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...
News from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development - June 2026
Magnifica humanitas. Two words that defend every person on this planet, celebrating their beauty, dignity and identity as created and loved by God. Two words that stand as a bulwark against standardisation, discrimination, exclusion and exploitation, rejecting every attempt to manipulate the human person, so as to reduce humanity to the service of economic or ideological interests. The Encyclical of Pope Leo XIV is striking for its realism...
Navigating Livelihood and Belonging: The Everyday Realities of African Migrant Women in Cape Town
“When I hear the word Home Affairs I run the other way.” – Patricia, a Zimbabwean migrant woman Patricia’s words capture both a personal fear and a systemic reality. They reflect not...
Migration in Somalia: People on the Move
Somalia has long been a country in motion. Its people move within its borders, across to neighbouring countries, and along major international migration routes, driven by a mix of necessity, aspiration, and circumstance. Understanding migration in Somalia means listening to two voices at once: the migrant seeking safety or opportunity, and the communities and institutions that receive, support, or manage their movement. A Developing Migration Policy Framework Somalia has...
