Together apart: Migration, integration and spatialised identities in South African border villages

• Published in: Geoforum 2012-05, Vol.43 (3), p.561-572
• Main Author: Polzer Ngwato, Tara
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Africa; Bgi / Prodig; Border areas; Border regions; Borders; Case studies; Geographic mobility; Identity; Identity formation; Immigration policy; Integration; International migration; Migrants; Migration; Refugee; Refugees; Regional studies; Rural Areas; Rural communities; Social Integration; South Africa; Southern Africa; Space; Spatial analysis; Transnationalism; Villages
• ISSN: 0016-7185; 1872-9398
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.11.003

► Spatial interactions between refugees and hosts are part of the integration process. ► Spatialised identities go beyond the opposition between ‘roots’ and ‘routes.’ ► Identities are negotiated through mobility across micro-spaces within a village. ► Identity construction must be described empirically, not ideologically. This article explores spatialised identity construction as part of the process of refugee and migrant integration. It uses an empirical case study – of villages in a rural border area of South Africa – to argue that identity groups can be constructed in relation to micro-spaces within a single village, refer to identity characteristics which are largely independent of cross-border mobility or territorial origin, and be negotiated through micro-mobilities within different segments of a ‘local’ space. This stands in contrast to debates opposing sedentary ‘roots’ or transnational or transient ‘routes’ as identity forming spaces. Establishing the relevant spatial aspects of identity construction is an empirical matter, rather than an ideological one.