Migration as a Source of Conflict: Understanding Xenophobia in South Africa

Valerie Rumbidzai Jeche chronicles the understanding of migration and why it has become a source of conflict in Chapter 9. Migration is a complex issue that has always been an integral part of human existence. As a form of migration, conflict-induced or forced migration has also been a long-standing phenomenon across the world, although it gained prominence in recent times as a result of its severity, magnitude and frequency. In the SADC region, migration has taken a toll on the political, social and economic interests of individual states. Migrants have created pressure on the weakening social and economic structures—inequality, and unemployment. Migration is viewed as a threat to social order and stability—an explicit link with a surge in crime (the criminal migrant thesis).