The advocates' migration brief - accessing Asylum
Whenever someone flees their country due to persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion or flees due to war, violence or events seriously disturbing to public order they should be able to apply for refugee status in the country they flee to. Someone applying for refugee status is an asylum seeker. Regrettably at some stages in South Africa’s recent history there have been and to a lesser extent still are...
Climate and Migration
We often hear about forced migration and the plight of refugees or about labour migration and indeed about Climate Change. Yet we do not hear as readily about the impact of climate change and natural disasters on migration. It is important to reflect on this and to consider important steps that should be taken to protect and care for our planet and for the African Continent and her inhabitants. It is also crucial to advocate...
Exclusion of Migrant Women in Africa | Access to Identity Documentation for Migrant Women
Continuing the Series on Migrant Women In continuing the series on the exclusion of migrant women, we are looking at accessing and maintaining identity documents by migrant women in Africa and globally. Previously in this SIHMA series on the exclusion of migrant women, we have discussed the lack of access to the labour market and the labour-related policy making [i]. The second blog was more devoted to mental and physical health and access to...
People on the Move and Human Rights Day
Human Rights Day is a national day that is observed annually on 21 March to remind South Africans about the sacrifices that accompanied the struggle for the attainment of democracy in South Africa. Every year on March 21st, South Africa remembers the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 on Human Rights Day. Human Rights Day commemorates the struggle for a democratic South Africa by paying tribute to all those who fought and...
Transportation of Migrants and by Migrants
William Walters (2015) [1] advances the notion of ‘viapolitics’ as an umbrella term linking notions of migration and mobility, and individuating a diagonal line for the opening of new perspectives on migration by allowing to shift the focus on the means of migrant transportation (vehicles, roads, boats…). Accordingly, the means of migrant transportation are a stage for political action, and exist and participate in broader migration politics. Moreover, they can be understood as mobile zones of governance, since...
International Women's Day
On International Women’s Day SIHMA recognises and celebrates the role migrant women in Africa and in societies across the world. We recognise migrant women’s contribution, their experiences and the challenges faced and overcome. Migrant women and girls are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and are far too frequently marginalised and excluded from access to rights and opportunities. In 2020 the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa launched a series on the Exclusion of Migrant women in...
