Xenophobia and You

posted by Ismail Farouk at Thursday, May 22, 2008

My neighbour, Tara Polzer has produced this leaflet, which she has been distributing in the suburbs of Johannesburg:

DON'T TOUCH MY SISTER, DON'T TOUCH MY BROTHER

You are not powerless in the face of violence and xenophobia around you. It is not only the responsibility of government and the police to respond. If you are horrified and saddened by the current violence, there are things you can do right now:

1. Speak with your local councillor, individually or in a group, and ensure that (s)he calls a ward meeting to condemn violence.

2. Start conversations with family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues, fellow learners and students, etc. about xenophobia and violence and about taking a public stance against it.

3. Call a meeting at your place of work and organise a discussion on the violence and on xenophobia.

4. Join your community policing forum and ensure that the CPF acts to protect foreign nationals and anyone else being threatened or targeted in your area.

5. Report any agitation or threats against foreign nationals or groups of South Africans to the police.

6. Check with police stations, community centres and churches sheltering victims of violence on what material donations are needed, and donate blankets, food and clothes, as needed.

7. Participate in any public forums you can access, including calling into talk radio shows, public meetings, writing letters to newspapers, etc.

8. Check that your foreign friends/ colleagues/ neighbours/ cleaners/ gardeners and their families are safe, and, if necessary, offer them refuge in your house.

9. If foreign nationals in your neighbourhood are likely to be targeted in their homes, organise a group of people to spend the night at their house so that a South African can open the door if someone knocks in the night asking about foreigners.

10. Encourage any public figures you know, including artists, sports persons, business people, teachers, etc. to speak out publically against racism, xenophobia and violence.

11. Do not let racist and xenophobic comments go unchallenged.

12. Pass this list on to everyone you know.

Labels: migration, refugees, spatial justice, xenophobia

Urban regeneration and evictions in Bertrams, Johannesburg

posted by Ismail Farouk at Monday, February 25, 2008

Case Study by Ismail Farouk for the Migrants Rights Monitoring Project, special report No.2: Migrant Access to Housing in South African Cities. Report by Jennifer Greenburg and Tara Polzer, Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Bertrams is the oldest suburb in Johannesburg. Located to the east of the city, the suburb has a history of displacement and migration which spans over 80 years. Since political transformation in 1994, Bertrams has been home to a diversity of immigrants, including economic migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from Mozambique, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Congo and Zimbabwe, and poor and lower-middle class South Africans. Poverty is a feature in the area, but inadequate housing conditions are also a result of absentee landlords who have lost control of properties. This has resulted in exploitative practices by slum lords and widespread sub-letting of rooms. The urban environment is therefore of highly uneven quality as the suburb also boasts houses and flats which are well maintained.

Due to its strategic location next to the Johannesburg Stadium, and fuelled by the prospects of economic prosperity associated with the 2010 world cup, the suburb is in the process of being transformed. Returning landlords and developers are renovating their properties, and homeowners are protesting the lack of urban management services and putting pressure on residents who are not paying for rental or services. The City of Johannesburg has designated part of the suburb for the construction of subsidized public housing, which is nonetheless targeted at attracting middle class South African residents rather than at accommodating the urban poor.

The gentrification associated with the suburb's transformation affects all its poor residents, but has particularly serious impacts for foreign tenants. Impoverished South Africans as well as immigrants are both economically excluded from the new housing developments, as residents' incomes fall below the envisaged income profile. While the South African residents have the possibility of accessing housing subsidies, immigrants are completely excluded.

Renovations and the planned demolition of buildings for construction of social housing are resulting in the eviction of illegal occupants as well as residents of buildings with uncertain ownership or tenancy arrangements. The city has pledged to provide alternative temporary accommodation for the displaced residents in converted inner city high rise buildings, yet this offer is not addressing local needs. General problems with the temporary accommodation, which affect all evicted Bertrams residents, include the exclusion of families with more than two children, the small size of rooms and the relatively high rents. Once again, non-citizens are completely excluded from accessing this temporary housing option.

Alternative housing options for foreign residents of Bertrams are also limited by their social context. Many came to Bertrams because family members or countrymen were there, so that now entire communities are being displaced without social networks in other parts of the city. "Where to from here?" continues to be the question asked by the displaced residents of Bertrams.

Labels: Bertrams, Citizenship, Housing, refugees, urban research

Bad Buildings, Urban Management and Crime Control: The Case of the Fashion District

posted by Ismail Farouk at Sunday, February 24, 2008

Case Study by Ismail Farouk for the Migrants Rights Monitoring Project, special report No.2: Migrant Access to Housing in South African Cities. Report by Jennifer Greenburg and Tara Polzer, Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Fashion District in downtown Johannesburg is a contested inner city space. Despite signs of economic development, the ownership of many buildings is disputed, infrastructure is crumbling and levels of crime have long been high. The predominant business activity is controlled by Ethiopian and Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees who have taken control of high rise 'bad buildings' and adapted them to limit interaction with the dangerous sidewalk. The organisational structure within these buildings presents an innovative model for inner-city community-based crime and urban development management.

At the forefront of these initiatives is a refugee-run NGO called the 'Horn of Africa Crime Stop Association' which was formed after an Ethiopian trader was killed during a robbery in 2006. Through partnerships with the South African Police Services and the Central Johannesburg Property Company, the organisation is paying for supplementary security services which consist of 25 private guards who patrol an 8 block radius. The monthly cost to the organisation is R150,000, to which every trader and formal business in the area contributes. As a result, crime has been drastically reduced and business in the area is booming.

South African investors and chain stores are beginning to notice the business potential of the area served by the Horn of Africa Crime Stop Association, now that crime has been controlled. The development value of the area is on the increase and there is much activity by private sector housing companies who are redeveloping residential buildings for middle class South African families. However, for the Ethiopian and Eritrean businesses which started the crime-stop initiative, their success at starting the urban regeneration process may lead to their displacement. Many of the businesses are run by people who have not been able to access asylum or refugee documents, due to backlogs at the Department of Home Affairs' Refugee Reception Offices. This means they are unable to secure formal tenure or ownership of buildings, have no access to loans or local government economic development support, and are in practice confined to small geographic areas in the city for fear of being arrested and deported. In spite of the Horn of Africa Crime Stop Association's substantial private investment in security, its members and businesses are in danger of being pushed out rather than integrated into the future of the Fashion District.

Labels: Citizenship, Community, fashion district, gentrification, immigrants, Informal, informal trade, Johannesburg, migration, refugees, social networks, spatial justice, urban research