozambican Immigration within the City of Johannesburg

“…However, most of the time not spent working is spent at home. Mozambicans are dedicated to establishing good relationships at a neighbourhood level (Vidal 2009) in order to set up the protective networks against xenophobic attitudes. ''Peaceful neighbourhood relations'' (Vidal 2009: 9) are what Mozambicans aim for in Johannesburg in order to be safe within an invisible microcosm.…”