SIHMA | Scalabrini Institute For Human Mobility In Africa

Tag: spaza shops

Spazas, Foreigners, and Crime – It’s More Complicated than That


Jun 13, 2017
Categories: Discussion

In May 2008, the world watched in shock as xenophobic violence raged across South Africa. Nationals violently attacked foreign nationals, displacing tens of thousands of migrants and brutally killing over 60. Migrants’ properties and businesses were destroyed in great numbers, with over 550 foreign-owned shops looted or burned to the ground. This storm of attacks ushered in a decade of rising awareness of xenophobic violence among South Africans, and it has become widely assumed that this violence and accompanying xenophobic...

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