With an Apron in the Caboose: Illegal Migration across the Zimbabwe-South Africa Border Público

Musoni, Francis (2012)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/8p58pd961?locale=pt-BR
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Abstract

ABSTRACT
With an Apron in the Caboose: Illegal Migration across the Zimbabwe-South Africa
Border
This dissertation explores the history of illegal migration across the Zimbabwe-
South Africa border from the late nineteenth century to the first decade of the twenty-first
century. It argues that unlawful cross-border mobility between the two countries emerged
and expanded as an unavoidable by-product of "modern" state making processes, which
began with European colonization of the Limpopo Valley in the late nineteenth century.
Archival and oral research in Zimbabwe and South Africa revealed that official efforts to
enforce the Limpopo River as a geopolitical boundary created the phenomenon of illegal
migration. From the 1890s to 2010, successive states on either side of the border
deployed legal and quasi-legal measures in a bid to control people's movements between
the two countries. Chapters in this dissertation show that official efforts to control
movements across the Zimbabwe-South border met with limited success. While
differences among state officials and employers militated against effective regulation of
cross-border mobility, illegal migrants devised sophisticated ways of evading both
countries' migration control measures. Contrary to scholars who see illegal migration as a
symptom of weak or failed states and those who view it as a manifestation of migrants'
creative subversion of authority, this dissertation treats illegal migration as embedded
within broader frameworks of state formation, border enforcement and politics of
migration control in Southern Africa.

Table of Contents

Abstract: iv Acknowledgements: vi Abbreviations: x Introduction: 1 Chapter 1: Colonial Conquest and the Creation of Illegal Migrants 33 Chapter 2: Migration Law and the Promotion of Illegality 58 Chapter 3: Illegal Migration and Regional Politics of Labor 95 Chapter 4: Migration Control as Defense Strategy 133 Chapter 5: Crossing the Boundary Fence 161 Chapter 6 : Illegal Migration, Violence and Public Healing 197 Conclusion: 227 Bibliography: 234

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