Migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa have contributed to the diversity of the informal economy in urban South Africa. However, they have faced xenophobic violence and discrimination in urban spaces such as townships, which were previously designated only for Black people during apartheid. This article explores how arrival infrastructures in the township informal economy have enabled or […]
Food provisioning represents a major everyday challenge for migrant shelter administrators, workers, and volunteers, yet very little is known about the specific conditions and challenges faced by these spaces. While there is a small body of scholarly work about food in shelters from the perspective of people on the move, most of this literature is
Rescaling Food Insecurity: On Eating and Feeding in Migrant Shelters Read More »
This study analyzes the experiences of urban refugee communities, more specifically, the challenges young South Sudanese refugees living in Kenya face. We divert from the comprehensive examination of refugees in camps to focus on urban youth amid Kenya’s refugee policy changes and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the support of South Sudanese community
The incidence of food insecurity among migrant and diasporic communities living in rich global North cities is growing. A key dimension of this is the absence of culturally appropriate food which is integral to both feeding and nourishing mobile bodies. In this paper, we deploy an intersectional approach to cultural food in/security to explore the foodscapes of
This Special Issue (SI) on Internal Migration and Development in India contributes to the growing body of work on the migration question in India. It builds on the papers presented at the international conference, ‘Internal Migrants in the Cities: Entangled Lives’, organised by the International Institute of Migration and Development and the Indian Institute of
Internal Migration and Development in India Read More »
This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on internal migrants from the Eastern Cape in the cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, with a focus on mobility restrictions, livelihood disruptions, and food insecurity. Methodologically, the paper draws on a survey of 1,733 migrant households in the two cities conducted in 2023
In focusing on informal pandemic precarity in South Africa, this paper has three main objectives. First, it shows why the South African government’s policy response to COVID-19 increased the precarity of migrant enterprise in the urban informal sector. Second, drawing on data from our survey of informal food sector enterprises in the city of Cape
Informal Pandemic Precarity and Migrant Food Enterprise in South Africa during COVID-19 Read More »
This Special Issue seeks to enhance our understanding of the nexus between migration and food security in urban Africa in at least three ways: first, it examines how COVID-19 impacted migrant populations in African cities by bringing together a selection of the latest research that centers the experiences of migrants before, during, and after the
Cities of Contagion: Pandemic Precarity, Migration, and Food Security in Urban Africa Read More »
The collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy in the 2000s resulted in the country relying largely on food imports from other countries, especially from South Africa. Informal crossborder traders (ICBTs) have become crucial players in the country’s food economy, playing an important role in the importation of food as well as its retail across the country. Cross-border
Informal Cross-Border Traders and Food Trade During the Global Pandemic in Zimbabwe Read More »
The global-industrial food system is both a major contributor to climate change and a cause of widespread human displacement. Despite evidence of the interrelationships among food insecurity, climate change, and migration, there has been surprisingly limited scholarly and policy attention to the structural conditions underlying these relationships. This paper foregrounds critical perspectives informed by abolition feminism to advance
The Climate-Food-Migration Nexus: Critical Perspectives Read More »
