Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:46:04.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

MIGRATION, TRANSLOCAL NETWORKS AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRATIFICATION IN NAMIBIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2011

Clemens Greiner
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Rural–urban migration and networks are fundamental for many livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. Remittances in cash and kind provide additional income, enhance food security and offer access to viable resources in both rural and urban areas. Migration allows the involved households to benefit from price differences between rural and urban areas. In this contribution, I demonstrate that rural–urban networks not only contribute to poverty alleviation and security, but also further socio-economic stratification. This aspect has been ignored or neglected by most scholars and development planners. Using ethnographic data from Namibia, I have adopted a translocal perspective on migration and stratification, focusing on the resulting impact in rural areas where modern urban forms of stratification, induced by education and income from wage labour, are on the increase.

Resumé

La migration et les réseaux ruro-urbains sont essentiels à la subsistance de nombreuses personnes en Afrique sub-saharienne. Les envois en argent ou en nature constituent un complément de revenu, améliorent la sécurité alimentaire et permettent d'accéder à des ressources viables tant dans les zones rurales que dans les zone urbaines. La migration permet aux ménages concernés de bénéficier des écarts de prix entre zones rurales et urbaines. Cet article démontre que les réseaux ruro-urbains non seulement contribuent à réduire la pauvreté et à améliorer la sécurité, mais également renforcent la stratification socio-économique. C'est là un aspect que la plupart des savants et spécialistes de l'aménagement du territoire ont ignoré ou négligé. À l'aide de données ethnographiques de Namibie, l'auteur a adopté une perspective translocale de la migration et de la stratification, en se concentrant sur l'impact qui en résulte dans les zones rurales où des formes urbaines modernes de stratification, induites par l’éducation et les revenus du travail salarié, sont en augmentation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 81 , Issue 4 , November 2011 , pp. 606 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abrahams, K. (1982) ‘The “Waserauta” phenomenon: additional notes on the Namibian elite’, Namibian Review 25: 21–31.Google Scholar
Adepọju, A. (2006) ‘Internal and international migration within Africa’ in Kok, P., Gelderblom, D., Oucho, J. O. and van Zyl, J. (eds), Migration in South and Southern Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press.Google Scholar
Andersson, J. A. (2006) ‘Informal moves, informal markets: international migrants and traders from Mzimba District, Malawi’, African Affairs 105 (420): 375–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arango, J. (2002) ‘Explaining migration: a critical view’, International Social Science Journal 52 (165): 283–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bank, L. (2001) ‘Living together, moving apart: home-made agendas, identity politics and urban–rural linkages in the Eastern Cape, South Africa’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies 19 (1): 129–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basch, L., Schiller, N. Glick and Blanc, C. Szanton (1995) Nations Unbound: transnational projects, postcolonial predicaments, and deterritorialized nation-states. Basel: Gordon and Breach Publishers.Google Scholar
Bollig, M. (2006) Risk Management in a Hazardous Environment: a comparative study of two pastoral societies. New York NY: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brettell, C. B. and Hollifield, J. F. (2000) ‘Introduction’ in Brettell, C. B. and Hollifield, J. F. (eds), Migration Theory: talking across disciplines. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bryceson, D. (2002) ‘The scramble in Africa: reorienting rural livelihoods’, World Development 30 (2): 725–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cliggett, L. (2003) ‘Gift remitting and alliance building in Zambian modernity: old answers to modern problems’, American Anthropologist 105 (3): 543–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, C. (1994) Administering Education in Namibia: the colonial period to the present. Windhoek: Namibia Scientific Society.Google Scholar
de Haan, A. (1999) ‘Livelihoods and poverty: the role of migration – a critical review of the migration literature’, Journal of Development Studies 36 (2): 1–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devereux, S. (1996) ‘Fuzzy entitlements on common property resources: struggles over rights to communal land in Namibia’, IDS Working Paper 44, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton.Google Scholar
Dobler, G. (2009) ‘Oshikango: the dynamics of growth and regulation in a Namibian boom town’, Journal of Southern African Studies 35 (1): 115–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drimmie, S. and Casale, M. (2008) ‘Multiple stressors in Southern Africa: the link between HIV/AIDS, food insecurity, poverty and children's vulnerability now and in the future’, AIDS Care 21 (1): 28–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmett, T. (1999) Popular Resistance and the Roots of Nationalism in Namibia, 1915–1966. Basel: P. Schlettwein Publishing.Google Scholar
Faist, T. (2008) ‘Migrants as transnational development agents: an inquiry into the newest round of the migration–development nexus’, Population, Space and Place 14 (1): 21–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fog Olwig, K. (1997) ‘Cultural sites: sustaining a home in a deterritorialized world’ in Fog Olwig, K. and Hastrup, K. (eds), Siting Culture: the shifting anthropological object. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Foster, P. (1980) ‘Education and social inequality in sub-Saharan Africa’, Journal of Modern African Studies 18 (2): 201–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, E. and Hoddinott, J. (1993) ‘Migration and differentiation in western Kenya: a tale of two sub-locations’, Journal of Development Studies 30 (1): 115–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frayne, B. (2005) ‘Rural productivity and urban survival in Namibia: eating away from home’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies 23 (1): 51–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frayne, B. (2007) ‘Migration and the changing social economy of Windhoek, Namibia’, Development Southern Africa 24 (1): 91–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frayne, B. and Pendleton, W. C. (2001) ‘Migration in Namibia: combining macro and micro approaches to research design and analysis’, International Migration Review 35 (4): 1054–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuller, B. B. (1993) ‘Institutional Appropriation and Social Change among Agropastoralists in Central Namibia, 1916–1988’. Unpublished PhD thesis, Boston University.Google Scholar
Fumanti, M. (2007) ‘Burying E.S.: educated elites, subjectivity and distinction in Rundu, Namibia’, Journal of Southern African Studies 33 (3): 469–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelderblom, D. (2007) ‘Does poverty constrain migration in South Africa? Evidence, explanations and implications’, Development Southern Africa 24 (2): 241–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, P. and Gugler, J. (1998) ‘The urban–rural connection: changing issues of belonging and identification’, Africa 68 (3): 309–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillson, L. and Hofman, M. T. (2007) ‘Rangeland ecology in a changing world’, Science 315 (5808): 53–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gluckman, M. (1961) ‘Ethnographic data in British social anthropology’, Sociological Review 9 (1): 5–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, R. J. (1972) ‘Some Sociological Aspects of Verbal Communication in Okombahe, SWA: a community study’. MA thesis (Department of Social Anthropology), University of Stellenbosch.Google Scholar
Greiner, C. (2008) Zwischen Ziegenkraal und Township: Migrationsprozesse in Nordwestnamibia. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.Google Scholar
Greiner, C. (2009a) Beyond the Rural–Urban Divide: migration in post-colonial Namibia. Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien.Google Scholar
Greiner, C. (2009b) ‘Reporting bias in support network data: a case study of remittances in Namibia’ in Greiner, C. and Kokot, W. (eds), Networks, Resources and Economic Action: ethnographic case studies in honor of Hartmut Lang. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.Google Scholar
Greiner, C. (2010) ‘Patterns of translocality: migration, livelihoods and identity in northwest Namibia’, Sociologus 60 (2): 131–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guarnizo, L. E. and Smith, M. P. (1998) ‘The locations of transnationalism’ in Smith, M. P. and Guarnizo, L. E. (eds), Transnationalism from Below. New Brunswick NJ and London: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Harris, J. R. and Todaro, M. P. (1970) ‘Migration, unemployment and development: a two-sector analysis’, American Economic Review 60 (1): 126–42.Google Scholar
HayesP., J. P., J.Silvester, M. Wallace and Hartmann, W. (eds) (1998) Namibia under South African Rule: mobility and containment 1915–46. Oxford and Athens OH: James Currey and Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Hogg, R. (1986) ‘The new pastoralism: poverty and dependency in northern Kenya’, Africa Today 56 (3): 319–33.Google Scholar
Iken, A. (1999) Woman-Headed Households in Namibia: causes, patterns and consequences. Frankfurt am Main and Windhoek: IKO–Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation and Gamsberg Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jamal, V. and Weeks, J. (1988) ‘The vanishing rural–urban gap in sub-Saharan Africa’, International Labour Review 127 (3): 271–92.Google Scholar
Jones, R. C. (1998) ‘Remittances and inequality: a question of migration stage and geographic scale’, Economic Geography 74 (1): 8–25.Google ScholarPubMed
Klintenberg, P. and Verlinden, A. (2008) ‘Water points and their influence on grazing resources in central northern Namibia’, Land Degradation and Development 19 (1): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kok, P., O'Donovan, M., Bouare, O. and van Zyl, J. (2003) Post-Apartheid Patterns of Internal Migration in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Publishers.Google Scholar
Kuper, A. (1995) Auskommen ohne Einkommen: Leben in der Bergbausiedlung Uis in Namibia. Frankfurt am Main: IKO–Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation.Google Scholar
Lee, E. S. (1966) ‘A theory of migration’, Demography 3 (1): 47–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitt, P. and Jaworsky, N. (2007) ‘Transnational migration studies: past developments and future trends’, Annual Review of Sociology 33: 129–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, N. (2000) ‘Inequality in social capital’, Contemporary Sociology 29 (6): 785–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, K. (2005) Rural–Urban Interaction in the Developing World. London and New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Marais, H. (1999) South Africa – Limits to Change: the political economy of transition. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Melber, H. (1996) ‘Urbanization and internal migration: regional dimensions in post-colonial Namibia’ in Bächler, G. and Spillmann, K. R. (eds), Environmental Degradation as a Cause of War. Zürich: Rüegger.Google Scholar
Melber, H. (2007) ‘Poverty, politics, power and privilege: Namibia's black economic elite formation’ in Melber, H. (ed.), Transitions in Namibia: which changes for whom? Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Miescher, G. (2006) The Ovambo Reserve Otjeru (1911–1938): the story of an African community in central Namibia. Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB).Google Scholar
Mitchell, J. C. (1987) Cities, Society, and Social Perception: a Central African perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Moorsom, R. (1988) ‘Namibias Politische Ökonomie/UNIN Studie’ in Mbumba, N., Pateman, H. and Katjivena, U. (eds), Ein Land, eine Zukunft: Namibia auf dem Weg in die Unabhängigkeit. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag/Terre des Hommes.Google Scholar
Pankhurst, D. (1996) ‘Similar but different? Assessing the reserve economy legacy of Namibia’, Journal of Southern African Studies 22 (3): 405–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pauli, J. (2008) ‘A house of ones's own: gender, migration, and residence in rural Mexico’, American Ethnologist 35 (1): 171–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pauli, J. (2010) ‘Celebrating Distinctions: marriage, elites and reproduction in rural Namibia’. Unpublished Habilitationsschrift, University of Cologne.Google Scholar
Peltola, P. (1995) The Lost May Day: Namibian workers struggle for independence. Jyväskylä: Finnish Anthropological Society in Association with the Nordic Africa Institute.Google Scholar
Peters, P. E. (2004) ‘Inequality and social conflict over land in Africa’, Journal of Agrarian Change 4 (3): 269–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peyroux, E., Graefe, O. and Renaud, P. (1995) Precarious Settlements at Windhoek's Periphery: investigation into the emergence of a new urban phenomenon. Paris: Centre for Research-Information-Action for Development in Africa.Google Scholar
Poeze, M. (2010) In Search of Greener Pastures? Boat-migrants from Senegal to the Canary Islands. Leiden: African Studies Centre.Google Scholar
Portes, A. (2007) ‘Migration, development, and segmented assimilation: a conceptual review of the evidence’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 610: 73–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, A. and Sensenbrenner, J. (1993) ‘Embeddedness and immigration: notes on the social determinants of economic action’, American Journal of Sociology 98 (6): 1320–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, D. (1997) ‘Urban lives: adopting new strategies and adapting rural links’ in Rakodi, C. (ed.), The Urban Challenge in Africa: growth and management of its large cities. Tokyo, New York NY and Paris: United Nations University Press.Google Scholar
Potts, D. (2000) ‘Worker-peasants and farmer-housewives in Africa: the debate about “committed” farmers, access to land and agricultural production’, Journal of Southern African Studies 26 (4): 807–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, D. (2009) ‘The slowing of sub-Saharan Africa's urbanization: evidence and implications for urban livelihoods’, Environment and Urbanization 21 (1): 253–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reichert, J. (1982) ‘A town divided: economic stratification and social relations in a Mexican migrant community’, Social Problems 29 (4): 411–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Satterthwaite, D. and Tacoli, C. (2002) ‘Seeking an understanding of poverty that recognizes rural–urban differences and rural–urban linkages’ in Rakodi, C. and Lloyd-Jones, T. (eds), Urban Livelihoods: a people-centred approach to reducing poverty. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Schmidt-Kallert, E. (2009) ‘A new paradigm of urban transition: tracing the livelihood strategies of multi-locational households’, Die Erde 140 (3): 319–36.Google Scholar
Schnegg, M. (2009) ‘It's the combination that counts: diversification of pastoral livelihoods in northwestern Namibia’ in Greiner, C. and Kokot, W. (eds), Networks, Resources and Economic Action: ethnographic case studies in honor of Hartmut Lang. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.Google Scholar
Schnegg, M., Pauli, J. and Greiner, C. (forthcoming) ‘Pastoral belonging: causes and consequences of part-time pastoralism in north-western Namibia’ in Bollig, M., Wotzka, H.-P. and Schnegg, M. (eds), African Pastoralism – Past, Present, Future: the emergence, history and contemporary political ecology of African pastoralism. Oxford and New York NY: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Scoones, I. (1992) ‘Coping with drought: responses of herders and livestock in contrasting savanna environments in southern Zimbabwe’, Human Ecology 20 (3): 293–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scoones, I. (1998) ‘Sustainable rural livelihoods: a framework for analysis’, IDS Working Papers 72, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton.Google Scholar
Shemeikka, R. (2000) ‘Education in Namibia’ in Fuller, B. and Prommer, I. (eds), Population-Development-Environment in Namibia: background readings. Laxenburg, Austria: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.Google Scholar
Simon, D. (1985) ‘Decolonisation and local government in Namibia: the neo-apartheid plan, 1977–83’, Journal of Modern African Studies 23 (3): 507–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. P. (2001) Transnational Urbanism: locating globalization. Oxford and Malden MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Spencer, P. (1997) The Pastoral Continuum: marginalization of tradition in East Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stahl, U. (2000) ‘“At the end of the day we will fight”: communal land rights and “illegal fencing” in the Otjozondjupa Region’ in Bollig, M. and J.-Gewald, B. (eds), People, Cattle and Land: transformations of a pastoral society in southwestern Africa. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.Google Scholar
Standing, G. (1984) ‘Conceptualising territorial mobility’ in Bilsborrow, R. E., Oberai, A. S. and Standing, G. (eds), Migration Surveys in Low-Income Countries: guidelines for survey and questionnaire. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Stark, O. (1991) The Migration of Labor. Cambridge MA and Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.Google Scholar
Steinbrink, M. (2009) Leben zwischen Stadt und Land: Migration, Translokalität und Verwundbarkeit in Südafrika. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tapscott, C. (1993) ‘National reconciliation, social equity and class formation in independent Namibia’, Journal of Southern African Studies 19 (1): 29–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tvedten, I. (2004) ‘“A town is just a town”: poverty and social relations of migration in Namibia’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 38 (2): 393–423.Google Scholar
Tvedten, I. and Mupotola, M. (1995) ‘Urbanization and urban policies in Namibia’, NEPRU Working Papers No 47, Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit, Windhoek.Google Scholar
Werner, W. (1987) ‘Ethnicity and reformism in Namibia’ in Tötemeyer, G., Kandetu, V. and Werner, W. (eds), Namibia in Perspective. Windhoek: Council of Churches in Namibia.Google Scholar
Werner, W. (1998) ‘No One Will Become Rich’: economy and society in the Herero reserves in Namibia 1915–1946. Basel: P. Schlettwein Publishing.Google Scholar
Werner, W. (2001) ‘The land question in Namibia’ in Diener, I. and Graefe, O. (eds), Contemporary Namibia: the first landmarks of a post-apartheid society. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan.Google Scholar
Winterfeldt, V. (2002) ‘Labour migration in Namibia – gender aspects’ in Winterfeldt, V., Fox, T. and Mufune, P. (eds), Namibia. Society. Sociology. Windhoek: University of Namibia.Google Scholar
Wolpe, H. (1972) ‘Capitalism and cheap labour-power in South Africa: from segregation to apartheid’, Economy and Society 1 (4): 425–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar