The African Academic and the Changing Migration Policy Framework in South Africa

This chapter represents some initial questions we asked ourselves as we began this project. We wanted to understand how, and if at all, policy frameworks have influenced the current xenophobic climate within the South African university space. Just as the Kafkian character wakes up to see itself morphed into an unrecognizable creature, we ask how the South African university finds itself implicated in issues of xenophobia. We use a short historical analysis as well as critical reading to better understand how policy developments have shaped in some way the employment patterns at South African universities. On policy we were guided by Godwin’s elaboration (in L. Markauskaite, P. Freebody, & J. Irwin (eds.), Methodological choice and design: Scholarship, policy and practice in social and educational research, Springer (2011, p. 168)) which states that ‘policy consists of a range of actions—and inactions—including, but not limited to, laws, policy statements, programs, statements of principle, processes and performances. As such, the objects of policy research and policy analysis are also various… Policy researchers analyze texts, institutions and institutional processes, as well as interactions between policy players.’ The significance of this policy reading and chapter lies in its findings. It demonstrates how the current climate is not a result of only individual actions and/or rhetoric. The problem is much wider and more institutionalized than that. The issue of xenophobia does not present as only public sentiment and street-level vigilantism. It is being institutionalized, given metrics, and normalized, casting a long shadow on the South African academic space.