Structural forces shape xenophobia in South Africa: Looking beyond the human agent

Abstract

In examining xenophobia in South Africa, scholars have advanced various theoretical explanations to make sense of its causes and nature. Within this paper, I focus on the ways in which multiple structural arrangements create conditions for the manifestation of xenophobia in post‐apartheid South Africa. By drawing on Louis Althusser's notion of ‘interpellation’ and Judith Butler's concept of ‘the subject,’ I disconnect xenophobia in South Africa from the conscious and autonomous human agent and locate it within larger structural frameworks, namely historical residues of othering, neo‐liberal political economy, the exclusionary state and negative media representations of refugees and migrants. I argue that voluntary, conscious attitudes do not primarily lead to violence or other forms of exclusion as some may argue; instead, a constellation of systemic/structural forces shape and inform xenophobic attitudes and violence. This paper asks scholars to look more deeply into the relationship between exclusion/violence and structural constraints than perhaps they have.

Being black and non‐citizen in South Africa: Intersecting race, white privilege and afrophobic violence in contemporary South Africa

“…Thinking about domestic work through the colonial discourse of master/mistress-slave relationship, this form of employment is disempowering and reduces blacks to human beings without any agency and/ or aspirations or whose only aspirations are to serve the masters/mistresses (Archer, 2011;Bosch & Mcloed, 2015;Jinnah, 2020). By normalizing this form of employment, black South Africans find themselves competing for such employment opportunities with refugees and asylum seekers from other African countries (see Dahlberg & Thapar-Bjorkert, 2023;Pineteh, 2017;Tewolde, 2020;Tewolde, 2023).…”

“…However, resilient structural racism as well as social class have driven unemployed and unskilled South Africans into unhealthy competition with African migrants including refugees and asylum seekers in this informal employment sector. So, when some blacks and white South Africans speak about the porousness of borders and the urgency to protect South Africa's sovereignty from an imaginary influx of illegal migrants or when politicians construct the "illegal migrants are taking your jobs" narrative, they are also referring to domestic employment and other forms of precarious work in the South African informal economy (See Mathers & Landau, 2007;Pineteh, 2017;Tewolde, 2020Tewolde, , 2023. Although, they use this narrative to instigate violence against African migrants, many of them actually employ the same African migrants, particularly those without legal documents.…”

“…The contradiction also plays out in the way the ANC-led government has employed these cheap political tactics to garner political support in poor communities. For instance, Pineteh's (2017) analysis of the framing of African migrants in South Africa exposes how political rhetoric and media representations deceptively place migrants at the centre of social pathologies in contemporary South Africa (Also see Tewolde, 2020Tewolde, , 2023Dahlberg & Thapar-Bjorkert, 2023).…”

Situating Dashed Prospects of Independence into the Xenophobic Narrative in South Africa

“…Government ministries, mostly represented by top government officials, have usually adopted a loose use of labels such as "undocumented" or "illegal" to refer to immigrants (Akinola, 2017;Tewolde, 2023). Of significance is to note that, such a portrayal of immigrants without real evidence has been a vehicle necessitating "political opportunism."…”

The impact of organizational politics on work engagement—the mediating role of the doctrine of the mean

“…Despite some scholars, such as Oubibi et al (2022) , Munoz et al (2022) , emphasizing that certain employees may actively adapt and engage in organizational political behavior to achieve personal goals and subsequently increase work engagement. Tewolde (2023) argues that in most countries, the majority of residents oppose and detest the phenomenon of organizational politics. Furthermore, Lalive et al (2023) observes that employees nearing retirement may exhibit indifference to organizational politics, implying that those still actively employed might be more sensitive to such dynamics.…”