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Refugee Digest 65: Refugees, Migrants and Displaced Persons by Peter-John Pearson

The rise and seeming popularity of Operation Dudula (translated: ‘to push away’) has in many ways dominated the refugee and migrant space in recent times. Many fear that the sharp xenophobic narratives will, if given publicity and on the basis of repetition, become dangerously dominant, with dire consequences. Many also fear that the modus operandi […]

Briefing Paper 539 – The Presidential Employment Stimulus – Denting Unemployment? by Kenny Pasensie

Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA) latest quarterly labour-force survey, released in November,1 did not make for good reading. South Africa’s unemployment rate is now at a world record high of 34.9% – that is about 14.3 million of the working-age population. If the expanded definition of unemployment is used (this includes discouraged jobseekers) the rate […]

Briefing Paper 538 – Municipal Coalitions – A Viable Way Forward? by Mike Pothier

More than month after the official results of the 2021 Local Government Elections were released, the mayoral committees of at least three major cities had not been finalised. Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni were all ‘won’ by the Democratic Alliance, and that party’s nominees duly took up the two most important roles, mayor and speaker, in […]

Briefing Paper 537 – Where are They? Missing and Abandoned Children by Lois Law

Children have become increasingly vulnerable to all kinds of abuse and neglect during the lockdown, and what little oversight there was in terms of school and ECD centres has been interrupted. It is an environment where it is easy for children to go missing, with ideal opportunities for trafficking. Furthermore, the lockdown has seen an […]

Briefing Paper 536 – The 2021 Report on Trafficking in Persons by Peter-John Pearson

Every year since 2000, the US State Department has issued a comprehensive analysis of the scourge of human trafficking and the attempts of various countries to combat it. The report seeks to “improve our collective efforts to comprehensively address human trafficking”. Each year the report assigns a tier ranking to various countries based on their […]

Response: Another 16 Days of Activism by Lois Law

The 16 Days of ‘Activism for No Violence against Women and Children Campaign’ (16 Days Campaign) is a United Nations campaign which takes place annually from 25th November (International Day of No Violence against Women) to 10th December (International Human Rights Day). It also forms the centrepoint of the government’s comprehensive ‘365 Days of Activism […]

Response: The National Labour Migration Policy by Peter-John Pearson

On 30th November 2021, the Deputy Director General for Public Employment Services in the Department of Labour, Sam Moratoba, told the portfolio committee on tourism that migrants constitute about 4% of South Africa’s population and about 7% of the workforce. In this regard he made the point that many undocumented migrants live under the radar, […]

Refugee Digest 61: Refugee, Migrants and Displaced Persons by Peter-John Pearson

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, […]