Migrating Beyond Borders and States: Instrumental and Contingent Solidarities Among South Asian Migrant Informal Workers in South Africa

Abstract

South-to-South migration instead of South to the Global North will dominate global migration trends in the future. This calls for redefining how we view and theorise about migration to the Global South, who is migrating, to which countries, the reasons for migration, whether this is a renewed form of circular migration, our understanding of transnationalism, the role of remittances and how migrants are received in the countries of the South and. In particular, I argue that migration research to and from Africa is not given the prominence it deserves in the global migration literature. I further argue that that the similarities and differences of migration to the Global South is under-theorised. The increase in South-to-South migration is creating a shift in economies resulting in the creation of new ‘geographies of growth’ and thus a Sociology of Migration understanding of patterns of migration and development in the Global South is needed. A case study of South Asian migrants to South Africa is illustrative of these geographies of growth and shows how migrants develop instrumental and contingent solidarities to integrate.