TIPS Conference 20081 Urban refugees: definitions, legal position and wellbeing in South Africa TIPS 2008 Cape Town T Dalton-Greyling

TIPS Conference 2008 1

Urban refugees: definitions, legal position and wellbeing in South Africa

•TIPS 2008 •Cape Town

•T Dalton-Greyling


INTRODUCTION

• In May 2008 foreign nationals from other African countries were attacked in several areas of South Africa due to xenophobia: – 62 people died– several hundred were injured– 25 000 displaced

• Refugees in South Africa - have increased notably from 6 619 in 1997 to almost 30 000 in 2006

• The estimated number of forced migrantsvary between 2 million and 8 million

• The xenophobia and the ever increasing numbers of refugees and migrants from neighbouring African countries pose new challenges to the South African Government


INTRODUCTION

• New refugee act - Refugee Act 30 of 1998, adopted in 2000• It spells out the protection, rights and obligations of

refugees.• But even after the implementation of the Act there are still

many indications that the refugees in South Africa are not well off,

• for example they are:

victims of xenophobia,

displaced from their homes,

persecuted,

and returned to their homelands.


PROBLEM STATEMENT

• The number of refugees and migrants in South Africa are increasing notably

• Xenophobia is widespread• There is a new Refugee Act to protect refugees• Against this background it is important to establish the level

of wellbeing of refugees in South Africa compared to the wellbeing of South African citizens.

• The level of wellbeing will indicate if the Refugee Act protects the rights of refugees and if government policy contributes to the wellbeing of refugees


PREVIOUS RESEARCH

• Studies have been undertaken:• to ascertain the reasons for migration and to

emphasize the risk of impoverishment of displacees,

• to establish the wellbeing of individuals in both developed and developing countries.

• This paper may be one of the first to link the literatures on refugees and wellbeing in developing countries


OUTLINE OF PAPER

• Definitions

• Refugee protection and support

• Analyses and comparisons of wellbeing

of refugees and South Africans

in Johannesburg

• Conclusion

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DEFINITIONS

•Voluntary displacement•Migrant

•Economic migrant •Illegal migrant


DEFINITIONS

•Forced •displacement

•Refugees•Asylum• seekers

•Internally •displaced


What is a refugee?

According to the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol on Refugees

– A person must be persecuted due to • race, • religion, • nationality • being a member of a social group • a specific political opinion• also according to the OAU definition • violence.

– A person must be outside his/her country and fear for his/her life.

– The person can be in any geographical area.– There is no time restriction to when this “event” must have

occurred.


Refugee status and asylum seekers

• To be classified as a refugee,– need to apply for refugee status.

• Countries that signed the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol have refugee status determination procedures

• If a persons fulfil the requirements – they can be classified as a refugees – and receive protection


REFUGEE PROTECTION AND SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL

1951 United Nations Convention and

Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees

1969 Convention governing the specific aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa


RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS ACCORDING TO 1951 CONVENTION AND OAU CONVENTION

Non-discriminationFreedom of religion

Free access to the courts of law The right to work

The right to housingThe right to education

The right to public relief and assistance Freedom of movement within the territory

The right not to be expelled from a countryThe right to be protected from forcible return or

refoulment

Refugees must respect the laws and the regulations of a host country

A person is not protected if he permitted a crime


Act 30 of 98 RIGHTS OF REFUGEES

• a written recognition of refugee status• enjoy full legal protection• have the right to apply for an immigration permit in

terms of the Aliens Control Act of 1991 after five years of continuous residence in South Africa

• are entitled to identity documents (ID)• are entitled to travel documents • can seek work• refugees have the same right to basic health and

primary education as the citizens of South Africa


Constitution of South Africa – Chapter 2

• Dignity• Life• Equality before the law• Freedom of expression, assembly and association• Freedom of movement• Right to adequate housing• Health care• Sufficient food and water• Social security• Basic education


Wellbeing and Subjective Wellbeing Definition: Wellbeing

Amartya Sen, describes “wellbeing” as being well,

• to have the freedom of choice to choose what one can become and can do (Sen, 1999)

• to be healthy, well nourished, and educated

• Sen’s view of wellbeing influenced the way economists thought and measured wellbeing


Subjective wellbeing

• Measuring wellbeing - objective indicators and subjective indicators.

• Subjective wellbeing became an important field of study • Clark and Oswald (1996) and Oswald (1997) - showed in

research that to maximise subjective wellbeing was the ultimate objective of most people.

• Subjective wellbeing – more theoretically attractive as:– the standard theory on utility and revealed preference often

failed to explain individual decision making (Timothy and Gruen, 2005).

– cross-sectional and panel data have become available with information on subjective wellbeing, which allows for empirical research.


Measuring Subjective Wellbeing

• “How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life overall?”

• to establish individuals’ self-evaluation of their own well-being at that moment in time.


Subjective wellbeing

• Since late 1990s the number of empirical studies have increased significantly

• psychological research has indicated that self-reported

measures of wellbeing are adequate and reliable when analysing human wellbeing (Hinks and Gruen 2006)

• Studies focused on the determinants of happiness in developed countries,

• Frey and Stutzer (2002) discussed the factors that seem to play a role in explaining human happiness.


Subjective wellbeing in developing countries

• Determinants of wellbeing - studied in developing countries.

• Studies on South Africa were undertaken by:

– Knight & Gandhi (2004), – Powdthavee (2005) and – Hinks & Gruen (2005)

• and in other, mainly central European developing countries by:

– Namazie & Sanfey (2001) and Hayo (2003).


Factors that influence wellbeing in developed countries

• age, • income,

• type of employment, • marital status,

• and health status.

• inflation, • unemployment,

• economic growth and • income distribution

(Clark and Oswald (1994), Oswald (1997), di Tella et al (2001), Blanchflower and Oswald (2003), Ng (1996), Diener and Scollen

(2003) and Gruen and Klasen (2005)


Factors that influence wellbeing in South Africa

• relationship between • happiness or subjective wellbeing,

• absolute income levels, • relative income levels,

• health, • marital status

• and economic activity

• Hinks and Gruen (2006), Kingdon and Knight (2004), and Powdthavee( (2005)


Methodology

•Ten criteria for determining wellbeing were selected

•Selection was restricted by the dataset, “Migration and the New African City” - no health data


Methodology

The criteria were: • housing type, • marital status, • educational level, • employment status, • income per week,• age, • crime, • relative income, • future expectations • and future residence in the country.


SAMPLE (FORCED MIGRATION STUDY PROGRAMME}

• 600 non-nationals (200 Somali, 200 Congolese and 200 Mozambicans) and a control group of 200 South Africans.

• Mozambicans - Rosettenville. • Somalis - Mayfair and Fordsburg, • Congolese Yeoville, Berea and Bertrams.


SAMPLE (FORCED MIGRATION STUDY PROGRAMME}

• Considered only refugees and asylum seekers and South African citizens - not other migrants

• 403 refugees and asylum seekers • 199 South African citizens


Figure 1: Housing type

0 10 20 30 40 50

Free Standing House

Semi-Detached House

Apartment (Single Family)

Apartment (Multi-Family)

Hostel, Dormitory, BoardingHouse

Self-Built or informal housing

Ty

pe

of

ho

us

ing

Percentage (%)

Refugees

South African


Table 1: Marital status

South Africans

%

Refugees

%

No response/ Do not know 3.5

Single (never married) 50.3 39.4

Living with Partner 11.1 4.2

Married 24.5 39.9

Married but Temporarily Living Apart 4.5 9.6

Divorced or Permanently Separated 2.5 5.7

Widowed 3.5 1.2

Total 100.0 100.0

Source: Forced Migration Study Programme, 2006


Figure 2: Education level – percentage of individuals that completed different educational levels

South Africans

No formal schooling/some primary education

Finished Primary Education

Finished Secondary Education

Finished Tertiary Education (BA, BS, Diploma, etc.)

Post-grad degree (Masters, doctorate, post-graduatediploma)

Refugees

No response/ Do not know

No formal schooling/some primary education

Finished Primary Education

Finished Secondary Education

Finished Tertiary Education (BA, BS, Diploma, etc.)

Post-grad degree (Masters, doctorate, post-graduate diploma)



Figure 3: Employment status– percentage of individuals according to economic activity

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Unem

ploye

d

Wor

king

part-

time

(form

al/inf

orm

al se

ctor)

Wor

king

full-t

ime

(form

al/inf

orm

al se

ctor)

Casua

l em

ploym

ent/t

empo

rary

wor

ker

Self-e

mplo

yed

(run

small

bus

iness

/inco

me

gene

ratio

n pr

oject)

Volunt

ary w

orke

r (re

ceive

no

mon

ey)

House

wife/h

omem

aker

Univer

sity/t

echn

ikon/

corre

spon

denc

e stu

dent

Employment Status

Per

cen

tag

e (%

)

South Africans

Refugees


Figure 4: Income per week

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

No response/ Do not know

0/nothing

Less than R199

R200-499

R500-799

R800-1099

R1100-1499

R1500-1999

>R2500

Inco

me

per

wee

k

Percentage (%)

Refugees

South Africans


Table 2: A victim of crime

South Africans

%

Refugees

%

No response/ Do not know 0.5 0.5

Yes 42.9 68.4

No 56.6 31.4

Total 100.0 100.0



Table 3: Age

South Africans

%

Refugees

%

18-25 Yrs 34.8 19.9

26-30 Yrs 18.2 27.9

31-35 Yrs 12.1 27.4

36-40 Yrs 11.1 16.2

41-45 Yrs 8.6 4.2

46- 50 Yrs 4.0 2.5

51-55 Yrs 2.5 0.2

56+ 8.6 1.5

Total 100.0 100



Table 4: Income compared to income of others in the community

South Africans Refugees

Do not know 1.5 6.7

Poorer than

Average 27.4 31.6

About Average 56.9 57.5

Better Off Than

Average 14.2 4.2

Total 100.0 100.0



Figure 5: Do you expect your children’s lives will be better or worse than your own life?

South Africans

DO NOT KNOW

Their lives will better

Their lives will be the same

Their lives will be worse

Refugees

DO NOT KNOW

Their lives will better

Their lives will be the same



Figure 6: Where do you expect to stay two years from now?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

DO NOT KNOW

Where I am now

In another part of South Africa

In my community of origin

In another part of my homecountry

In a third country

Whe

re to

sta

y 2y

ears

from

now

Percentage (%)

Refugees

South Africans


Table 5: Summary of the main findings

Criteria South Africans Refugees

Housing type:

Free standing house

30.2% 3.2%

Marital status:

Married

40.1% 53.7 %

Education level:

Tertiary education

14.1 30.7

Employment status

Unemployed:

43.3 36.0

Income per week:

More than R1500

7.1 1.5

Age

31-35 years 12.1 27.4

Victim of crime:

Yes 42.9 68.4

Relative Income:

Poorer than average 27.4 31.6

Future expectations -

children’s lives:

Worse off

0.5

3.2

Future residence:

Move to a third country

2 21.5

Total number of criteria that

reflects better wellbeing for

SOUTH AFRICANS

8



REFUGEES

3

Source: Summary of findings – Greyling, 2008


Table 5: Summary of the main findings

Criteria South Africans Refugees

Housing type:

Free standing house

30.2% 3.2%

Marital status:

Married

40.1% 53.7 %

Education level:

Tertiary education

14.1 30.7

Employment status

Unemployed:

43.3 36.0

Income per week:

More than R1500

7.1 1.5


Table 5: Summary of the main findings (continued)

Age

31-35 years 12.1 27.4

Victim of crime:

Yes 42.9 68.4

Relative Income:

Poorer than average 27.4 31.6

Future expectations -

children’s lives:

Worse off

0.5

3.2

Future residence:

Move to a third country

2 21.5



SOUTH AFRICANS

8



REFUGEES

3

Source: Summary of findings – Greyling, 2008


CONCLUSION

.Majority of the criteria indicated that the percentage of refugees experiencing wellbeing was lower than the percentage of South Africans.

Subjective questions

1. the majority of refugees felt that they were poorer than average

2. 32% of the refugees would rather move to either a third country or their home country than stay in South Africa,

3. more than six times more refugees felt that their children will be worse off in South Africa than themselves.


REASONS FOR THE LOWER LEVEL OF WELLBEING

• Act 30 of 1998, which establishes the rights of refugees in South Africa - is not fully enforced,

– for example the I.Ds issued to refugees have 12 digits instead of 13.

• xenophobia experienced in South Africa. • xenophobia also leads to lack of job opportunities and a

tendency to underpay refugees. • misconceptions of locals about refugees for example their

low level of education and the “stealing of South Africans jobs”


RECOMMENDATIONS

• Government should address problems experienced with the implementation of Act 30 of 1998

• Locals should be informed about refugees and the misconceptions they have must be addressed.

• The scarce skills refugees have should be used to contribute in the development of South Africa.

• Active policy measures should be taken to provide protection to refugees and change the attitude of law enforcement officers against foreigners in South Africa.

• All this will also contribute to decreasing xenophobia.


FUTURE RESEARCH

• To estimate the subjective wellbeing function of refugees (Logit).

• To address the problems of implementation of the rights of refugees.

• Current research performed by FMSP examines the contributing factors to xenophobia


QUESTIONS

Documents

TIPS Conference 20081 Urban refugees: definitions, legal position and wellbeing in South Africa TIPS 2008 Cape Town T Dalton-Greyling