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How Do Migrants Fare in a Post-Apartheid South African Labor Market?

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Tukufu Zuberi; Amson Sibanda (2004). How Do Migrants Fare in a Post-Apartheid South African Labor Market?. International Migration Review, Vol. 38, No. 4. Center for Migration Studies of New York.
Type journal article
Scope Post-1994 South African economy
Method econometric
Period studied 1886–1996
Regions South Africa, Southern African Development Community (SADC), Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Gauteng
Themes mining migrant labour, labour markets wages, transition post apartheid, demography urbanisation, bantustans removals influx, inequality poverty unemployment
Citation key zuberi2004

Argument

The article tests the popular claim that immigrants 'take away our jobs' by comparing labour force outcomes of foreign-born migrants, South African-born internal migrants and nonmigrants in 1996. Using logistic regression on a 10 percent census sample of men aged 20-55, it finds that foreign-born men, especially those from SADC countries, have far higher odds of labour force participation and employment than South African-born men. Internal migrants also do better than nonmigrants. The authors attribute this to selectivity, schooling, employer preference for foreign workers and migrant social capital. A short historical section sets this within the Southern African Migration System built on gold-mining labour recruitment and apartheid influx control.

Evidence and method

10 percent public-use sample of the 1996 South African population census (Statistics South Africa), with 550,734 males aged 20-55 (Table 1). Individual-level data on nativity, duration of residence, magisterial district, schooling, marital status, province and urban/rural residence. Secondary literature on the Southern African Migration System and the SAMP/McDonald and Sinclair studies.

Findings

  • Foreign-born men have the highest participation and employment rates in the 1996 census. (p. 2)

    Foreign migrants enjoy the highest labor force participation rates and employment rates in South Africa.

  • The gold and diamond discoveries created the demand for cheap migrant labour that anchors the regional migration system. (p. 5)

    The discovery of gold and diamond mines in South Africa in 1886 led to a huge demand for cheap labor which could not be met locally.

  • In 1975, SADC-region workers dominated foreign labour on Chamber of Mines mines. (p. 6)

    In 1975, about 74 percent of the immigrants working in mines owned by the South African Chamber of Mines came from the Southern African Development Community

  • Depressed gold prices in the 1980s led TEBA to end recruitment in some supplier countries, yet regional flows continued. (p. 6)

    depressed world gold prices in the 1980s forced TEBA to stop its recruitment program in labor supplier countries like Malawi

  • Apartheid's homelands and influx control channelled Africans into the migrant labour system. (p. 6)

    Within South Africa, Africans were forced to participate in the migrant labor system as a result of the creation of underdeveloped homelands.

  • SADC-born African immigrants have far higher odds of labour force participation than South African-born Africans (Model 1). (p. 15)

    Recent and long-term African immigrants from the SADC region have odds of labor force participation about 7.0 and 11.2 times as great as those of South African-born males, respectively.

  • The immigrant employment advantage persists after controlling for age, schooling, marital status and place. (p. 19)

    Long-term immigrants from the SADC region continue to have the largest statistically significant odds of employment as compared to South African-born blacks.

  • Employers' stated preference for foreign workers is cited as one possible explanation of the advantage. (p. 19)

    the usual advantages of irregular employment (low wages, vulnerability, exploitative conditions) may be at the core of this preference.

  • Urban residence does not raise African employment odds, contrary to expectation, and provincial effects reflect the Bantustan legacy. (p. 21)

    Contrary to popular perceptions, African males who live in urban areas have odds of employment 0.79 times smaller than their rural counterparts.

  • South African-born internal migrants of all racial groups also outperform nonmigrants on labour force participation. (p. 22)

    Models 1 and 2 consistently show that South African-born recent and long-term internal migrants have significantly higher odds of being in the labor force than South African-born nonmigrant males.

  • Census data cannot show change over time, which limits any causal reading. (p. 7)

    The cross-sectional nature of census data also means that it is not possible to examine patterns over time.