Examining Insider-Outsider Dynamics

Nationality is a category used by Zimbabweans strategically in order to seek self-esteem and positive affirmation as migrants in a foreign land, and as a means of discursive self-defence. In the following, I will assess the meaning and function of nationality in the interviews I conducted for this study, in comparison to empirical findings and theory sourced from selected literature. The relation I have sketched and depicted in the course of this study between Zimbabweans and South Africans will be examined further in this chapter, followed by an accompanying chapter looking at national(istic) undercurrents in Zimbabwe and South Africa.