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African immigrant traders in Johannesburg inner city, South Africa : deconstructing the threatening other

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dc.contributor.advisor Fairhurst, U.J.
dc.contributor.advisor Nicolau, Melanie Desireé
dc.contributor.author Moyo, Inocent
dc.date.accessioned 2015-10-30T11:05:30Z
dc.date.available 2015-10-30T11:05:30Z
dc.date.issued 2015-05
dc.identifier.citation Moyo, Inocent (2015) African immigrant traders in Johannesburg inner city, South Africa : deconstructing the threatening other, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/19651> en
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10500/19651
dc.description.abstract African immigrants in contemporary South Africa can be perceived as a problem – the threatening other. Based on a case study of the Johannesburg inner city, this thesis aims to deconstruct this notion. It does so by investigating the nature and types and contribution of African immigrant traders` businesses to the Johannesburg inner city. In deconstructing the perception that African immigrants are the threatening other, and being infinitely aware that perception issues and the experiential realities hospitable to its centred on the human subject, this case study adopted a humanist geographic and critical realist approach by deploying a qualitative in-depth interview technique of both African immigrant and South African traders. This thesis suggests three important outcomes. The first is that: to view all African immigrants as the threatening other is too simplistic an assessment of an otherwise complex and dynamic set of relationships and interrelationships amongst and between African immigrant and South African traders. Second, some African immigrant traders do make a meaningful contribution to the Johannesburg inner city, whereas others do not. Third, the activities of African immigrant traders that may be considered as a threat by a section of the population are treated as a benefit by another. These nuanced insights and findings in this study not only render any analysis that projects all African immigrants negatively as an incomplete appraisal, but also suggest that it can never be correct to view them as such without capturing the dynamics that this work suggests. Such a finding not only challenges distorted and partial reporting by the media and also questions policies, which may be built on the wrong assumption that all African immigrants are a problem, but also extends the study of migration related issues in a South African context. en
dc.format.extent 1 online resource (xiv, 249 leaves)
dc.language.iso en en
dc.subject African immigrant traders en
dc.subject African immigration en
dc.subject Deconstruction en
dc.subject Johannesburg inner city en
dc.subject Threatening other en
dc.subject.ddc 304.809682215
dc.subject.lcsh Immigrants -- South Africa -- Johannesburg
dc.subject.lcsh Aliens -- South Africa -- Johannesburg
dc.subject.lcsh Informal sector (Economics) -- South Africa -- Johannesburg
dc.subject.lcsh Johannesburg (South Africa) -- Social conditions
dc.subject.lcsh Aliens -- South Africa -- Johannesburg -- Economic conditions
dc.subject.lcsh Africans -- Migrants
dc.title African immigrant traders in Johannesburg inner city, South Africa : deconstructing the threatening other en
dc.type Thesis en
dc.description.department Geography en
dc.description.degree D. Litt. et. Phil. (Geography)


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