Porous Borders: Gender and Migration in Southern Africa

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) was set up to conduct policy-relevant research on cross-border migration to post-apartheid South Africa from other Southern African countries. Such migration is commonly perceived as a threat to security and economic wellbeing in South Africa, and present government policy remains inherently anti-immigration. This paper is based on the results of a major survey conducted by SAMP of residents of Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique on their patterns and perceptions of migration. Results show that the ‘typical’ female migrant is law-abiding, responsible, entrepreneurial and resourceful, employing cross-border movement as a mechanism for her own and her family's betterment. The paper offers recommendations for policy, with a view to making it at once less xenophobic and more gender-sensitive. Far from being discouraged, the paper argues, the to-and-fro migration practised by Southern African women should instead be facilitated. On a theoretical level, the paper makes a contribution to the ongoing debates in the literature on gender, migration and development.1