Vivre sur fond de frontières. Les migrants du Mozambique à Johannesburg

Abstract

This article aims at showing how the relation to space and the construction of identity among migrants from Mozambique in Johannesburg raises the question of the border, whether in its spatial dimension, in its legal acceptation, or as a social limit delineating an ethnic group. The piece falls into three parts. Firstly, it recalls the importance of the borders established during the colonial period and under the apartheid regime for the political structuration of the social and the living conditions of these migrants. Secondly, it examines the consequences of the end of the apartheid for the situation of African migrants in South Africa, and the emergence of an altogether different conceptualisation of the national and the foreigner. The last part shows how Mozambicans confronted to the hostility of South African Blacks, differentiate themselves from other African communities in Johannesburg by raising an ethnic boundary which helps sustain a sense of personal identity, but does not possess sufficient texture for supporting collective action.