Where do we go from here? Uncovering the story behind ZEP Cancellation
Dreams shattered. Chaos. Confusion. Incessant fear. These are some of the emotions Zimbabweans living in South Africa are feeling right now after the Department of Home Affair’s decision to end the renewal of Zimbabwean Exemption Permits. From January 1, 2023, thousands of Zimbabweans and their children will no longer be able to reside, work, or attend school in South Africa on a legal basis. In this short article, SIHMA delves deep into some of the issues surrounding the DHA’s...
Exploring Small Business Development using the Area Sector Analysis Process (ASAP)
A research opportunity facilitated by the George Washington University’s Dean’s Scholars Program allowed me to pursue an experience as an intern at the Scalabrini Center in Cape Town (SCCT) to understand the inner workings of the Employment Access Business Development Program and its clients. Sitting in as a panelist for the business development grant application process, reviewing its course curriculum, mentoring small business entrepreneurs, and teaching digital literacy skills to individuals seeking to promote their job readiness has given...
Meet Our New Interns
On the 14th of June the SIHMA team bid our remote intern, Christine, farewell as her internship had come to an end. Christine had been managing our social media posts since March, and she will be greatly missed. Luckily for us, we had two new interns join us in office on the 31st May, to make the transition easier. Brilliant and Nathan have been with us for just under a month now, and have both acclimatized well. Although Brilliant has...
SIHMA Annual Report 2021
SIHMA’s annual report for 2021 has now been released with information about the organisation and its activities from 2020 to 2021. The report covers SIHMA’s four key focus areas, namely Research; Publications; Training and Capacity Building; and Events, as well as more general information about the organisation and its work. You can find a link to an online version of the report...
Communication Tools and Community-Driven Initiatives to Improve Migrant Well-Being
On the 26 of June, the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa (SIHMA) started cooperating with the Spanish PhD Student Jose Olcina and his migration research project "Lessons from intra-African migration in South Africa to improve the well-being of the sub-Saharan migrant population in a vulnerable situation in Spain. An intersectional perspective¨ Jose Olcina is a journalist and anthropologist, and a part-time PhD student in Health Sciences at the University of Alicante...
Brenthurst Research: No One Is Safe Until Everyone Is Safe
Keywords: non-national, statelessness, resilience, migrants In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa experienced one of Africa's highest COVID infection rates. Consequently, the country was plunged into a deep economic crisis evidenced by high inflation rates, skyrocketing unemployment rates, especially among the youth, and high poverty rates. This culminated in deep frustration among the local citizenry, who blamed the proliferation of non-nationals in South Africa for their poor conditions. Such frustrations turned into...
