Distinctive and continued phases of Indian migration to South Africa with a focus on human security: The case of Durban

Abstract

A long-term analytical view of Indian migration and their human rights experiences in South Africa is essential to understand what prompts continued Indian migration and the factors that shape migrants’ human security experiences. The intersections of global, social, political and economic powers combine with national and international forces to determine the experiences of migration and human (in)security among Indian migrants in South Africa. This article focuses on historical Indian indentured migrants and the continued post-apartheid contemporary migration of Indians to South Africa. Throughout South Africa’s turbulent, violent and exploitative history, the political constructs of slavery, colonialism, economic expansionism, economic dispossession and apartheid convened in the passage of poor men, women and children from the Indian subcontinent. The article argues that traces of earlier exploitative histories continue to shape the framework for present-day Indian migrants in a way that impacts directly on their human security within a contemporary context.