Pathways of well-being and belonging among migrant youth in Cape Town
“Pathways of well-being and belonging among migrant youth in Cape Town” research
Children and young people with experiences of migration in South Africa are building their
lives in contexts of deep insecurity. The process of finding a sense of home in their new
environments is complex, and through this research, SIHMA aim to build an understanding
of the barriers to and facilitators to building their sense of belonging and how this affects
their well-being. Previous research identified the need to further understand the lives of
migrant youth (including refugees and asylum seekers) who have left or were close to
leaving alternative care institutions. Civil society, too, has identified this group as almost
invisible in South African Government immigration and child protection policies, making the
process of legalising their stay in South Africa very complex. This study set out to
understand the experiences of young migrants leaving alternative as they try to access
documentation, how they live and strategise around legal insecurity and what impact this has
on their sense of identity and emotional wellbeing.
Following the approval from University of Cape Town Human and Social Sciences Ethics
Committee, SIHMA in collaboration with a consultant researcher and an artist conducted two
separate sets of workshops with two groups of young people (aged 16 to 18) and (over 18
years). The workshops were conducted from November 2023 to March 2024. The young
people who participated in the workshops were identified from or referred by contacts from
Child and Youth Care Centres in Cape Town as youth who were struggling to access
documentation. Using a participatory art-based approach the research privileged the young
people’s own experience, giving them choice to represent their world in the way they chose.
The young people made art-books around the theme of ‘My belonging story’. After the young
people were done with their art-books, those who wanted to share their stories were given a
platform during the discussion. The young people over the age of 18 also participated in
follow-up workshops in April and May 2023 where they used their stories to create a video
that will be used for advocacy purposes. The art-based method used in this research gave
the young people a voice and an opportunity to contribute and drive change towards
ensuring access to documents and other fundamental rights for young people with migration
experiences. The report and the video created by young people is in the process of
finalisation and will be shared on the SIHMA website by September 2024.
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