Over the past few weeks, several events have taken place in South Africa (SA) which are all unfortunate for displaced communities here. In the November local elections, a number of new parties which have called for restrictions on migrants and produced narratives blaming various social pathologies on immigrant groups, playing into populist and xenophobic attitudes, […]
The past weeks have emphasised again the extreme provocations, deep insecurity and lack of political will to support displaced persons. This ranges from the plight of refugees on the border between Belarus and Poland to the arrest of a priest helping migrants on the border of Mexico and the USA and the marked increase in […]
In South Africa, the country moves towards local government elections. By definition, these elections have a huge impact on the living conditions of people at the most basic level. They are also the only elections in which individuals are voted for directly. There have been instances in the past where local problems and prejudices have […]
The Roman Catholic Church observes the last Sunday in September as World Day for Migrants and Refugees. This year marked the 107th such observance. The 2021 message, with its emphasis on solidarity, was titled ‘Towards an Ever Wider We.’ Pope Francis expressed his fear that after the pandemic the world would plunge into more feverish […]
In many parts of the world including South Africa, the policy approach to mobile communities continues to be one which ranges from growing ambivalence to increasing exclusion and, in some parts of the world, downright hostility. As has been noted often, the pandemic continues to render already vulnerable communities even more insecure. The links in […]
In South Africa August is observed as Women’s Month. It is inspired by the march of 20 000 women on the Union Buildings in 1956, protesting against the extension of the odious pass laws to women, and indeed against all the other demeaning apartheid laws. It was and remains to this day the story of […]
The plight of mobile people during the various levels of lockdown continues to be complicated and unpredictable. One of the articles listed below speaks of the ‘heightened levels of precarity’ for groups. What is true of the world is also seen in microcosm in South Africa. Refugee Digest 55 by Peter-John Pearson..
Digest 54 Refugees, Migrants and Displaced Persons by Peter-John Pearson
Migrants and Displaced Persons By Peter-John Pearson
Refugee Digest 52
