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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Borders and the roots of xenophobia in South Africa
Author:Klotz, Audie
Year:2016
Periodical:South African Historical Journal (ISSN 1726-1686)
Volume:68
Issue:2
Pages:180-194
Language:English
Geographic terms:South Africa
Southern Africa
Subjects:xenophobia
migration
boundaries
social history
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2016.1153708
Abstract:Responses to migration are intricately linked to the demarcation of borders and hence separate citizenships. In South Africa, the racist roots of the connection between nationality and territory is especially significant for understanding anti-foreigner violence. Ameliorating xenophobia, in turn, requires destabilising this foundation, from the abstract world of social theory, through assumptions embedded within policymaking processes, down to public education. As a crucial step in that agenda, the author brings the region's national narratives into sharper focus by concentrating on three constitutional transitions, each of which fundamentally altered territorial boundaries. (1) The establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910 defined the core of its current borders, but those negotiations also left unresolved the liminal status of the neighbouring British protectorates. (2) A cascade of decolonisation into the early 1960s inscribed formal borders within the region, a process that also created new citizenships. (3) The dismantling of white-minority rule in South Africa transformed key features of this regional order, notably by granting full rights of citizenship for non-white nationals, but democratisation also reinforced an exclusionary definition of nationality that fuels xenophobia. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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