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Zimbabwean
migration into Southern Africa: new trends and responses
Forced
Migration Studies Programme, Wits University
November
30,y 2009
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Executive
Summary
The economic
and political collapse of Zimbabwe has generated unprecedented outward
migration to Southern African countries. Even as stability gradually
returns in Zimbabwe, the humanitarian crises facing its diaspora
and the potential for further waves of migration remain high. This
subject has been researched extensively in South Africa, but much
less is known about Zimbabwean migration to Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique
and Zambia. In light of this, Oxfam commissioned the Forced Migration
Studies Programme to conduct a background study that would expand
knowledge about Zimbabwean migration patterns into the region and
responses to this movement, and help in the formulation of appropriate
responses.
This report
provides the findings of that study, drawing upon field research
and interviews with migrants and service providers in destination
countries during 2008 and 2009, as well as on an extensive desktop
review of the literature. The report highlights three central problems:
- The lack
of adequate information systems within and across the four countries
to produce data that would foster an understanding of the real
nature, extent, and positive and negative aspects of Zimbabwean
migration nationally and in the region;
- The absence
of institutionalised responses addressing the kind of humanitarian
migration1 issuing from Zimbabwe;
- The inadequacy
of existing national and regional migration instruments, including
refugee legislation, to address this kind of forced migration.
The primary
consequences of this situation are also explored:
- The invisibility
of Zimbabwean migrants with significant humanitarian needs in
the four countries. Due to both clandestine migration and limited
uptake of asylum, the population remains invisible to both governments
and humanitarian organisations which often have refugee-centric
mandates;
- Lack of
awareness of the impacts, whether positive or negative, of this
kind of migration on host populations;
- Inability
to manage these impacts in the interests of host populations,
or to launch an appropriate humanitarian response to meet the
needs of the Zimbabwean migrant population.
While we show
that issues of immigration control and xenophobic violence are less
prominent in popular debates in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and
Zambia than in South Africa, we note that governments and civil
societies in other Southern African countries are not prepared or
capacitated to respond to sustained, large-scale flows of migrants
such as those originating from Zimbabwe over recent years. Even
in the most hopeful scenario of a durable return to peace, stability
and prosperity in Zimbabwe, this shortfall is a significant concern.
Given this assessment, the report argues in favour of both a series
of targeted interventions to meet immediate needs, and a broader
and longer term investment in Southern African migration management.
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