Models for Migrant Leadership: The Cape Town Women's Platform

Abstract

Since 2011, South Africa has increasingly moved toward an immigration system of enforcement and exclusion, seeking to discourage immigration through punitive policies that make daily life for migrants difficult to bear. The closing of refugee reception offices in urban centers and restriction of job offers to South African ID holders have caused many asylum seekers to become undocumented migrants and prevented them from working in the formal economy. In this context, some services that refugee organisations traditionally offer, such as job training and placement, become less useful for migrants who are undocumented and/or unable to work. This paper explores a new initiative of a Cape Town refugee organisation designed to support grassroots organising and to foment new networks of support and entrepreneurship for migrant women. Members of eleven nationality groups currently participate in the Scalabrini Centre Women’s Platform, coming together across differences in migration status, religion, socio-economic class and language to fight the isolation often caused by migration and to support business and personal development. Our research uses interviews and participant observation to explore the role of mediating institutions in facilitating migrant leadership and organising. We suggest that efforts such as The Women’s Platform are setting the groundwork for long-term leadership development among migrants and refugees. Nonetheless, the restrictions of the political and economic climate of South Africa, as well as the professionalised expectations of mediating institutions, make this a slow process that may favor individual advancement over collective action for systemic change.