Presentation given at the Migrating out of Poverty Conference 2017

1. SOCIAL NETWORKS, DREAMS AND RISKS:
ETHIOPIAN IRREGULAR MIGRANTS INTO SOUTH AFRICA
Yordanos Seifu Estifanos
29 March 2017
MOOP Conference
London, UK

2. OUTLINE
I. Introduction
II. Research Method
III. Findings
VI. Implications

3. INTRODUCTION
– Ethiopia: Land or Extremes
• Richest and poorest country
• A demographic giant but a small economy
• Fast growing economy but with growing inequality
– The 1991 Regime Change
• Implication for migration
– Southern Ethiopia
• The most densely populated region
• Hosanna: 185 Km South of Addis Ababa
• Large number of unemployed young adults
• Predominantly protestant

5. SOUTH AFRICA
– Another Land of extremes
• The wealthiest & most unequal country in Africa
• Per capita wealth [USD 11,310 Vs. 260; GC 65 Vs. 32]
• Epidemic of violent crime: Illegal arms trade, illegal drug
and a culture of protest
– End of Apartheid in South Africa in 1994
• Implication for internal and international migration
– Gauteng Province [to 2:30]
• The smallest province: but the richest, most populous
and most powerful province in South Africa
• Harbors Pretoria, Soweto and Johannesburg
• Attract immigrants from across Africa

7. METHODS AND QUESTIONS
– Qualitative Method
• Ethnographic research
• Diverse respondents
• 20 Interviews in South Africa and 15 in Ethiopia
– Research Questions
• How financial and material success narratives of
Ethiopian immigrants create migration dream?
• What risks are hidden in the migration dreams?
• Whether distance could be managed using
communication technology?

8. Material and Financial Success
– Wedding videos [14:14], Returnees and Remittances
“…The wedding ceremonies usually include hiring of 30-meter
long limousine, which is accompanied by large numbers of other
fancy cars. The crowd attending the ceremonies can go as high
as 1,000 people ... For regular South Africans, the whole
ceremony is a jigsaw puzzle. They question whether the
ceremony is held for a South African government minister or an
immigrant who came to South Africa in search of better life
opportunities. …These wedding videos are sent back home and
stimulate the ones left behind. …Brokers and smugglers also use
them to recruit migrants.” (An early migrant in Johannesburg)
– Social status and social pressure:
• financial & material benefits translate into social status
– The benefits blind and migrants of the risks

10. “We were a group of about 120 migrants traveling on the Indian
Ocean rim. The boat we were travelling on suddenly started to
wobble and a furious shark emerged from under the boat and
nearly overturned it. As if he is throwing a stone, the captain throw
away my friend to the shark. The boat immediately calmed down. I
was terrorized! … When we approached the coast, the captain said
‘you Ethiopians are lucky; we usually sacrifice around ten people to
survive the sharks’ … Afterwards, 35 people boarded on a Land
Cruiser and started to head to Mozambique. To avoid giving money
for bandits in a jungle who were ordering to stop, the Somali driver
drove the car non-stop. The bandits fired and killed two people.
We buried them and continued our journey. …When we reached
the Tanzanian border, the driver picked up speed and tried to cross
the border! Iron nails erected on the road by Tanzanian border
police pierced through the four tires of the car. The police caught
and put us all in prison”

11. Daily Life in South Africa:
– Jeppe:
• the Core of Ethiopian immigrants in South Africa
• Verges on an enclave economy: vibrant, yet fragile
• Low-end globalization
– Ethiopian immigrants are closely working with Chinese
international merchants
– Increase in size of immigrant population:
• The 2010 World Cup and the 2008 financial crisis
• Business diversification
• Dispersed away from cities to former townships
• Door-to-door Business and Tuck-shops
– Competition and conflicts

14. Connection and Dislocation
– Sent back home Pictures and wedding CDs
– Remittances and Return Migrants

18. “The xenophobia here is so deep and palpable that you can
even experience it during the acts of robbery. When robbers or
thieves come to you, they don’t say ‘give me YOUR money …or
YOUR mobile …or YOUR car’. They just say ‘give me MY money
…or MY mobile …or MY car. It is painful to lose your property,
but more painful is the way you lose it and the
unreasonableness of it at all. … As if this is not enough, some of
the residents abuse you with piercing words, which destroys
your inside. While working in the townships I myself have
encountered these: some downgraded me below a South
African dog; others make fun out of my work; others splashed
boiling water onto me.”
A Migrant in South Africa

20. Connection and Separation:
– There is connection through ICT
• Most Ethiopian immigrants spent several years of separation:
physically disconnected for 5 to 10 years and above
• Migrants manage proximity notwithstanding distance through
advanced ICT
• Respondents expressed the experience of living physically in
Johannesburg while longing emotionally for home
• Technology enabled connection and degrees of continuity in
relationship, but:
– Technology has not translated into a sense of dual presence
• For some it even worsened their emotional pain
• Respondents expressed that Johannesburg and their source
country distinct places
• Home is decidedly separate and for many immigrants,
irreplaceable

21. Implications
• Migration inertia:
– The migration of Ethiopians to South Africa, and
particularly from southern Ethiopia, will continue
• Pulls, pushes and the power of transnational networks
• Relative deprivation
• Threating the symptom or curing the disease?
– Scapegoating smugglers or migrants for migration related
problems is NOT legitimate arguments
– Attempts to crackdown the smuggling network might
worsen the risks migrants face and strengthen the benefits
of smugglers
• Managing dreams:
– Blinded by hope
• Making the legal way impossible makes illegal migration and
smuggling inevitable

22. THANK YOU!
______
YORDANOS
melkamgize@gmail.com