1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910793148303321

Autore

Gastrow Vanya

Titolo

Problematizing the Foreign Shop : Justifications for Restricting the Migrant Spaza Sector in South Africa / / Vanya Gastrow

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Baltimore, Maryland : , : Project Muse, , 2018

Baltimore, Md. : , : Project MUSE, , 2018

©2018

ISBN

1-920596-44-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (44 pages)

Collana

SAMP migration policy series ; ; no. 80

Disciplina

338.04089

Soggetti

Immigrants - South Africa

Business enterprises, Black - South Africa

Home-based businesses - South Africa

Informal sector (Economics) - South Africa

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 34-36).

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Methodology -- Governance interventions aimed at curtailing migrant small businesses -- The Masiphumelele intervention -- Other interventions -- Justifications for curbing migrant spazas -- Economic harm -- Illegal activity -- Increased crime -- Reducing violence -- Broader factors contributing to political anxiety over migrant spazas -- Local political dynamics behind migrant spaza regulation -- Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

Small businesses owned by international migrants and refugees are often the target of xenophobic hostility and attack in South Africa. This report examines the problematization of migrant-owned businesses in South Africa, and the regulatory efforts aimed at curtailing their economic activities. In so doing, it sheds light on the complex ways in which xenophobic fears are generated and manifested in the country's social, legal and political orders. Efforts to curb migrant spaza shops in South Africa have included informal trade agreements at local levels, fining migrant shops, and legislation that prohibits asylum seekers from operating businesses in the country. Several of these interventions



have overlooked the content of local by-laws and outed legal frameworks. The report concludes that when South African township residents attack migrant spaza shops, they are expressing their dissatisfaction with their socio-economic conditions to an apprehensive state and political leadership. In response, governance actors turn on migrant shops to demonstrate their allegiance to these residents, to appease South African spaza shopkeepers, and to tacitly blame socio-economic malaise on perceived foreign forces. Overall, these actors do not have spaza shops primarily in mind when calling for the stricter regulation of these businesses. Instead, they are concerned about the volatile support of their key political constituencies and how this backing can be undermined or generated by the symbolic gesture of regulating the foreign shop.