Stuck With “Temporary” Permit for Fifteen Years
There is a substantial community of Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) holders in South Africa that has been living in a waiting room since 2009. Many of the ZEP holders are active participants of every community they live in, where some members teach in public schools, nurse in public hospitals, run spaza shops, pay PAYE and VAT, raise children who speak isiZulu or Sesotho before Shona or Ndebele, and still, after many years, they cannot apply for permanent residence...
Building Bridges Through Knowledge: Inside SIHMA's Training on Understanding Human Mobility
Migration is a far difficult topic and discussion than what the headlines makes it look like. Behind every statistics on border crossings or refugee numbers, lies a web of history, policy, economics, faith and human choices and this is the exact complexicity that SIHMA set out to unpack during a 2 day training on “Understanding Human Mobility in Africa” hosted at St John’s Catholic Church in Maitland on the 21-22 July. The timming for...
Why Tougher Laws Aren't Stopping Irregular Migration from Ethiopia
Every year, thousands of young Ethiopians go on a dangerous journey towards the Gulf states and Europe, often without proper documentation and through the hands of smugglers, and they are also often fully aware of the risks and dangers of the journey. The Ethiopian government has spent the past few years improving and implimenting their legal framework, So why does irregular migration keep increasing? A recent study by Getye Abneh and Fekadu...
South Africa’s asylum policy and the people caught in between
In April 2024, South Africa’s department of Home Affairs published a white paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection (DHA, 2024). A revised draft followed in 2025, open for public comment until mid-February 2026. The document is a proposal to move away from a residency-based immigration system and more towards a point driven. The proposal affects the lives of many people which also includes asylum seekers and refugees living in the country, and it forces the reckoning with...
Two Sides of One City: Rural Youth, Urban Migration, and the Search for Balance
Every year, a large number of people leave their home to pursue better opportunities. While many cross international borders, others prefer to move within their own country, from a struggling village to a growing city. Although the nature of the journeys varies, they all pose the same question: how do young migrants and the cities that receive them find their footing together? A recent study of Hawassa, one of Ethiopia’s fastest-growing cities, offers a grounded look at this...
Waiting for Years and Feeling Stuck
Obtaining official refugee and asylum documents in South Africa is a constant challenge for migrants. Imagine a queue forming outside the refugee reception office before the sun rises, with some people having travelled to the office for long hours and with others who have stood in different versions of this queue for years. And many are usually turned away and asked to come back another day. This scene is the focus of a recent study by Pineteh E. Angu, published in the African Human...
