WOMEN MIGRANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA: A HARD ROAD TO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRETORIA 001766 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM PREF KTIP SF SUBJECT: WOMEN MIGRANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA: A HARD ROAD TO TRAVEL -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. In an August 27 panel discussion, three speakers discussed the plight of female migrants in South Africa. Compared to men, women on the move are more vulnerable to robbery and attack, facing more limited job options, and often encumbered by children. Border crossings are extremely risky for rape, yet foreign women are especially reluctant to seek help, for fear of police harassment or deportation. Even as bona fide asylum applicants, migrants suffer ill treatment or even denial of service by unsympathetic government workers. The xenophobic violence of 2008 left many women traumatized and alienated from families and communities. Foreign women in the audience begged the government to relaunch anti-xenophobia campaigns, as they remained fearful and felt forgotten by the media. End Summary. ¶2. In keeping with Secretary Clinton's pledge to put women at the heart of U.S. foreign policy, this look at one segment of women -- those who migrate from abroad and from rural areas -- is the first in a series of such profiles. -------------- Greater Burdens, More Constraints -------------- ¶3. Dr. Ingrid Palmary, of Wits University's Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP),characterized female migrants as typically less 'visible' than males, and yet in myriad ways far more exposed to risks. Despite a long tradition of women participating in family mobility, academic studies of migration are traditionally focused on male breadwinners. As a result, "we know very little about women's livelihoods -- where they move to, and how they manage." Women's physical vulnerability prompts them to keep lower profiles for safety, while at the same time it disadvantages them in competing for employment and requiring secure accomodation. Classic jobs readily available to unskilled laborers, such as mining or farm work, are geared to men's physical strength and housing in male hostels. ¶4. Children, most often left in the charge of women, compound the challenges of migration, making mobility itself harder and costlier. Children complicate the search for a job, since potential work hours are limited by available child care, which in turn takes a big share of wages. While all mothers face child care burdens, those of migrant women are heavier since they have left behind their networks of extended family. Accomodation is similarly more complicated and expensive, including considerations of schooling. FMSP research indicates migrants accompanied by children are more likely to land in informal settlements, i.e. the country's rougher shantytowns. Where possible, many women leave their children behind in the home country or village, hoping to send for them later. -------------- "Just Rape" Is Not Grounds for Refuge -------------- ¶5. Women fall easier prey than men to physical attack, and travelers far from home are doubly exposed, yet foreigners are also the segment of women least likely to seek formal protection or support. Vulnerability is highest, says Palmary, along the country's borders with Zimbabwe and Mozambique, where syndicates of smugglers and criminals routinely rob and rape travelers crossing rivers and bushland into South Africa. (This has implications for policy: the FMSP warns that tighter border control, instead of QFMSP warns that tighter border control, instead of facilitated migration, increases threats to women.) In a country where even local citizens report rape to the police only rarely (in an estimated one in nine cases),migrants' fear of police harassment and deportation acts as an additional deterrent to seeking police protection. These fears, coupled with routine ill-treatment of foreigners by front-line government workers, make female migrants most loathe to seek medical treatment, counseling, and legal support in incidents of gender violence. ¶6. Palmary says the SAG's asylum decisions reflect discrimination against women, by revealing an underlying attitude that gender violence is endemic and ordinary, and PRETORIA 00001766 002 OF 003 hence not a basis for asylum. Palmary rates South Africa's Refugee Act as "the most progressive in the world," and "groundbreaking" in explicitly recognizing gender violence as a form of persecution (cf. the war in DR Congo) -- but FMSP finds that in practice the SAG does not rule accordingly. Palmary asserts there is a tendency (denied by Home Affairs) to classify countries as "safe" or "unsafe" in blanket terms, whereas in reality many societies not at war may still be very brutal against their most vulnerable members. (As an aside, Palmary challenges: with South Africa's extremes of violent crime, can it be truly considered "post conflict"?) Verdicts in asylum cases suggest a bias that "just rape," even if recurrent or pervasive, is not enough cause to flee. -------------- Denied Services (Even with Papers) -------------- ¶7. Dosso Ndessomin, of the Coordinating Body for Refugee Communities (CBRC),highlighted the hurdles faced by migrant women in accessing public services. Employment, health care, and schooling hinge on asylum application papers (called "Section 22" permits per the Refugee Act),which require persistence in long queues (and some would say bribes) to obtain and regularly renew. Migrants often report, however, that these documents are not honored by SAG employees. Ndessomin recalls a 2006 case of a Somali woman, in possession of a Section 22 permit, who gave birth outside Johannesburg General Hospital after staff would not admit her. A common problem is that women cannot open bank accounts without a "proof of residence," when their homes may be abroad or in husbands' names. From all the constraints described above, single mothers are least able to access services for their children: CBRC has a roster of nearly 5,000 such kids not attending school. Women come to CBRC for help, says Ndessomin, "with so few resources -- it's like begging." -------------- Onus on Migrants to Integrate -------------- ¶8. Ndessomin notes that the range of hardships faced by foreigners can cause them to become discouraged and withdrawn, yet paradoxically the onus is on them to reach out to host communities. A common syndrome, he says, is for African migrants to arrive in South Africa with inflated expectations of a better life, only to be quickly disappointed. In its outreach visits to diverse migrant groups, the CBRC stresses that foreigners must introduce themselves to host communities and increase interactions in order to integrate. Several community-level initiatives are reportedly now underway, led by NGOs like the Mandela Foundation and Caritas Peace Initiative. (Note: the Somali Community Board, inter alia, has also sought USG funding for such outreach, teaching Somali shopkeepers to build bridges with customers. End note.) Social ties not only help migrants feel at home, but they also help to counter xenophobic threats in troubled townships. -------------- Trauma Effects of Xenophobic Attacks -------------- ¶9. Marivic Garcia-Mall of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) described the psychological impact on female migrants of 2008's xenophobic violence, as observed at CSVR's Trauma Clinic in Johannesburg. After the initial shocks of threats to their QJohannesburg. After the initial shocks of threats to their lives and expulsion from their shacks, displaced migrants taking refuge at the SAG's temporary shelter sites were subject to sexual abuse, compelled to engage in prostitution to support their kids, and at risk of rape in nighttime visits to unlit toilets. Women at these sites showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress: jumpiness, paranoia, hopelessness, low self-esteem and self-blame, disassociation from acutely painful events, and cognitive disorders. Mothers displayed impatience and aggression toward their own children, aggravated by the clinging behavior of traumatized kids, and domestic violence erupted in previously peaceful families. Elevated levels of stress and hostility led to fights in food lines, and to isolation of many women. In effect, abuse and alienation already suffered as foreign migrants were amplified during displacement. On reintegration into townships, women started their lives over PRETORIA 00001766 003 OF 003 facing the same hurdles as on their initial arrival in South Africa. -------------- Migrants to SAG: Please Fight Xenophobia -------------- ¶10. The audience, composed largely of foreign women, agreed with panelists' assessments and vehemently urged renewed attention to the plight of migrants in South Africa. A Congolese woman wondered what had happened to last year's media coverage, which had spiked during xenophobic attacks (May-June 2008) but then sputtered out thereafter. Joyce Dube of the South African Women's Institute for Migration Affairs (SAWIMA; 2008 recipient of a USG refugee grant) spoke of the positive impact of SAWIMA workshops in townships, led by Zimbabweans who use roleplay to convey their experiences to South African youths. A Somali man wondered what had happened to the "Roll Back Xenophobia" campaign, a joint effort of UNHCR and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) some years ago. Audience members buttonholed an SAHRC officer in the audience and begged for renewed focus on their needs. After the xenophobic violence of 2008, migrants are still fearful for their safety, and now that media has moved on to other stories they also feel forgotten. GIPS