Introduction

1. Social networks and undocumented Mozambican migration to South AfricaRamos Cardoso Muanamoha, Brij Maharaj, Eleanor Preston-Whyte

2. Introduction • The migration of workers from other parts of Africa to South Africa has a long history (Davies and Head, 1995). • Historically, the mining and agriculture sectors in South Africa have been dependent on migrant labour from southern African countries. • Since the early 1990s Mozambican labour migration to South Africa has been assuming new contours (Crush and Williams, 2001a). • In spite of a decrease in Mozambican contract labour migration to South Africa (SAMP, 2005a) there was an increase in undocumented labour migration. • In 2003, it was estimated that 75,000 Mozambicans were working legally in South Africa, while the undocumented only in Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces were estimated to be more than 145,000 (SAMP, 2003). • However, the actual number of undocumented migrants (including the Mozambicans) in South Africa is still unknown. • In South Africa undocumented migrants are seen to be taking jobs from locals, and this has influenced the development of xenophobia (Crush et al., 2000; Landau, 2004; Maharaj, 2004).

3. Introduction • In the international literature (and in contrast to other kinds of illegal migration like refugee and asylum seekers), the undocumented labour migration has been portrayed as being primarily motivated by economic factors (Chiswick, 2001; Clark, 2002). • The supply and demand for low wage illegal migrant workers was considered the main reason for the increase in undocumented migration flows, which was fuelled through social networks (Singer and Massey, 1998). • Once the social networks grow and the migrant-supporting institutions develop, the migration tends to sustain itself in ways that make additional movement progressively more likely over time (Massey et al.,1993; 1994; 1998). • It is argued that as a result of the expansion of social networks, every new migrant reduces the costs and risks of subsequent migration for friends and relatives (Massey et al., 1998). • A key practical contribution of social networks is not only that they lower the costs of migration, but that they can sustain the process even when the original incentives disappear or are greatly weakened (Portes, 2000).

4. Introduction • In relation to the social labelling of jobs, the argument is that once immigrants have been recruited into particular occupations in significant numbers, those jobs become culturally labelled as ‘immigrant jobs’ and native workers are reluctant to fill them, reinforcing the structural demand for immigrants (Massey et al., 1998). • Against this background, this paper analyses the social networks which facilitate and sustain undocumented labour migration from Mozambique to South Africa. • This study is based on fieldwork conducted in selected research sites in southern Mozambique in the districts of Magude and Chókwè, and South Africa (in the provinces of Gauteng and Mpumalanga) (figure 1). • The two selected sites in Mozambique are major sending areas of labour migrants, partly because of their geographical proximity to South Africa. Gauteng and Mpumalanga were the main South African destinations of Mozambican migrants.

5. Figure 1: Location of Magude and Chokwe districts in Mozambique, and Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces in South Africa

6. SENDING AREAS (MOZAMBIQUE) ON BORDERS DESTINATION AREAS (SOUTH AFRICA) Non-Migrants (family/ relatives and friends) South African citizens, employers, and immigration officers Former Mozambican Immigrants (home communities, family members / relatives, friends, and neighbours) Returned Migrants (family members / relatives, friends, and neighbours) - Border agents - Guides - Conveyors Potential labour Migrants Labour Migrants Newcomer undocumented labour Immigrants Support for Border-crossing + Transportation Moral + Material Support Support for social and economic integration Support given to migrants Decision to migrate Illegal border-crossing Integration in the destination Return migration Social networks and undocumented migration Figure 2:Forces sustaining support and continuity of undocumented Mozambican labour migration to South Africa

7. It is evident from figure 2 that there were various factors sustaining the continuity of undocumented Mozambican labour migration process to South Africa, and which were operating at three different levels: in the migrants’ sending areas, on borders, and in the destination areas. • At the level of sending areas families and/or relatives provide some moral and financial support for potential and returned migrants. • The returned migrants themselves form another force that assists the potential migrants with information and guidance. • At the borders the migrants were assisted by three distinct forces. • This includes immigration agents, who facilitate the passage of undocumented migrants through the border in favour of bribes; smugglers/guides that show the illicit ways of entering South Africa along the border; and conveyors, who help the migrants with transport from the border to preferred destinations in South Africa. • In the destination areas there are two sets of forces assisting migrants.

8. A first set of forces is formed by established Mozambican immigrants in the destination areas, who could be family members/relatives, friends or neighbours of the new immigrants. • The established immigrants are always the first ones who assist the newcomers on their arrival with accommodation and food, as well as in the process of getting jobs and documentation in South Africa. • The second one is constituted by some South African employers that shelter and protect the undocumented migrants because they provide cheap labour; and some immigration officers, who facilitated the process of getting fraudulent South African documentation by undocumented migrants through bribery. • The support that migrants receive from sending areas and also from the established immigrants in destination areas is based on two kinds of “social bonds”: kinship and friendship relations. • Migrants were also assisted by other social actors such as border agents, smuggler/guides, and conveyers.

9. Kinship connections • The kinship connections include ties that migrants maintain with some family members or relatives throughout the migration process. • In the sending communities as well as in the destination areas, the migrants have relied on interpersonal emotional ties that bind them to other family members or relatives. • The survey data reveals that kinship ties were very important in influencing the migrants’ decision to move as well as in adapting in the new destination. • The survey results from Magude and Chókwè districts revealed that during their first trips to South Africa, about half of the migrants received financial support for the journey from their family/relatives at home. • About four-fifths of the migrants had at least a family member or relative in the destination area when they had left home for the first time . • Moreover, 25.2% of migrants had left on their first trip in the company of a family member or relative who had already experienced labour migration to South Africa. • More than two-thirds of the migrants received assistance for sustenance and accommodation from family/relatives since their arrival in South Africa, and who also assisted them to get their first jobs .

10. The influence of kinship ties on the different phases of the migration process will be illustrated with reference to the experiences of Luis, Joaquim, and Rodrigues • Joaquim, from Chibuto district (Gaza province), who was interviewed in Tembisa in 2005, entered South Africa for the first time in 2003 when he was 19 years old. • His schooling level was the fourth class. Joaquim came to South Africa with his uncle Fernando who had been working as a barber in Johannesburg, and was also an undocumented migrant. • Once in Johannesburg, Joaquim got his first job as a bricklayer’s assistant, which had been provided by uncle Fernando’s acquaintance from the church. • After three weeks in that job, Joaquim left to Bekkersdal where his brother-in-law Artur was staying. Artur helped Joaquim to find a job in a kiosk where he sold a variety of goods. • Luís was an undocumented labour migrant from South Africa from the Magude district who had returned home in 2002. • He had moved to South Africa for the first time in 1999, when he was 17 years old, unmarried, and had completed the eighth class in school. • He had been invited to go to South Africa by his cousin who was living and working in Tembisa for many years. Luís explained that his cousin had a small shop and needed his help: When my cousin came here for holidays, he invited me to go with him to Tembisa, because he needed my help in his shop. I would be selling in that shop… When we arrived in Tembisa, I stayed by my cousin… I took three months without starting, since I had first to get adapted to the new environment. I had first to learn how to deal with the South African currency. I had never seen the Rand. Then, I started selling diverse goods: beer, wine, refreshments, flour, eggs … (Interview with Luís in Magude district, on April 28, 2004).

11. Kinship connections • Rodrigues, who had been deported from South Africa at the time of fieldwork in Magude district, left illegally for the first time in 1995 when he was 18 years old, and had completed the sixth class in school. • Rodrigues had been invited to leave to South Africa by his cousin, Júlio, who was living in Tembisa and had returned to the Magude district for a holiday. • Rodrigues explained that his cousin Júlio had promised him a job in Tembisa: My cousin, who came here for holidays, invited me to go there with him. He told me that there was a job for me. I should go there to work with him as bricklayer. He was working there as bricklayer. When he went back there he took me. I didn’t have any passport. He had got one. We couldn’t pass through the border post, because of my situation. So, we had to use another way, jumping the border fence. Once in Tembisa, I had to stay by my cousin. After four months I got employed in the workplace of my cousin. I went to work with him as a bricklayer’s assistant. I stayed in that job until 1998 when I was deported (Interview with Rodrigues in Magude district, on May 07, 2004).

12. Kinship connections • These three case studies reveal three different ways in which newly arrived undocumented Mozambican immigrants in South Africa obtained their first jobs through kinship bonds. • Family members or relatives played a mediating role between their employers and the newcomer kinsmen. • In the sending communities, the migrants also depended on their family/relatives to get other forms of support. • For instance, among the female migrants who were single mothers at the time of leaving to South Africa, the most common concern was that they had to have someone who could take care of their children throughout their absence. • In these circumstances, the migrants’ parents were very helpful, since they have felt obliged to assume the responsibility for looking after their grandchildren. • A good example is that of Maria, a female undocumented labour migrant from the Magude district.

13. Kinship connections • Maria left for South Africa for the first time in 1992 when she was 27 years old. Her schooling level was the sixth class. • At that time she had four small children and was separated from her husband. Also, because of the war, she had given up her job as an alphabetizer[1] for adults, in Magude district. • She and her four children were living with her parents on the outskirts of Maputo city. Maria’s main concern when deciding to leave to South Africa was that she did not know who would look after her children. • Fortunately, Maria got help from her mother, as she explained in her own words: I met a female friend in Maputo city, with whom I used to talk about my suffering. That friend used to buy goods from South Africa and sell them in Mozambique. She told me that her life was getting better thanks to her movements to South Africa. Before she started to travel to South Africa, her situation was similar to mine. Now she was feeling much better, because she had succeeded in getting a passport. I told her that I was not able to travel to South Africa like her; because of my children. I asked her what I could do with my children, since I wanted too to travel to South Africa. She advised me to leave the children with my mother. So, I asked my mother for help to take care of my children (Interview with Maria in Magude district, on January 23, 2004). • [1] Maria used to teach illiterate adults to read and write.

14. Kinship connections • Bonds with kin have also been very important to manage the migrants’ affairs at home. In general, the migrants have relied on some family members or relatives who remain behind to take care of their properties/projects when they are absent. • To some extent, this has to be considered as a kind of social division of labour within the family circle, in which the most active family members migrate to South Africa in order to earn money, while the family members or relatives left behind had the task of using this money correctly for the purposes already determined by the migrants.

15. CONCLUSION • This paper revealed that a range of social networks supported and sustained the undocumented Mozambican labour migration to South Africa, which operated at three different levels: in the sending communities, on borders, and in the destination areas. • In the sending communities, the undocumented labour migrants relied on interpersonal relationships based on bonds of kinship and friendship to get moral and material support for the movement. • On borders the migrants engaged with other social actors – border agents, guides, and conveyors – who supported them in border-crossing and provided them with transportation to their preferred destinations. • As many countries try to restrict migrants, networks of smugglers played a significant role in offering alternative ways of entering a desired country.

16. CONCLUSION • In South Africa kinship and friendship networks were important to migrants as sources of financial and material support, as well as contacts for employment opportunities. • The experience of undocumented Mozambican immigrants conforms with the theory that networks provide the migrants with social capital – e.g. personal contacts with relatives, friends, neighbours, etc. – which allows them to get access to jobs, accommodation and financial assistance at the destination, and decreases the cost of migrating (Singer and Massey, 1998). • The decrease in costs induces more people to migrate (Carrington et al., 1996; Portes, 2000). According to Massey et al. (1987:317) “as more people become migrants, the network expands, leading to still more migration.” Bednarz (1996:6-7) has argued that “the process of migration is assisted by migrants who already live in the destination … People immigrate to locations where they find connections and a measure of familiarity.” • However, in South Africa there was a tendency to stigmatise immigrants as criminals, as people who undermine economic development and take jobs from locals. • This has fuelled a xenophobic attitude towards immigrants.