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Labour Migration and South Africa: Towards a fairer deal for migrants in the South African Economy (Labour Market Review 2007), Part 1

Literature › Works

Department of Labour (South Africa), Labour Market Policy Programme (2007). Labour Migration and South Africa: Towards a fairer deal for migrants in the South African Economy (Labour Market Review 2007), Part 1. Labour Market Review 2007. Department of Labour, Pretoria (Government Printer).
Type report
Scope Post-1994 South African economy
Method synthesis review
Period studied 1911–2006
Regions South Africa, Southern Africa (SADC), Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe
Themes mining migrant labour, origins segregation, labour markets wages, transition post apartheid, demography urbanisation, unions strikes, education human capital
Citation key departmentoflaboursouthafrica2007

Argument

This Department of Labour review argues that apartheid left an institutional inheritance of regional labour migration marked by sectoral bias toward mining, gender differentiation, irregularity, exploitation and racist immigrant selection. Since 1990 the mine-migrant system has declined and migration has become more diverse, with irregular migrants, asylum seekers, transnational migrants, skilled emigrants and more women. The report argues that policy must turn a legacy system into a fairer "win-win" arrangement in line with the ILO's call for a fair deal for migrants. It argues largely by descriptive synthesis of TEBA, census, Home Affairs and SAMP survey data. The part read here covers the history and the new forms of migration, and stops at the start of the discussion of migration management.

Evidence and method

TEBA mine recruitment series (1920-2006); South African censuses (1911-1985, 2001, 2006); Statistics South Africa border-crossing reports (PS015); Department of Home Affairs annual reports and asylum statistics; SAMP surveys and policy series; UNHCR data; secondary literature (Crush, Jeeves and Yudelman; Peberdy; Stern and Szalontai; Mattes and Richmond).

Findings

  • The report identifies five defining features of regional labour migration before and during apartheid. (p. 6)

    The defining characteristics of regional labour migration to South Africa before and during the apartheid era were as follows: (a) sectoral bias, (b) gender differentiation, (c) irregularity, (d) exploitation and (e) racist immigrant selection.

  • A single industry-financed recruiting monopoly controlled mine migration. (p. 6)

    All migrants were recruited by a single industry-financed monopoly, The Employment Bureau of Africa (TEBA), which operated an extensive network of recruiting offices in supplier states.

  • Other employers were barred from hiring foreign migrants, and Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland migrants lost free movement after 1963, which pushed migration into irregular channels. (p. 7)

    Other South African employers were not permitted to hire foreign migrants.

  • The foreign-born African population peaked in 1951 and then fell under apartheid restrictions. (p. 8)

    Many were subsequently deported or left and apartheid restrictions made migration to South Africa much harder. By 1985, the number had dropped to around 320 000.

  • Foreign migrants gained collective protection only through the NUM in the 1980s. (p. 8)

    Only in the mining industry, where South African and foreign miners joined to form the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), did foreign migrants begin to enjoy some protection and rights in the 1980s.

  • Mine migrant employment more than halved between the 1987 strike and 2001. (p. 14)

    At the time of the 1987 Strike, 477 000 migrant workers were employed on the mines. By 2001, the figure had more than halved to just over 200 000 (Table 8).

  • The mine workforce was 'externalised' in the 1980s and 1990s as the foreign share rose. (p. 14)

    The proportion of foreign miners has risen from around 40% in the mid-1980s to nearly 60% in 1997.

  • Gold price gains after 2000 raised mine employment, mainly for South Africans, reversing externalisation. (p. 15)

    So, by 2006 the proportion of foreign mineworkers had fallen to 38% from its peak of nearly 60% in 1997 and 57% in 2000.

  • Sub-contracting eroded the union gains of the 1980s and weakened conditions for migrant miners. (p. 15)

    Trade union gains for migrants in the mining industry in the 1980s were systematically rolled back in the 1990s through sub-contracting.

  • Census 2001 shows the foreign-born population is mostly from neighbouring SADC states, contradicting the 'flood' view. (p. 11)

    Of the rest, 687 678 (or 67%) were born in neighbouring SADC countries.

  • Official emigration statistics grossly undercount skilled emigration. (p. 24)

    Official South African emigration statistics therefore undercounted the loss by around three-quarters.

  • Asylum claims rose strongly after 1994, with a large backlog. (p. 21)

    Between 1994 and 2004 around 150 000 claims/applications for asylum were received by the Department of Home Affairs.