Jo Vearey

Syrian refugees, between rocky crisis in Syria and hard inaccessibility to healthcare services in Lebanon and Jordan

Around 3% of the world’s population (n = 214 million people) has crossed international borders for various reasons. Since March 2011, Syria has been going through state of political crisis and instability resulting in an exodus of Syrians to neighbouring countries. More than 1 million Syrian refugees are residents of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and North Africa. The international community must step up efforts to support Syrian refugees and their host governments.

Images of Place: Visuals from Migrant Women Sex Workers in South Africa

Many migrants in inner-city Johannesburg survive through unconventional and sometimes criminalized livelihood activities. In this article, we draw on data from a study that applied a participatory visual methodology to work with migrant women who sell sex, and explored the suitability of this approach as a way to engage with a presumed ‘hard to reach’ urban population. The lived experiences of migrant women sex workers were documented by combining participatory visual methods with a more traditional ethnographic approach, and this approach led us to new ways of seeing their worlds. This methodological approach raises important considerations for working with marginalized and criminalized urban groups. Video abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo

Social Capital and Livelihoods in Johannesburg: Differential Advantages and Unexpected Outcomes among Foreign-Born Migrants, Internal Migrants, and Long-Term South African Residents

Foreign-born migrants – a group rarely compared with both internal migrants and long-term residents – are often positioned as the most disadvantaged South African urban population. We use data from a 2008 cross-sectional household survey conducted in Johannesburg to compare a contextually relevant measure of social capital and livelihood advantages between foreign-born migrants, internal migrants, and long-term South African residents. Our findings are counterintuitive and emphasize the need to explore the heterogeneity of urban migrant populations, and the mechanisms in which they better their lives, by showing that (1) foreign-born migrants have better urban livelihood outcomes, and (2) indicators of social capital are not necessarily associated with improved livelihood outcomes.

The role of material deprivation and consumerism in the decisions to engage in transactional sex among young people in the urban slums of Blantyre, Malawi

Transactional sex has been associated with a high risk of HIV acquisition and unintended pregnancy among young women in urban slums in sub-Saharan Africa. However, few studies have explored the structural drivers of transactional sex from the perspective of both genders in these settings. This paper explores how young men and women understand the factors that lead to transactional sex among their peers, and how deprivation of material resources (housing, food and health care access) and consumerism (a desire for fashionable goods) may instigate transactional sex in the urban slums of Blantyre, Malawi. Data from 5 focus group discussions and 12 in-depth interviews undertaken with a total of 60 young men and women aged 18–23 years old, conducted between December 2012 and May 2013, were analysed using anticipated and grounded codes. Housing and food deprivation influenced decisions to engage in transactional sex for both young men and women. Poor health care access and a desire for fashionable goods (such as the latest hair or clothing styles and cellular phones) influenced the decisions of young women that led to transactional sex. Interventions that engage with deprivations and consumerism are essential to reducing sexual and reproductive health risks in urban slums.

Material deprivation and unemployment affect coercive sex among young people in the urban slums of Blantyre, Malawi: A multi-level approach.

We explore relations among material deprivation (measured by insufficient housing, food insecurity and poor healthcare access), socio-economic status (employment, income and education) and coercive sex. A binary logistic multi-level model is used in the estimation of data from a survey of 1071 young people aged 18–23 years, undertaken between June and July 2013, in the urban slums of Blantyre, Malawi. For young men, unemployment was associated with coercive sex (odds ratio [OR]=1.77, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.09–3.21) while material deprivation (OR=1.34, 95% CI: 0.75–2.39) was not. Young women in materially deprived households were more likely to report coercive sex (OR=1.37, 95% CI: 1.07–2.22) than in non-materially deprived households. Analysis of local indicators of deprivation is critical to inform the development of effective strategies to reduce coercive sex in urban slums in Malawi.

Who cares? HIV-related sickness, urban–rural linkages, and the gendered role of care in return migration in South Africa

Drawing on a 2008 household study conducted with internal and cross-border migrant households in Johannesburg, South Africa, this article explores the impact of HIV-related sickness and the gendered provision of care on migration patterns. Findings show that the provision of care helps to sustain links between the livelihood systems of urban and rural households. In times of sickness, many migrants choose to return to their household of origin, to seek care. Female migrants play a pivotal role in the provision of care, potentially disrupting their productive livelihood roles within the city in order to return home to provide care.

“Son of the Soil … Daughters of the Land”: poetry writing as a strategy of citizen-making for lesbian, gay, and bisexual migrants and asylum seekers in Johannesburg

abstract South Africa’s Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Freedom Charter are globally ground-breaking for providing provisions of non-discrimination, and, of particular note, on the basis of sexual orientation. Since the introduction of these protective frameworks, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) communities, allies, and advocates in the country have won major legal battles on these issues; however, in spite of these successes, LGBTIQ communities continue to face hostility and violence. As a result, South African LGBTIQ individuals often travel to urban centres, such as Johannesburg, in the hope that these spaces will be more tolerant of their sexual orientation and gender identity; the reality, however, suggests otherwise. Moreover, despite South Africa’s designation as a safe haven for LGBTIQ communities, migrants from other African countries — where same-sex relationships are criminalised — are overwhelmingly met with xenophobic verbal, emotional, physical, and political violence. This article describes the authors’ engagement with nine lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) migrants and asylum seekers from Zimbabwe, Malawi, and elsewhere in South Africa during a weeklong poetry workshop exploring their lived experiences in Johannesburg. This workshop followed a body mapping and narrative writing workshop held previously with the same participants. This article investigates the themes identified from the body mapping process that guided the poems produced: migration, violence, citizenship, and freedom. The poetry created during the workshop illuminates how lesbian, gay, and bisexual migrants in Johannesburg work on a daily basis to build social trust as they demand to be seen and recognised, to enact their rights, to make and remake homes, to show up in public as Black people, as LGB individuals, and as human beings. We explore these strategies of citizen-making as informed by the LGB poets with whom we had the opportunity to work.

Exploring The Migration Profiles of Primary Healthcare Users in South Africa

South Africa’s public healthcare system responses seldom engage with migration. Our exploratory study investigates migration profiles and experiences of primary healthcare (PHC) users. A cross-sectional survey involving non-probability sampling was conducted with 229 PHC users at six purposively selected PHC clinics in three districts of SA. The survey captured socio-demographic information, migration histories, and PHC experiences. Chi square and Fischer’s exact tests were used to compare categorical variables, whilst Mann–Whitney U tests compared continuous variables between groups. Most PHC users were migrants (22% internal South African; 45% cross-border) who generally move for reasons other than healthcare seeking. Length of time accessing services at a specific clinic was shown to be key in describing experiences of PHC use. Understanding population movement is central to PHC strengthening in SA and requires improved understanding of mobility dynamics in regard to not just nationality, but also internal mobility and length of stay.

Analysing local-level responses to migration and urban health in Hillbrow: the Johannesburg Migrant Health Forum

Johannesburg is home to a diverse migrant population and a range of urban health challenges. Locally informed and implemented responses to migration and health that are sensitive to the particular needs of diverse migrant groups are urgently required. In the absence of a coordinated response to migration and health in the city, the Johannesburg Migrant Health Forum (MHF) – an unfunded informal working group of civil society actors – was established in 2008. We assess the impact, contributions and challenges of the MHF on the development of local-level responses to migration and urban health in Johannesburg to date. In this Commentary, we draw on data from participant observation in MHF meetings and activities, a review of core MHF documents, and semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 MHF members.The MHF is contributing to the development of local-level migration and health responses in Johannesburg in three key ways: (1) tracking poor quality or denial of public services to migrants; (2) diverse organisational membership linking the policy process with community experiences; and (3) improving service delivery to migrant clients through participation of diverse service providers and civil society organisations in the Forum. Our findings indicate that the MHF has a vital role to play in supporting the development of appropriate local responses to migration and health in a context of continued – and increasing – migration, and against the backdrop of rising anti-immigrant sentiments.

Connecting the dots: Cultivating a sustainable interdisciplinary discourse around migration, urbanisation, and health in Southern Africa

This chapter describes our experiences in connecting a group of emerging Southern African scholars around the inherently interdisciplinary field of migration, urbanisation and health. South Africa, as with other countries in the region, is witnessing multiple simultaneous and interconnected transitions – health, demographic, social, economic and political. Defining, measuring and better understanding the dynamics and complexities of these transitions is a fundamental step in the professionalizing of next-generation scholars in the area of migration, urbanisation and health. In this chapter we discuss themes, definitions and the process of forming group discourse at the nexus of migration, urbanisation and health. Driven by substantive questions derived from studies of the lived experiences of urban migrants in South Africa, specifically the intertwining of migration trajectories and health histories, a central goal of our collaborative endeavour was ‘to connect the dots’ – key concepts, data, measures and methods – in order to identify common themes and research priorities that will facilitate the participation of next-generation scholars in developing innovative and new research agendas. We report on the themes that emerged from a 2015 workshop held at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg that brought together senior and early-career scholars to discuss ways of engaging with migration, urbanisation and health in the Southern African context. We close with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges for early-career scholars in this field, identifying next steps to develop and sustain in-country capacity to influence both research and public policy.