After the mines: the changing social and economic landscape of Malawi–South Africa migration

Abstract

By the early 1970s, Malawi was the most significant supplier of mine labour to South Africa. Since then, for a variety of reasons, mine migrancy has dwindled. Nevertheless, migration to South Africa today looms large in the popular imagination, and is pursued by substantial numbers of Malawians, particularly men. By comparison with earlier migrants, however, their trajectories are less certain, their strategies more piecemeal. This paper will focus on contemporary migration to South Africa by young men from a particular village in Chiradzulu District, southern Malawi. Emphasising perspectives from their home village, it will offer insight into the impact of their migration upon family and gender relations, the social and economic situations of the wives and matrilineal kin whom they leave behind, and the tangible and intangible impacts of aspirations to South African migration.