Heading D: Prejudice and discrimination (Lekgethe Mphahlele 8vgqc4y43)
Xenophobia has been a real struggle in South Africa for many years, it can be defined
as discrimination and intolerance experienced by migrants on a daily basis, the
characteristics of Xenophobia are hostility and opposition to migrants and is usually
carried out through extreme cases of violence (Crush, 2017).
A lot of informal businesses are owned by migrants, not necessarily Zimbabwean, but
they fall under the group of migrants together with Nigerians, Ghananians and etc.
many Zimbabwean migrants live in South Africa without legal documentation for their
residence (Crush, 2017).
Gould (2021) explains that prejudice is the assumption or opinion about someone
based on the group they belong to. For example
if a person were to tell their
neighbours that he/she is Zimbabwean , the neighbours would associate them with
crime or the reason many locals are unemployed, simply because that is how most
foreigners are spoken of (Gould, 2021). Prejudice can be categorised by 3 factors,
Negative Feelings, stereotypes and discrimination.
There are different types of prejudice like sexism, nationalism, classism, ageism,
homophobia, xenophobia and etc. It can negatively affect people, because prejudice
tends to treat people like they are all the same, as if they have no individuality, they
fall victim to the stereotype that exists amongst the groups that they belong to (Gould,
2021). It also affects how people from different groups interact with each other.
Discrimination is the unfair treatment of a person or people based on the group they
belong to or identify with, anger and frustration are often a result of discrimination
(BBC, 2019). There was a xenophobic outbreak in 2008 and again in 2015 mainly in
Johannesburg and Durban, where armies had to be deployed, this outbreak was
caused by the rising unemployment rates and rising poverty experienced by South
Africans and they felt that foreigners or migrants have it easy when having to look for
jobs or getting support in their informal business (BBC, 2019).
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Heckman (1998) explains that there are different types of discrimination, like indirect
discrimination, this occurs when a place that is known to be neutral and be useful for
everyone no longer serves that function, for example a hospital or clinic in the township
turning away migrants, instead of helping them or migrant children being put last on
the waiting list of learning institutions, although education and health care should be
accessible to all (Heckman, 1998).
Moreau (2010) suggest that direct discrimination is when someone or a group of
people are treated way worse than a normal person is, for example a foreign national
being randomly beaten up just because they are migrants and are therefore
categorised as criminals the major reason for unemployment, but a citizen wouldn’t be
beaten up for any of those reasons (Moreau, 2010).
Many migrants face prejudice and discrimination from the locals for many reasons one
of them being because there’s a very strong competition between local informal
business enterprises and migrant informal business enterprises, another reason is that
a lot of blame for the crimes happening goes to migrants.
Foreign businesses tend to offer their services and products for an incredibly cheaper
price and that is why they get more traction as compared to citizens, that creates
frustration for the citizens and they act out in very violent and harmful ways.
References
BBC. (2019, October 2). BBCnews. Retrieved from BBCnews: https://www.bbc.com/news/worldafrica-47800718
Crush, J. (2017). Living with Xenophobia: Zimbabwean Informal Enterprise in South Africa. In J.
Crush, Living with Xenophobia: Zimbabwean Informal Enterprise in South Africa (pp. 1-3).
Cape Town: South African Migration Programme.
Gould, W. R. (2021, January 3). verywellmind. Retrieved from verywellmind:
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-prejudice-5092657
Heckman, J. J. (1998). Detecting Discrimination. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 101-116.
Moreau, S. (2010). What is discrimination. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 143-179.
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