BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//ACMS - ECPv6.17.3//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://migration.org.za X-WR-CALDESC:Events for ACMS REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Africa/Johannesburg BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:SAST DTSTART:20210101T000000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260427 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260428 DTSTAMP:20260803T142936Z CREATED:20260803T142936Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142936Z UID:30000227-1777248000-1777334399@migration.org.za SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: East African Queer and Trans Displacements DESCRIPTION:Over the past decade\, East Africa has become synonymous with state-sponsored homo/ transphobia\, marked by draconian legislation and recurring moral panics. These escalating dynamics have forced many LGBTQI East Africans to flee their homes. Yet it would be wrong to characterise East Africa solely as a producer or host of LGBTQI refugees. It is also a site of activism and community\, of belonging and enterprise\, where the limits of protection mechanisms are tested and redefined. Bringing together diverse case studies and interdisciplinary perspectives\, this collection features original creative works by queer and trans diasporic writers and artists to explore the drivers\, impacts and meanings of queer and trans displacement in and from the region. East African Queer and Trans Displacements is an open access collection that offers the first in-depth examination of queer and trans displacement in the region. \nThe latest book launch was held on 13 April 2026 at the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (WiCDS). It brought together three of the editors—Dr. B. Camminga (University of Bristol)\, Dr Barbara Bompani (University of Parma) and Dr John Marnell (Wits University)—in conversation with Dr Kudzaiishe Vanyoro (Wits University) and Shinta Jennifer Ayebazibwe (University of Johannesburg). \n  \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Speaking about his book chapter\, titled: ‘I sucked a lot of dicks to get this place!’ Homemaking and care practices among East African LGBTQ refugees\, Dr Marnell explained that one of the things that really stood out for him\, when he was conducting his fieldwork\, was the level of variation in housing practices\, locations\, and the kinds of different social arrangements that existed between housings. These range from people living in dire\, vulnerable\, and often dangerous situations\, right through to people living in fancy complexes in the suburbs of northern Johannesburg\, to a pseudo-statehouse that is organically developed in a Cape Town multi-level boarding house\, which now houses a big contingent of queer and trans refugees. \nHe goes on to argue that “Part of the problem… is that so much of the focus is always on protection contexts. Which in this case usually is a dysfunctional asylum system or these very legal barriers to protection.” \nWatch the video below to learn more about their chapter: \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Also see Dr Camminga discussing their chapter on Parallel legal regimes: Homotransnationalism\, LGBTQI+ refugees and a failing international protection system: \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Download the book for free here: East African Queer and Trans Displacements. \nThe next book launch will be hosted by the Queer Populations and Policies Network (QPaP) on 25 June 2026\, 4-5pm (UK time). To register for it\, click here: https://forms.gle/ep6NKwYjXGVJqPNo8. \n[Featured photograph on header by ACMS\, and the in-text photograph is by WiCDS.] URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/book-launch-east-african-queer-and-trans-displacements/ CATEGORIES:Book launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/EA_Queer_Trans_Displacements_WiCDS_photo2_13April2026-e1777398338311.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260422 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260423 DTSTAMP:20260803T142936Z CREATED:20260803T142936Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142936Z UID:30000226-1776816000-1776902399@migration.org.za SUMMARY:VIDEO: Fixed Systems\, Mobile Lives DESCRIPTION:By Reabetswe Maputla \nSouth Africa has strong legal and policy commitments toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). However\, findings from a rapid ethnographic assessment in Johannesburg\, across inner-city and Soweto\, highlight a clear gap between policy and lived reality. \nOn 15 April\, ACMS post-doctoral fellow Dr Lucy Pearl Khofi presented at the ACMS Migration & Society Seminar Series a paper on: ‘Fixed Systems\, Mobile Lives: Structural Misalignment and the Negotiation of Sexual and Reproductive Health Care among Mobile Adolescents and Young People in Johannesburg.’ Professor Busisiwe Nkala-Dlamini of the Wits University\, Department of Social Work\, was the discussant. \nMobile adolescents and young people (mAYP)\, particularly in rapidly urbanising settings shaped by internal and cross-border mobility\, face significant barriers to accessing SRHR services. Long waiting times\, overburdened facilities\, and rigid administrative systems often make access difficult. Many are forced to choose between seeking healthcare and meeting immediate economic or family responsibilities. \nDr Khofi argues that SRHR service delivery is structurally misaligned with the lived realities of mAYP. While health systems assume stability and continuity\, young people’s lives are often mobile\, uncertain\, and economically constrained. As a result\, access to care is not guaranteed\, but has to be actively negotiated\, and is frequently uneven. \nThe seminar challenged narratives that place responsibility on young people’s healthcare seeking behaviours solely on them; instead pointing to systemic and institutional barriers as central to the issue. Therefore\, despite strong frameworks on paper\, meaningful access remained inconsistent in practice. \nThese insights have important implications for achieving UHC and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals\, particularly those related to health\, gender equality\, and reducing inequalities. Addressing these challenges requires rethinking how health systems are designed and implemented to better align with the realities of mobile populations. \nIf you missed this intriguing public seminar\, catch the short video recap below: URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/video-fixed-systems-mobile-lives/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Lucy_seminar_photo5_15April2026-e1778510924240.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20260415T123000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20260415T133000 DTSTAMP:20260803T142935Z CREATED:20260803T142935Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142935Z UID:30000225-1776256200-1776259800@migration.org.za SUMMARY:ACMS SEMINAR: Fixed Systems\, Mobile Lives DESCRIPTION:Presenter: Dr Lucy Pearl Khofi\nDiscussant: Professor Busisiwe Nkala-Dlamini (Wits University\, Department of Social Work)\nTitle: Fixed Systems\, Mobile Lives: Structural Misalignment and the Negotiation of Sexual and Reproductive Health Care among Mobile Adolescents and Young People in Johannesburg\nDate: Wednesday\, 15 April 2026\nTime: 12:30 – 13:30\nVenue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163)\, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor)\, East Campus\, Wits University (directions)\nZoom link: https://tinyurl.com/3dwkccpp\, Meeting ID: 957 8662 4514\, Passcode: 012731\nRSVP: Email ntokozo.yingwana@wits.ac.za \nAbstract:\nSouth Africa has strong legal and policy commitments towards universal health coverage (UHC) and the protection of sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). However\, mobile adolescents and young people (mAYP) continue to face significant challenges in accessing SRHR services\, particularly in rapidly urbanising contexts characterised by high levels of internal and cross-border mobility. Nurture4Youth aims to support mAYP’s health and wellbeing by strengthening their capacity to navigate access to SRHR services in new and often precarious environments. \nThis paper draws on rapid ethnographic assessments conducted in Johannesburg\, including inner-city and Soweto township sites\, to examine how mAYP experience and navigate access to SRHR services. The rapid ethnographic assessment approach included participatory methods such as transect walks\, structured observations of key spaces\, community engagements\, and in-depth interviews and discussions with mAYP\, healthcare providers\, and community stakeholders. \nA thematic analysis of the data highlights the structural misalignment between mobile populations and territorially fixed health systems. Findings show that access to SRHR services is not determined solely by availability\, but is actively negotiated through temporal\, spatial\, and social processes. Young people described waking before sunrise to secure a place in clinic queues\, often facing long waiting times and the risk of being turned away. Frequent mobility across neighbourhoods\, provinces\, and national borders disrupts continuity of care\, while health systems remain spatially fixed and administratively fragmented. Informal networks and community-based organisations mediated access by directing young people to specific clinics\, sharing information about service availability\, and\, in some cases\, facilitating entry into services where formal access pathways were limited. These forms of mediation were uneven\, with access shaped by young people’s social connections\, gendered experiences\, and familiarity with local support structures. \nThis paper argues that SRHR service delivery in urban South Africa is structurally misaligned with the lived realities of mAYP\, requiring them to continuously negotiate their access to care. These findings have implications for achieving UHC and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals\, particularly in relation to health\, gender equality\, and reducing inequalities. \nAbout the researcher/presenter:\nLucy Pearl Khofi is a medical anthropologist and public health researcher with interdisciplinary expertise in gender\, migration\, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)\, food insecurity\, and structural vulnerability in urban and peri-urban contexts in Southern Africa. She is a Postdoctoral Researcher at ACMS\, University of the Witwatersrand\, where she is part of the NIHR-funded Nurture4Youth project focusing on mobility\, youth wellbeing\, and access to SRHR services. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/acms-seminar-fixed-systems-mobile-lives/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus CATEGORIES:Seminar ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Fixed-Systems-Mobile-Lives_LucyKhofi_seminar_poster_15April2026.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20260325T123000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20260325T134500 DTSTAMP:20260803T142935Z CREATED:20260803T142935Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142935Z UID:30000224-1774441800-1774446300@migration.org.za SUMMARY:ACMS SEMINAR: Exclusionary Cohesion? Rethinking the Nexus between Social Cohesion and Xenophobic Violence in South Africa DESCRIPTION:Presenter: Dr Jean Pierre Misago\nDate: Wednesday\, 25 March 2026\nTime: 12:30 – 13:45\nVenue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163)\, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor)\, East Campus\, Wits University (directions)\nZoom link: https://tinyurl.com/3dwkccpp\, Meeting ID: 957 8662 4514\, Passcode: 012731\nRSVP: Email ntokozo.yingwana@wits.ac.za \nAbstract:\nDrawing on nearly two decades of multi-case and comparative qualitative research\, this article examines the relationship between social cohesion and xenophobic violence in South Africa. Echoing emerging scholarship\, it challenges the conventional wisdom that social cohesion is inherently a solution to violence. It demonstrates that under certain conditions\, social cohesion is linked to xenophobic violence\, not as a solution but as a driver. It indeed argues that intersections between i) migration-induced diversity; ii) severe socio-economic deprivation; and iii) local governance deficits turn already pervasive bonding cohesion into ‘exclusionary cohesion’\, thereby rendering aspects of social cohesion (i.e. social cohesion itself) a driver of xenophobic violence. The article makes three scholarly contributions. First\, it introduces two concepts – ‘exclusionary cohesion’ and ‘deprivation-induced cohesion’ (an extension of social closure) – that capture the essence of aspects of social cohesion making it a driver of xenophobic violence in South Africa. Second\, it lends voice to calls for reconceptualising social cohesion by providing additional empirical evidence that its conventional understandings have become increasingly anachronistic. Third\, it extends the debate on the relationship between social cohesion and violence by beginning to identify factors or conditions that link specific forms of cohesion to specific forms of violence. Practically\, it joins others in cautioning policymakers against ‘romanticising’ social cohesion as a straightforward solution to xenophobic violence and calls for interventions that not only promote non-violent forms of cohesion but also address the conditions that make exclusionary cohesion possible. \nAbout the researcher/presenter:\nJean Pierre Misago is a Senior Researcher and Co-Director at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at the University of the Witwatersrand. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Psychology (University of Zimbabwe\, 2001); an MA in Forced Migration Studies (Wits University\, 2005); an MA in Humanitarian Assistance (Tufts University\, 2008); a Certificate in Humanitarian Studies & Field Practice (Harvard University & Tufts University\, 2008); a PhD in Migration and Displacement (Wits University\, 2016); and a Certificate in Ethnicity\, Conflict and Inequality in Global Perspective (Brown University\, 2017). His research focuses on the effects of migration on identity and belonging; xenophobia and violent outsider exclusion; and the governance of migration and human mobility at different levels. He has published a significant and growing number of articles in international journals\, book chapters in edited volumes\, and research reports. He teaches Honours and MA Migration and Displacement courses and supervises Honours\, MA and PhD students at ACMS. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/acms-seminar-exclusionary-cohesion-rethinking-the-nexus-between-social-cohesion-and-xenophobic-violence-in-south-africa/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus CATEGORIES:Seminar ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Xenowatch-website-header-4March2025.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260304 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260305 DTSTAMP:20260803T142934Z CREATED:20260803T142934Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142934Z UID:30000223-1772582400-1772668799@migration.org.za SUMMARY:EXHIBITION: The project that's remapping migration in urban Africa DESCRIPTION:This post has been adapted from an article that was originally published by Wits University\, under the same title\, on 3 March 2026. Above featured image\, ‘When we travel\, where do we settle?’\, by Wezile Harmans (photo credit: Lehlohonolo Ndlovu). In-text image\, ‘Madini’\, by Daniel Muchina. \nAnd with it\, a glimpse into the world’s future cities. \nThe population of African cities is expected to double to 1.4 billion people by 2050\, with much of this growth being driven by those ​​arriving from elsewhere. Yet the way planners and policy-makers talk about these spaces — using words like failure\, ungoverned\, and problematic — is unfit for this era of global political\, economic and environmental instability. \nThe Atlas of Uncertainty asks: What if African cities aren’t behind the curve\, but ahead of it? \nLaunching at the Origins Centre at Wits University on 18 April\, the Atlas of Uncertainty is a collaborative\, interdisciplinary knowledge project — part book\, part interactive website\, part travelling exhibition — that challenges how we understand and interpret migration and African cities. \nBuilt on surveys from gateway neighbourhoods in Accra\, Nairobi\, and Johannesburg\, it braids hard data with essay\, poetry\, soundscape\, artwork\, and new forms of cartography to convey what statistics alone cannot — a deliberate movement from the “census to the senses”. \nThe Atlas contributors argue that uncertainty is not a problem to be solved but a productive condition to be understood; that knowledge about African cities and migration must be generated differently\, from the ground up and across disciplines\, if it is to reflect these spaces as they actually are; that migrants are not a burden on cities but their makers; and that Africa may offer the clearest map of where the world is headed. \nOut of words\nAfter decades of research\, urban sociologist Caroline Wanjiku Kihato and political scientist Loren B Landau found that the tools of their disciplines were unable to capture what they were seeing. The language of margins and centres\, inclusion and exclusion\, formal and informal\, didn’t fit the complexity of how people actually lived. \n“We needed a new vocabulary\,” says Landau\, Research Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand’s African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS)\, Professor of Migration and Development at the University of Oxford and co-founder of the Wits-Oxford Mobility Governance Lab. “And we needed new maps.” \nThe Atlas of Uncertainty not only tracks where people are and from where they have come\, but where they dream of being and what their futures might hold. “We often map movements of people\, supply chains\, agricultural goods\,” says Landau. “But we weren’t capturing the circulations of moralities\, of ideas\, of imagination. If you’ve come from a place\, but you’re living in a city\, and you’re dreaming of Minnesota — how can we capture that?” \n \nWhat lies beneath\nIn Johannesburg’s Somali community\, clan legal infrastructure from Somalia resolves local conflicts through WhatsApp\, a system of governance invisible to any official map\, yet functioning and real. Witchcraft accusations determine who can stay in one Nairobi neighbourhood\, invisible forces as powerful as any landlord or law. In Accra\, development schemes carry the repackaged logic of colonial planning\, an attempt at scripting who and what goes where. \nAmong the artworks\, a central figure is surrounded by fish; a meditation on family in motion\, on relationships not destroyed but constantly reconfigured as people move. “The fish are in a fluid space that itself is moving\,” says Landau\, reflecting how we move together in shifting waters\, like a school of fish\, until someone goes off on their own. \nA papier-mâché canoe built in Nairobi from the street posters of prophets\, healers\, and miracle-workers that plaster the city’s walls captures something harder to name. Nobody travels to Nairobi by boat. But the vessel suggests that migration is not always a rational calculation — it is also speculative\, mysterious\, spectral. People move toward something they cannot fully see\, drawn by forces that don’t appear on the map. \n“We’re trying to see what lies beneath the map\,” says Kihato\, a Research Associate at ACMS and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of International Development (ODID). “We’ve got to think about the city as all of these things\, as part of an ecosystem of both the visible and the invisible.” \nThe Atlas is also a reimagining of how knowledge is generated\, who generates it\, where it comes from\, and to what end? \n“How many times have we returned to neighbourhoods in Joburg or Nairobi or Accra where we intervened\, and it doesn’t seem that anything has changed?” asks Kihato. “We have not eliminated the fundamental issues around inequality\, lack of employment. These solutions have not worked\, even with the certitude that comes with their implementation. What this project is asking us to do is take a pause and think\, if the knowledge we have on hand has not helped us build these spaces the way policy intends\, what could we be missing?” \nCitymaking in uncertainty\nThe Atlas also flips the script that depicts African migrants as streaming into Europe or North America. Most migrants\, the data show\, are moving to other African cities — 80% of African migrants stay on the continent. The vast majority of movers remain in their own countries\, largely uncounted. But their journeys are rarely linear or final. Nairobi\, Accra\, and Johannesburg are not endpoints but gateways where people arrive\, reconfigure their lives\, and reshape their spaces. \nThis reframing carries implications well beyond the continent. With instability becoming a defining condition globally\, Africa’s long experience of navigating uncertainty looks less like a local handicap and more like hard-won knowledge. \n“What Africa has on its side is that we have never been certain about anything\, except uncertainty\,” says Kihato. “It’s not just about resilience. It’s a way of being. Because we have had very little to rely on\, there’s always been this looking at life otherwise — to make things work\, and knit things up in order to survive. And that skill is what we have to offer the world.” \nAbout the Atlas of Uncertainty\nThe Atlas of Uncertainty is a project of the Oxford/Wits Mobility Governance Lab and Wits University’s African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS)\, the continent’s leading scholarly institution for research and teaching on human mobility. The book\, Atlas of Uncertainty: Transforming African Cityscapes (Actar/Wits Press)\, will be released in January 2027. The opening exhibition runs at the Origins Centre\, Wits University\, Johannesburg\, from 18 April to 3 July 2026. Exhibitions in Accra\, Nairobi\, and Amsterdam are planned for 2027. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/exhibition-the-project-thats-remapping-migration-in-urban-africa/ CATEGORIES:Exhibition ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Wezile-Harmans_When-we-travel-where-do-we-settle-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20251111T100000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20251111T113000 DTSTAMP:20260803T142934Z CREATED:20260803T142934Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142934Z UID:30000222-1762855200-1762860600@migration.org.za SUMMARY:Cities in Motion: Health\, Violence & Crisis in SA's Urban Worlds DESCRIPTION:As part of the Migration\, Health & Wellbeing in Context webinar series\, the ACMS in partnership with Nuture4Youth\, Global Health Research Group: GEMMS\, the Cluster of Research Excellence (CoRE) in Migration & Health\, and the Wits University School of Social Sciences is organising its second hybrid seminar\, titled ‘Cities in Motion: Health\, Violence & Crisis in SA’s Urban Worlds’. \nDate: Tuesday 11 November 2025\nTime: 10am – 11.30am (SAST)\nIn-person venue: African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) Seminar Room (see directions here)\nOnline: Zoom link here \nSpeakers:\n– Diego Iturralde\, Chief Director: Demography and Population Statistics\, Statistics SA\n– Silindile Mlilo\, Xenowatch\, ACMS\, Wits\n– Rebecca Walker\, Collective Voices and ACMS\, Wits\n– Federica Duca\, Johannesburg Crisis Working Group\, PARI\, Wits\n– Lorena Nunez\, School of Social Sciences\, Wits \nThis webinar aims to facilitate an evidence-informed conversation about the intersecting and multi-level dynamics of migration and urbanisation and their impacts on population health and wellbeing in South Africa. Central to current debates is the need to focus on the structural and interpersonal violence – including that promoted by anti-foreigner vigilante groups – that remain defining features of life in many urban settings. It seeks to move beyond abstract policy debates by grounding discussion in real\, tangible experiences and challenges\, while also highlighting pathways toward more inclusive\, equitable\, and health-promoting urban futures. \nBackground\nSouth Africa’s 2025 mid-year population estimates\, highlight – once again – the impact that remaining the world’s most unequal country has on the health and wellbeing of everyone residing in the country. Numerous interlinked social and structural determinants of health – the result of the country’s history of segregation and pervasive inequality – negatively affect the health and wellbeing of all in the country. This is particularly acute in South Africa’s urban worlds where intersecting crises in the lived experiences of city residents continue to unfold. \nWhilst at an aggregate level\, urban spaces often have better health outcomes than rural areas\, South Africa’s towns and cities hide the stark realities of inequity whereby marginalised urban poor groups face numerous drivers of poor health. As one of the most urbanised countries sub-Saharan Africa\, over two-thirds of the South African population live in urban areas. As cities and towns grow – due to both natural growth and migration\, they continue to grapple with the complex legacies of enduring apartheid-era spatial inequality\, persistent socio-economic exclusion and uneven access to basic social services\, including healthcare. \nDespite popular misconceptions\, there are just 2.5 million international migrants in the country\, accounting for 4% of the South African population\, with South Africa’s towns and cities remaining primary destinations for migrants from the Southern African region and beyond. But rarely spoken about are the 18 million people moving between provinces within South Africa – 29% of the total population (Table 1). Internal migration from rural to urban areas remains a key driver of urban growth\, as people seek employment opportunities\, education\, and access to what are often assumed to be better quality services. \nMany urban migrants find themselves settled on the periphery of cities and towns – both physically and socially – where they face precarious living conditions\, limited healthcare access\, legal and administrative barriers\, and\, in many cases\, xenophobic and vigilante violence. Health outcomes are shaped by intersecting factors: poverty\, housing insecurity\, gender-based violence\, inadequate sanitation\, overcrowding\, and struggling public health systems\, all of which are amplified as a result of prevailing anti-foreigner sentiments that drive both structural – through political influences on legislative\, policy and programme development – and interpersonal violence. \nWhile South Africa has made significant progress in addressing major public health challenges such as HIV and TB\, urban migrants often remain excluded from national health and social protection systems. Today\, these ‘left-behind’ populations face further challenges as a result of the withdrawal of USAID and Pepfar funding that previously supported HIV treatment-as-prevention (TasP) services. Whilst celebrating the planned roll-out of the twice-yearly lencapavir (LEN) HIV prevention injection\, it remains to be seen whether targeted uptake campaigns will reach those on the margins. The same can be said for the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act that – in spite of purporting to facilitate Universal Heath Coverage (UHC) – specifically excludes asylum seekers and undocumented migrants from accessing primary and tertiary healthcare services (apart from emergency care and treatment for notifiable diseases). \n \n  \n  \n  URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/cities-in-motion-health-violence-crisis-in-sas-urban-worlds/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Cities-in-Motion_webinar_poster_image_3Nov2025-scaled.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250925 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250926 DTSTAMP:20260803T142934Z CREATED:20260803T142934Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142934Z UID:30000221-1758758400-1758844799@migration.org.za SUMMARY:PODCAST: Serge Alain Nitegeka's ACMS walkabout of 'Black Subjects' DESCRIPTION:On 2 September\, about 20 African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) staff and students were taken on a guided tour by renowned artist Serge Alain Nitegeka\, of his latest exhibition called Black Subjects\, currently showcasing at the Wits Art Museum (26 August to 1 November 2025). \nNitegeka presents his first institutional solo show in Johannesburg. For Black Subjects\, he stages a monumental sculptural intervention\, whilst also working across painting and video. Nitegeka grounds his practice in a language of abstraction\, geometry and colour. The experiential interaction with the work refutes passivity\, resulting in a congruence between the body and space. \n \n \nA key tenet of the exhibition is the relationship between movement and load. In his paintings\, figures carry unidentified cargo\, moving across a landscape of abstracted obstacles\, Nitegeka renders cargo and the personal effects of migration into a language of abstracted thought and form\, emphasising the liminality embedded in these narratives. \n \nAs the audience is transformed into the Black Subjects\, the installation-performance exemplifies the ways the body becomes cargo and continues the artist’s reflections on his experiences of forced migration and displacement. \n \n \nListen to the podcast below of the discussion that Nitegeka had with ACMS during the exhibition walkabout. The conversation covers issues of identity\, language\, home and belonging: \n \nAfrican Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) · Serge Alain Nitegeka’s ACMS tour of ‘Black Subjects’\n\nTo find out more about this exhibition\, click here. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/podcast-serge-alain-nitegekas-acms-walkabout-of-black-subjects/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Serge_Alain_Nitegeka_Black_Subjects_2Sep2025.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250917T123000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250917T134500 DTSTAMP:20260803T142933Z CREATED:20260803T142933Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142933Z UID:30000218-1758112200-1758116700@migration.org.za SUMMARY:ACMS Seminar: Home and Away - An Analysis of Out of Country Voting in South African Elections DESCRIPTION:Presenter: Dr Catherine Musuva\nDate: Wednesday\, 17 September 2025\nTime: 12:30 – 13:45\nVenue: ACMS Seminar Room: Room 2163\, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor)\, East Campus\, Wits University (directions)\nZoom link: https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/95786624514?pwd=53Oi1h6gHcWY2Q43O0p8ZqzOsOLZXp.1\nRegister: https://tinyurl.com/4zxkc7s8 \nAbstract:\nThis research examines the extent to which South Africans living abroad are interested in participating in homeland elections. South Africa has a relatively large emigrant population\, and non-resident citizens enjoy the right to vote in national elections. Yet\, electoral behaviour is largely studied through a domestic voter lens\, and the factors that influence emigrant political behaviour are not fully understood despite the growing interest of migration scholars and political scientists in external voting globally. A historical analysis of external voting data from the electoral commission of South Africa reveals that uptake is very low and opposition parties are the main beneficiaries of external votes. The research theorises on explanations for the data and contributes to broader debates on migrant agency\, citizenship and transnational political participation. \nAbout the researcher/presenter:\nDr Catherine Musuva is a senior researcher and postgraduate coordinator at the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) at Wits. She is also a research fellow at the Centre for Research on Democracy (CREDO) at Stellenbosch University. Musuva holds a BA in International Relations\, an MA in Development Management\, an MPhil in Development Studies and a PhD in Political Science. Her research interests are broadly around democratic development and migration governance in Africa. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/acms-seminar-home-and-away-an-analysis-of-out-of-country-voting-in-south-african-elections/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus CATEGORIES:Seminar ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Home-and-away-voting-in-SA-ChatGPT-5Sep2025.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250912 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250913 DTSTAMP:20260803T142933Z CREATED:20260803T142933Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142933Z UID:30000220-1757635200-1757721599@migration.org.za SUMMARY:VIDEOS: 'The Borders of Transformation' colloquium DESCRIPTION:Earlier this month (4 September 2025)\, the University of the Witwatersrand held a colloquium on ‘The Borders of Transformation: The Continent and the South African University’. This colloquium considered competing and complementary approaches to race and nationality in South African higher education\, at a moment that marks ten years since the Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall protests\, as well as being characterised by the increasing visibility and weaponisation of national and international xenophobia. \nOpening the colloquium\, Wits University’s Head of School of Social Sciences\, Lorena Núñez Carrasco posed the following provocation:\n“So what can we do? Yes\, we must keep speaking out against politicians who use fear and division to gain power. Yes\, we must push for sound evidence-based policies on healthcare\, taxation\, education and more. But is that enough? Today is about going further. We are here to restart the conversations students began a decade ago. We are asking ourselves what role should we\, as academics and institutions\, play in shaping a fairer future? What are our goals? What stands in our way\, and what tools and resources do we have to work with? This won’t be an easy conversation. We hope it will be an honest and respectful one. Since the Fallest movement\, it sometimes feel like we’ve been becoming a bit like a family that avoids difficult topics just to keep the peace. But today is not the day to stay silent. Today we speak.” \nThese questions were not only a reflection on the Fallist movements\, but on a three-decade-long history of contentious post-Apartheid efforts to align the country’s universities with broader commitments to equity and progressive social change. This colloquium also considered future institutional trajectories in an era of resource scarcity\, persistent domestic and global inequality\, and rampant populist anti-intellectualism. \n \nThe colloquium was split into two panels. The first panel focused on “transformation after the ‘decolonial turn'”. Its speakers were Mxolisi Makhubo (University of Johannesburg)\, Fikile Masikane (University of Pretoria) and Srila Roy (Wits University)\, and was chaired by Nicky Falkof (SARCHi Chair in Critical Diversity Studies). \n \nThe second panel discussed “the future of the South/African university”\, and featured Salim Vally (University of Johannesburg)\, William Mpofu (Wits University)\, Samia Chasi (Wits University)\, whilst being chaired by Loren Landau (SARCHi Chair in Mobility and the Politics of Difference). \nAt its heart\, the colloquium asked how universities\, and the scholars and activists housed within them\, can respond to stormy political waters and to potentially competing visions of justice and transformation. What it might mean to be an African university in South Africa\, and what it would take to realise that vision. \nCatch up with this riveting conversation by watching the videos below: URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/videos-the-borders-of-transformation-colloquium/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/WhatsApp-Image-2025-09-04-at-16.25.42.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250905 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250906 DTSTAMP:20260803T142933Z CREATED:20260803T142933Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142933Z UID:30000219-1757030400-1757116799@migration.org.za SUMMARY:AUDIO SLIDE: 'Demographic Change and Migration Policy' seminar presentation DESCRIPTION:As part of the ACMS Public Seminar Series\, Dr Andrew Selee recently (20 August 2025) presented on ‘Demographic Change and Migration Policy.’ Dr Selee is the president of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI)\, a non-partisan\, independent think tank\, which focuses on data\, analysis\, and prospective ideas for migration policy. \nThe world is undergoing rapid demographic change\, with most upper and upper-middle-income countries dropping below replacement level fertility and many middle-income countries following close behind. As populations shrink in these countries\, immigration will become one of the few ways that countries maintain a robust labour force and ensure fiscal solvency\, even taking into account productivity gains and changes in workforce needs brought about by technological innovation. And African countries will almost certainly be the source of most of the migrants that are willing to move to these rapidly aging societies. However\, this transition is likely to be less than smooth\, with increased migration also leading to significant push-back within destination countries and to calls for greater border controls. \nAccording to Dr Selee\, managing this transition effectively will require building legal pathways proactively\, adjusting the pace of change thoughtfully\, and ensuring the credibility of immigration systems to facilitate mobility. It will also require rethinking narratives of national identity in destination societies\, while ensuring that emigration from source countries\, largely in Africa\, can lead to long-term growth and development through proactive investments in human capital. And while this may initially seem to be a challenge just for the highly developed economies of Europe\, North America\, and East Asia\, it will quickly become relevant in South Africa and significant parts of Latin America\, the Caribbean\, and Southeast Asia. \nCatch the summary of Dr Selee’s presentation below: URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/audio-slide-demographic-change-and-migration-policy-seminar-presentation/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Andrew-Selee-2022-Crop-e1755002866506.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250904T130000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250904T170000 DTSTAMP:20260803T142932Z CREATED:20260803T142932Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142932Z UID:30000217-1756990800-1757005200@migration.org.za SUMMARY:'The Borders of Transformation: The Continent and the South African University' colloquium DESCRIPTION:This colloquium asks how universities in South Africa\, and the scholars and activists housed within them\, can respond to stormy political waters and to potentially competing visions of justice and transformation. \nDate: Thursday\, 4 September 2025\nTime: 13:00-17:00 (SAST)\nIn-person venue: Ground Floor\, Wartenweiler Library\, Wits University\nOnline: Link to be shared once RSVPed.\nRSVP: Lenore.Longwe@wits.ac.za\, stating whether you will attend in-person or online. \nDescription:\nThis colloquium considers competing and complementary approaches to race and nationality in South African higher education\, at a moment that marks ten years since the RhodesMustFall and FeesMustFall protests as well as being characterised by the increasing visibility and weaponisation of national and international xenophobia. It poses this question as a reflection not just on the Fallist movements\, but on a three-decade long history of contentious post-Apartheid efforts to align the country’s universities with broader commitments to equity and progressive social change. Current attacks on academic institutions represent them as sites of illicit patronage of apparently unqualified foreigners\, while foreign academics themselves navigate bureaucratic mazes and hostile atmospheres. What can these contradictions tell us about the processes of transformation and change that were meant to be invigorated by #RMF? The colloquium also considers future institutional trajectories in an era of resource scarcity\, persistent domestic and global inequality\, and rampant populist anti-intellectualism. At its heart\, it asks how universities\, and the scholars and activists housed within them\, can respond to stormy political waters and to potentially competing visions of justice and transformation. What might it mean to be an African university in South Africa\, and what will it take to realise that vision? \nSpeakers: Ahmed Veriava (Wits University)\, Srila Roy (Wits University)\, Mxolisi Makhubo (University of Johannesburg)\, Fikile Masikane (University of Pretoria)\, William Mpofu (Wits University)\, Samia Chasi (Wits University) and Salim Vally (University of Johannesburg). \nOrganisers: A collaboration between the Wits Internationalization and Strategic Partnerships Office\, the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies\, the Wits-Oxford Mobility Governance Lab\, the NRF-DST SARChI Chair in Mobility and the Politics of Difference\, and the NRF-DST SARChI Chair in Critical Diversity Studies. \n \n  URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/the-borders-of-transformation-the-continent-and-the-south-african-university-colloquium/ LOCATION:Ground Floor\, Wartenweiler Library\, Wits University ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Wits-University-building-28Aug2025.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250827T123000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250827T134500 DTSTAMP:20260803T142932Z CREATED:20260803T142932Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142932Z UID:30000216-1756297800-1756302300@migration.org.za SUMMARY:WiP Seminar: The Securitisation of Migration: Consequences of EU Externalisation Policies on Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding in Africa DESCRIPTION:The featured image behind the title on the header was created using ChatGPT. \nPresenter: Dr Silindile Mlilo\nDate: Wednesday\, 27 August 2025\nTime: 12:30 – 13:45\nVenue: ACMS Seminar Room: Room 2163\, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor)\, East Campus\, Wits University (directions)\nZoom link: https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/95786624514?pwd=53Oi1h6gHcWY2Q43O0p8ZqzOsOLZXp.1\nRegister: https://tinyurl.com/4zxkc7s8 \nAbstract:\nThis work-in-progress (WiP) paper examines the impact of global migration governance\, particularly the European Union’s (EU) externalisation policies\, on conflict resolution and peacebuilding in Africa. Following the 2015 so-called “migration crisis\,” the EU increasingly framed migration as a security threat\, prioritising border militarisation\, containment strategies\, and partnerships with African states such as Niger\, Libya\, Egypt\, and Tunisia. These policies sought to curtail irregular migration while neglecting root causes\, including conflict\, poverty\, and governance failures\, and often exacerbated local tensions between migrants and host communities. Drawing on a critique of Eurocentric narratives\, the paper foregrounds African perspectives to highlight the unintended consequences of these policies. It explores how the securitisation of migration governance has contributed to human rights violations\, corruption\, and the destabilisation of regional mobility frameworks like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Furthermore\, the externalisation of migration policies has empowered non-state actors\, such as smugglers and traffickers\, while deepening economic and social inequalities in transit and host countries. The paper argues that these policies undermine regional integration and peacebuilding efforts in Africa\, intensifying xenophobia and societal tensions. It calls for the reimagining of migration governance through inclusive\, African-led approaches that prioritise human dignity\, address root causes of displacement\, and foster sustainable conflict resolution and development. \nAbout the researcher/presenter:\nDr Silindile Mlilo is a migration scholar\, practitioner\, and consultant with extensive experience in research and project management at the intersection of migration and mobility governance\, xenophobia and social cohesion\, youth\, and policy development across Africa and Asia. She is also a part-time content creator\, producer\, and interviewer\, committed to amplifying African voices in migration scholarship and public discourse. \nDr Mlilo is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher and Project Manager at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS)\, University of the Witwatersrand\, where she leads research and monitors xenophobic discrimination in South Africa through the Xenowatch project. She is also the co-founder of Meraki Afrique\, a social enterprise focused on advancing regional integration in Africa. \nMlilo holds a Ph.D. in Migration and Displacement from Wits University\, an MA in Advanced Development in Social Work through a consortium of European universities\, including the University of Lincoln\, Aalborg University\, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas (University of Lisbon)\, and Université Paris Nanterre\, an MA in Human Rights and a Bachelor of Social Work both obtained at the University of Fort Hare\, respectively. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/wip-seminar-the-securitisation-of-migration-consequences-of-eu-externalisation-policies-on-conflict-resolution-and-peacebuilding-in-africa/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Silindile-WiP-seminar-graphic-ChatGPT_SMALL_22Aug2025.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250825T100000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250825T113000 DTSTAMP:20260803T142932Z CREATED:20260803T142932Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142932Z UID:30000215-1756116000-1756121400@migration.org.za SUMMARY:ACMS seminar: On the move — where does wellbeing fit? DESCRIPTION:Date: Monday\, 25 August 2025\nTime: 10:00 – 11:30\nVenue: ACMS Seminar Room: Room 2163\, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor)\, East Campus\, Wits University (directions)\nZoom link: https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/99337631783?pwd=gvLi3k7R74aLv3N9R2t4IY2NtMa4RP.1 \nMigration and mobility shape multiple dimensions of wellbeing\, from physical and mental health to social inclusion\, identity\, and access to rights. Yet\, wellbeing often remains a secondary consideration in policy and research on migration. This webinar explores how wellbeing fits into the lived realities of those on the move — highlighting the challenges they face\, the resilience they show\, and the policies and practices needed to support them. \nSPEAKERS\nMs Margaret Zulu – Project Manager\, Save the Children\, South Africa\nDr Mwelwa Phiri – Researcher\, Zambart\, Zambia\nDr Glynis Clacherty – Research Associate\, ACMS\, Wits University and Independent Consultant \nMODERATOR\nDr Langelihle Mlotshwa- Researcher\, ACMS\, Wits University URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/acms-seminar-on-the-move-where-does-wellbeing-fit/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus CATEGORIES:Seminar ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Youth-webinar-logos-25Aug2025.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250820T123000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250820T134500 DTSTAMP:20260803T142931Z CREATED:20260803T142931Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142931Z UID:30000214-1755693000-1755697500@migration.org.za SUMMARY:ACMS Seminar: Managing the Transition - Adjusting Migration Policies to Respond to a World Undergoing Demographic Change DESCRIPTION:Presenter: Dr Andrew Selee\nDate: Wednesday\, 20 August 2025\nTime: 12:30 – 13:45\nVenue: ACMS Seminar Room: Room 2163\, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor)\, East Campus\, Wits University (directions)\nZoom link: https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/95786624514?pwd=53Oi1h6gHcWY2Q43O0p8ZqzOsOLZXp.1\nRegister: https://tinyurl.com/4zxkc7s8 \nAbstract:\nThe world is undergoing rapid demographic change\, with most upper and upper-middle-income countries dropping below replacement level fertility and many middle-income countries following close behind. As populations shrink in these countries\, immigration will become one of the few ways that countries maintain a robust labor force and ensure fiscal solvency\, even taking into account productivity gains and changes in workforce needs brought about by technological innovation. And African countries will almost certainly be the source of most of the migrants that are willing to move to these rapidly aging societies. \nHowever\, this transition is likely to be less than smooth\, with increased migration also leading to significant push-back within destination countries and to calls both for greater border controls. As a result\, managing this transition effectively will require building legal pathways proactively\, adjusting the pace of change thoughtfully\, and ensuring the credibility of immigration systems to facilitate mobility. It will also require rethinking narratives of national identity in destination societies\, while ensuring that emigration from source countries\, largely in Africa\, can lead to long-term growth and development through proactive investments in human capital. \nAnd while this may initially seem to be a challenge just for the highly developed economies of Europe\, North America\, and East Asia\, it will quickly become relevant in South Africa and significant parts of Latin America\, the Caribbean\, and Southeast Asia. \nAbout the researcher/presenter:\nDr Andrew Selee is president of the Migration Policy Institute\, a non-partisan\, independent think tank based in Washington\, DC and Brussels\, which focuses on data\, analysis\, and prospective ideas for migration policy. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University\, both in the School of Foreign Service and in the School of Public Policy. Previously he was the Executive Vice President of the Woodrow Wilson Center. \nDr Selee is the author and co-author of several books\, including On the Move: Migration Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean (Stanford University Press\, 2025)\, Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together (PublicAffairs\, 2018)\, and What Should Think Tanks Do? A Strategic Guide to Policy Impact (Stanford University Press\, 2013). His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal\, New York Times\, Foreign Affairs\, and Foreign Policy\, among other publications. He holds a PhD in Policy Studies from the University of Maryland and was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow in 2017-18. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/acms-seminar-managing-the-transition-adjusting-migration-policies-to-respond-to-a-world-undergoing-demographic-change/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus CATEGORIES:Seminar ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/MigrationPolicyInstitute_logo2.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250806T123000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250806T134500 DTSTAMP:20260803T142931Z CREATED:20260803T142931Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142931Z UID:30000213-1754483400-1754487900@migration.org.za SUMMARY:ACMS Seminar: Queering Sex work and Mobility in South Africa DESCRIPTION:Presenter: Ntokozo Yingwana\nDate: Wednesday\, 6 August 2025\nTime: 12:30 – 13:45\nVenue: ACMS Seminar Room: Room 2163\, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor)\, East Campus\, Wits University (directions)\nZoom link: https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/95786624514?pwd=53Oi1h6gHcWY2Q43O0p8ZqzOsOLZXp.1\nRegister: https://tinyurl.com/4zxkc7s8 \nAbstract:\nDrawing from a doctoral thesis with a similar title\, this paper explores the intersections of sex work\, mobility\, migration and gendered sexualities through a queer lens. The study informing it made use of digital storytelling and WhatsApp to engage 17 migrant and mobile sex workers in South Africa\, during 2019 and 2020. Through a queering of sex work\, migration and mobility analysis we learn that because sex work is essentially about using one’s body to perform varying sexual acts with different types of people for financial gain\, a migrant/mobile sex worker is exposed to different ways of experiencing sexual (dis)pleasure. According to the research participants this can then broaden the body’s erotic vocabulary and expand one’s range of sexual desires\, along with their expressions; to the point whereby it can also have an influence on one’s gendered sexuality and choice of intimate partner. However\, the respondents also stressed the integral role movement plays in this evolution of one’s gendered sexuality. Hence\, this paper argues for the recognition of migrant/mobile sex work as intrinsically queer\, and concludes by unpacking the socio-political implications of this in relation to (sexual) citizenship. \nAbout the researcher:\nNtokozo Yingwana is a researcher and PhD candidate with the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at Wits University. She holds a Masters in Gender and Development from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex\, and an Honours in Gender and Transformation from the African Gender Institute (AGI) at the University of Cape Town. Prior to that she earned a Bachelor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. Yingwana has nearly two decades of experience in sex worker rights’ scholar-activism in Africa. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/acms-seminar-queering-sex-work-and-mobility-in-south-africa/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus CATEGORIES:Seminar ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/QueeringSexWorkandMobility_COVER.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250723T123000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250723T134500 DTSTAMP:20260803T142930Z CREATED:20260803T142930Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142930Z UID:30000212-1753273800-1753278300@migration.org.za SUMMARY:ACMS Seminar: The ‘Oil and Water’ Dynamics of Migration Governance in West Africa: A Bottom-up Perspective in Niger DESCRIPTION:Presenter: Dr Balkissa Daouda Diallo\nDate: Wednesday\, 23 July 2025\nTime: 12:30 – 13:45\nVenue: ACMS Seminar Room: Room 2163\, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor)\, East Campus\, Wits University (directions)\nZoom link: https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/95441930593\nRegister: https://tinyurl.com/4zxkc7s8 \nAbstract:\nStudies on migration governance in the context of African so-called migrants sending countries are often influenced by European narratives. While this discourse informs migration policy in these countries\, it overshadows existing local mechanisms that condition actors’ practices. Debates on this issue either point to the influence of the European Union (EU) on migration governance in Africa\, or to the agency of African states in aligning or ‘bargaining’ their policy goals with global agendas on migration. The present discussion uses a multi-level governance lens to examine the case of Niger’s management of ‘transit’ migration to Europe from 2015–2020. Its objective is to explore the influences multi-level actors had on this governance and its outcomes. In doing so\, it shows how higher-level processes seldom reflect lower-level realities where informality prevails often at the expense of migrants. These dynamics critically challenge conventional ideas of what is considered ‘legal’ or ‘illegal’ crossings in a context where borders are negotiated informally. \nAbout the researcher:\nDr Balkissa Daouda Diallo is a Postdoctoral Researcher affiliated with the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS). Her research is on African migrations and governance with a focus on informal and multi-level mechanisms. She holds a Ph.D. in Global Governance and Human Security and an M.A. in Conflict Resolution from the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston). She also holds an M.A. in International Development and an M.S. in Environmental Studies from Ohio University. She earned a B.A. in Political Science and History at the University of Ghana\, Legon. \n  URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/acms-seminar-the-oil-and-water-dynamics-of-migration-governance-in-west-africa-a-bottom-up-perspective-in-niger/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus CATEGORIES:Seminar ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Niger-to-Europe-mirgation-routes-9July2025.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250312T122000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20250312T133000 DTSTAMP:20260803T142930Z CREATED:20260803T142930Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142930Z UID:30000211-1741782000-1741786200@migration.org.za SUMMARY:ACMS Seminar: 'From Deprivation to Mobilisation: Towards a Multideterminant Model of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa' DESCRIPTION:Presenter: Dr Jean Pierre Misago\nDate: 12 March 2025\nTime: 12.20 – 13.30\nVenue: ACMS Seminar Room: Room 2163\, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor)\, East Campus\, Wits University (directions)\nZoom: link\nPlease register: here \nAbstract:\nDrawing on extensive and comparative qualitative data from a nearly two-decade long and ongoing research\, this paper responds to inadequacies and limitations of current causal explanations for xenophobic violence in South Africa. It argues that existing explanations are inadequate as many lack empirical backing and others are incomplete due to their reductionist approach. To address these shortcomings\, this paper proposes an empirically based and theoretically informed multideterminant (explanatory) model\, which identifies and analyses the roles of – and interconnections between – six key determinants namely: i) socio-economic and political deprivation\, ii) xenophobic beliefs\, iii) collective discontent\, iv) political economy\, v) mobilization\, and vi) governance. The paper argues that i) these determinants and their interconnections in a value-added process constitute the necessary and sufficient conditions for the occurrence of xenophobic violence\, and ii) this multideterminant model consequently provides an adequate and comprehensive explanation of the xenophobic violence in South Africa. \nBio:\nDr Jean Pierre Misago is a Senior Researcher at the Africa Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at Wits University. His research interests include migration\, identity and belonging; xenophobia and related violence; as well as migration governance at different levels but particularly at local government and community level (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6964-3926). \n  \n  \n  \n  URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/acms-seminar-from-deprivation-to-mobilisation-towards-a-multideterminant-model-of-xenophobic-violence-in-south-africa/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus CATEGORIES:Seminar ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Xenowatch-website-header-4March2025.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20241218 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20241219 DTSTAMP:20260803T142930Z CREATED:20260803T142930Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142930Z UID:30000210-1734480000-1734566399@migration.org.za SUMMARY:'Atlas of Uncertainty' exhibit coming to Jozi DESCRIPTION:Human mobility is the defining feature of an era marked by political instability\, economic precarity\, and environmental insecurity. These movements are reshaping urban landscapes and Africa’s cities stand at the forefront of this transformation. They are now among the world’s largest and most diverse urban centres\, serving as focal points for a youthful\, rapidly growing population. Yet\, this is occurring without the traditional pathways of industrialization\, job creation\, and service provision. Urban life now blurs the line between lottery and life-making. It is a life of uncertainty. The complexities of material marginalization and mobile place-making demand novel ways of understanding community\, politics\, and the city itself. It requires novel forms of analysis that avoid oversimplified narratives and instead embrace the ambiguities characterising African urban life. \n\n  \nAtlas of Uncertainty: Transforming African Cityscapes is a multi-media research project by the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) at the University of the Witwatersrand\, and the Mobility Governance Lab at the University of Oxford. The Atlas of Uncertainty unsettles the racialised tropes of danger\, desperation\, and deprivation informing the manic mapping of contemporary migration and urbanisation in Africa. Where such classic cartography typically projects scientific certainty\, the Atlas elevates emotion\, ambiguity\, and contributors’ positionality. Rather than definitive knowledge\, it offers reflections to elicit the senses. It aims to unsettle and inform\, to generate — not foreclose. Drawing on surveys\, qualitative research\, and artistic engagements in gateway neighbourhoods across Accra\, Nairobi\, and Johannesburg\, the Atlas builds on decades of interdisciplinary research. First realised as a pilot installation at the 2023 architectural Biennale in Venice\, our goal is to cultivate a human understanding of time\, travel\, and urban politics. In doing so\, the research team aims to understand urban life in an era of uncertainty. For more on the research team click here. \nWhat is the Atlas of Uncertainty?\nThe Atlas of Uncertainty is a publication\, an exhibit\, and a digital platform. It integrates written essays\, visual art\, sound\, and critical cartography. Created dialogically\, it offers layered and nuanced understandings of transforming urban spaces and the moral and material economies that bind them. It is at once a tool of knowledge communication and a reflection on what we believe and how we know it. The Atlas aims to move from the ‘census’ to the ‘senses’ evoking sensorial and embodied experiences of the material\, in ways that challenge traditional ways of representing African cities. \nBook\nThe book is comprised of twenty eight 2500-3000 word essays\, reflections\, or mixed media piece. These range from accessible scholar treatises to poetic reflections produced by experts and activists deeply engaged in the project’s themes and research sites. Each reflects on one or more cities or transversal themes. These texts will be intertwined in an art and prose folio with artistic media\, visual illustrations or maps\, and statistical and narrative vignettes drawn from original research in Accra\, Nairobi\, and Johannesburg. \n\nExhibit\nIntended to travel across the research sites\, the initial Johannesburg exhibition will feature original visual and sonic works produced by artists from each of the research sites. Working in response to quantitative and qualitative data\, their works will instantiate themes of mobility and urban future making amidst uncertainty. The works will be displayed alongside interactive displays where visitors can ‘map’ journeys or ask questions of the data. The exhibits will run for a minimum of four weeks accompanied by an active programme of speakers and tours. You can read more on our contributors here. \nDigital\nThrough an immersive online experience across a dedicated website\, the text\, visuals\, and maps will come alive and be accessible to a wider public. Targeted social media will enhance visibility and provide additional distribution channels to audiences in academia\, the policy world\, and the general public. For more information on the research and how to get involved visit the Atlas of Uncertainty website: https://atlasofuncertainty.com/ URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/atlas-of-uncertainty-exhibit-coming-to-jozi/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ATLAS-SPREAD_01.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230614 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230615 DTSTAMP:20260803T142929Z CREATED:20260803T142929Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142929Z UID:30000209-1686700800-1686787199@migration.org.za SUMMARY:Third Global Consultation on the Health of Refugees and Migrants DESCRIPTION:The 3rd Global Consultation on the Health of Refugees and Migrants opened in Rabat (Morocco) yesterday. The 3-day consultation\, 13-15 June 2023\, aims to assess progress and good practices in promoting the health and well-being of refugee and migrant populations; consider emerging and persistent challenges; foster implementation of key priorities; and build further political commitment on the way forward. Its purpose is to inform policy decisions and the implementation of appropriate interventions to improve\, protect and preserve the health and well-being of refugees and migrants\, as well as host communities. \nThis consultation builds upon previous forums and commitments\, such as the WHO Global Action Plan on Promoting the Health of Refugees and Migrants 2019-2023\, the Global Compact for Safe\, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and its first revision process\, the International Migration Review Forum\, and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). It is hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO)\, the International Organization for Migration (IOM)\, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)\, and the Kingdom of Morocco. \nSpeaking at the opening event WHO Director-General\, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus\, reported that over 100 million people worldwide are forced to move for a variety of reasons\, including conflict\, persecution and humanitarian crises. Morocco’s Minister of Health and Social Protection\, Khalid Ait Taleb\, stressed how the consultation provides an opportunity to shed light on his country’s efforts to consolidate the position of migrants and refugees\, in addition to guaranteeing them access to healthcare and smoothing their membership of social protection systems and programs. \n \nACMS invited to 3rd Global Consultation\nThe Global Consultation on the Health of Refugees and Migrants is by invitation only\, and African Centre for Migration & Society’s (ACMS) Professor Jo Vearey will be facilitating a session on the final day (15 June 2023) on ‘Harnessing the power of research and data to improve the health of refugees and migrants’\, at 14:00 Rabat time (15:00 South African time)\, see the full consultation programme here.  Vearey recently published the Migration and Health in the WHO-Afro Region: A Scoping Review\, which also contributed to the World Report on the Health of Refugees and Migrants. The panel that she will be facilitating will be reflecting on the challenges\, solutions and recommendations for strengthening research and data to help improve the health of these populations. \n \nThe entire consultation is being streamed on the WHO website in multiple languages\, so you can catch this session LIVE. Online participants can share questions and comments here. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/third-global-consultation-on-the-health-of-refugees-and-migrants/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Third_Global_Consultation_COVER.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230524 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230525 DTSTAMP:20260803T142929Z CREATED:20260803T142929Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142929Z UID:30000208-1684886400-1684972799@migration.org.za SUMMARY:Chair in Mobility and the Politics of Difference supports Gender and Geography DESCRIPTION:This opinion piece was originally published by Wits University under the same title\, along with the featured images\, on 18 May 2023.  \nThe 18th international architectural exhibition in Venice showcases urban spaces in the Global South – with African cities front and centre. La Biennale Architettura runs from 20 May to 26 November2023. \nYou Will Find Your People Here is part of exhibition curator Lesley Lokko’s special project\, Gender and Geography. This special project features the book by sociologist Caroline Wanjiku Kihato\, Migrant Women of Johannesburg: Everyday Life in an in-between City\, published by Wits Press. \n \nA migrant to Johannesburg herself\, Kihato was previously in Urban Planning in the School of Architecture and Planning at Wits and is now associated with the University’s African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS). \n\n  \n‘A new language to speak about mobility and African cities’\nThe Mellon Foundation Mobility\, temporality\, and Africa’s future politics project at Wits provided support for the exhibition\, as did the ACMS\, and the Migration Governance Lab at Wits and Oxford University. \nDr Kabiri Bule\, a postdoctoral Research Associate at ACMS\, provided technical support. \nThe project is aligned to the general goal of Professor Loren B. Landau’s SARChI Research Chair in Mobility and the Politics of Difference in the ACMS. \n \n“What will go on show is a mix of music\, images\, and the written word that envelop themes and text from Kihato’s book across multiple media\, with composers\, artists\, and analysts from many parts of the continent and beyond\,” says Landau\, who collaborated closely with the project’s primary leads. “We need a new language to speak about mobility and African cities. This is one way to further that conversation.” \nYou Will Find Your People Here\nNestled between performance\, film\, composition\, and exhibition\, is a collaborative\, interdisciplinary work by pianist Mareli Stolp (South Africa)\, sociologist Caroline Wanjiku Kihato (Kenya)\, composer Clare Loveday (South Africa)\, and artist Sedinam Awo Tsegah (Ghana). \nThe thirty-minute film\, You Will Find Your People Here\, premièred at William Kentridge and Bronwyn Lace’s Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg in July 2022. \nKentridge and Lace are both alumni of Wits University. \n \nThe film presents composer Clare Loveday and pianist Mareli Stolp’s creative response to the migrant women’s testimonies collected in Kihato’s book\, Migrant Women of Johannesburg: Everyday Life in an in-between City. \nFabric maps on language diversity\, family connections\, and women’s mobility to Johannesburg adorn the walls\, unsettling how we understand urbanity\, social-worlds\, and family. The maps draw on data collected by the Wits-Oxford Mobility Governance Lab in 2021. \nAmplifying the experiences of migrant women in Johannesburg\nJohannesburg is a global city remarkable for its affluence\, inequity\, and diversity. Roughly one in two Johannesburg residents were born elsewhere; one in five outside the country. In the city’s gateway neighbourhoods\, few plan to stay. Lives are shaped by transience\, ambition\, uncertainty\, and anxiety. In the shadows of repurposed office blocks\, new arrivals dodge predatory police and hostile citizens. As they negotiate the unfamiliar\, they continually refashion the space around them. \nThe installation moves us from census to senses; from demography and demagoguery to the fashioning of human futures. \nDemagoguery refers to political activity or practices that seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/chair-in-mobility-and-the-politics-of-difference-supports-gender-and-geography/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Panel-1_-Welcome-to-Johannesburg_Designed-by-Awo-Tsegah-600x300-1.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230425 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230426 DTSTAMP:20260803T142929Z CREATED:20260803T142929Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142929Z UID:30000207-1682380800-1682467199@migration.org.za SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: Cosmopolitan Refugees DESCRIPTION:Join us for the launch of Cosmopolitan Refugees: Somali Migrant Women in Nairobi and Johannesburg\, a book by ACMS’s alumnus Nereida Ripero-Muñiz on 18 May 2023 (see details below). The publication is based on her doctoral thesis with the Centre titled The Port and the Island: Identity\, Cosmopolitanism and Islam among Somali Women in Nairobi and Johannesburg. Dr Ripero-Muñiz is currently working as a lecturer in the School of Literature\, Language and Media\, at the University of the Witwatersrand. \n \nAbstract:\nExploring the dynamics of identity formation processes in diasporic spaces\, this book analyses how gender\, cultural and religious practices are renegotiated in a situation of displacement. The author presents the comparative case study of Somali migrant women in Nairobi and Johannesburg: two cosmopolitan urban hubs in the global South. The book is based on and includes ethnographic observations in Nairobi and Johannesburg\, first-person accounts of migration journeys across the African continent and women’s reflections on what it means to be a Somali woman today. \nCitation:\nRipero-Muñiz\, Nereida. (2023). COSMOPOLITAN REFUGEES: Somali Migrant Women in Nairobi and Johannesburg (1st ed.). Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781800738188 URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/book-launch-cosmopolitan-refugees/ CATEGORIES:Book launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Nereida-Book-Launch-Instagram-Post-Portrait.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20230213T123000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20230213T133000 DTSTAMP:20260803T142929Z CREATED:20260803T142929Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142929Z UID:30000206-1676291400-1676295000@migration.org.za SUMMARY:Slavery\, Sex Work and the Paradox of Fugitivity  DESCRIPTION:The African Centre for Migration & Society and Wits Department of Political Science cordially invite you to a seminar by Professor Julia N O’Connell Davidson (Professor in Social Research\, School of Sociology\, Politics and International Studies\, University of Bristol) titled Slavery\, Sex Work and the Paradox of Fugitivity. \nThe prostitute-slave analogy has long figured in the rhetoric of those who\, albeit for different reasons\, stand opposed to female prostitution\, and the assumptions and claims about sex work that inform it have been extensively critiqued by scholars and activists who approach prostitution as an earning strategy and seek to protect and promote the human\, civil and labour rights of those who choose to sell sexual services. However\, less attention has been paid to the fact that the analogy also rests on a very particular reading of ‘the slave’ and a very partial appeal to histories of Atlantic World slavery. Taking this observation as its starting point\, this presentation considers whether more careful engagement with the literature on slavery could shed a different light on sex work. In particular\, it asks whether the concepts of marronage and fugitivity that feature in more recent analyses of slavery and its afterlives could also have theoretical purchase with regard to the contemporary experience (both positive and negative) of sex workers. \nBio \nJulia has a longstanding research interest in work and economic life that started from a concern with the variability of capitalist employment relations which she explored in her 1993 book\, Privatization and Employment Relations: The Case of the Water Industry (Cassell) and a number of journal articles and book chapters on the restructuring of work and employment in privatised utilities and the use of franchising in milk distribution. In the mid 1990s\, she started to research prostitution as a form of non-standard work and to address questions about what\, precisely\, is exchanged in the prostitution contract and the diversity of prostitution in terms of its social organisation and the power relations it involves (both globally and nationally). She has also undertaken research on sex tourism\, on child prostitution (Prostitution\, Power and Freedom\, 1998\, Polity; Children in the Global Sex Trade\, 2005\, Polity)\, and on child migration. In 2001\, she was PI on an ESRC funded project examining the markets for migrant sex and domestic workers in the UK and Spain. This research has informed a number of publications that explore that definitional problems associated with the term ‘trafficking’\, critique dominant discourse on ‘trafficking as modern slavery’ and challenge the framing of ‘trafficking’ as a problem of transnational crime as opposed to a migrants’ rights issue. \nAt a theoretical level\, Julia has been concerned to link her research on prostitution\, sex tourism\, ‘trafficking’ and ‘modern slavery’ to critiques of dominant liberal fictions about contract\, freedom\, citizenship\, human rights\, and childhood\, as well as to questions of power\, especially the question of how we can critique those theoretical traditions that approach power as domination without slipping into the relativism and subjectivism of much post-modern and post-structuralist theory. These themes were further developed in her book\, ‘Modern Slavery: The Margins of Freedom’\, Palgrave Macmillan\, 2015\, and the Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship she held from 2013-16. \nJulia currently holds an ERC Advanced Grant for a project titled ‘Modern Marronage? The Pursuit and Practice of Freedom in the Contemporary World’. The project asks whether histories of marronage and enslaved people’s flight and fugitivity\, as well as other strategies employed by enslaved people in an effort to move closer to freedom\, and whether histories of slave states’ efforts to prevent flight and marronage and otherwise restrict the freedoms of the enslaved\, can shed light on the experiences of marginalised and rightless people today. \nDate: Monday 13 February 2023 \nTime: 12:30 – 13:30 \nVenue: ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/slavery-sex-work-and-the-paradox-of-fugitivity/ LOCATION:ACMS Seminar Room 2163\, South East Wing\, Second Floor\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Slavery-Sex-Work-and-the-Paradox-of-Fugitivity_page-0001.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221101 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221102 DTSTAMP:20260803T142928Z CREATED:20260803T142928Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142928Z UID:30000204-1667260800-1667347199@migration.org.za SUMMARY:Conference: African Queer and Trans Displacements DESCRIPTION:African Queer & Trans Displacements is a two-day conference bringing together scholars\, policymakers\, practitioners\, advocates and activists working on the forced or voluntary migration of lesbian\, gay\, bisexual\, transgender\, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) Africans. The intersection of sexuality\, gender and displacement remains understudied\, especially in Global South contexts\, despite the fact that the vast majority of the world’s queer migrants\, refugees and asylum seekers live in these countries. At the same time\, the social\, legal\, political and economic needs of LGBTQI+ migrants\, refugees and asylum seekers remain overlooked by both queer rights movements and migrant/refugee rights movements\, resulting in inadequate support services and poorly developed policies. This conference aims to foster dialogue across these divides\, while also providing space to engage with migration scholarship centred on Africa and its peoples. \nExisting scholarship tends to elide the cultural\, linguistic and social differences of LGBTQI+ individuals seeking asylum\, homogenising disparate experiences and backgrounds under the broad category of ‘queer asylum seeker’. Countries of birth are largely presented as inconsequential\, or as narrative elements rather than critical considerations. This provides little clarity of the specificities of leaving any one place\, and even less of an understanding about the relationship between places left behind and those where asylum is sought. At the same time\, queer and trans Africans in the diaspora are projecting new identity formations and signifying practices back towards the continent. To this end\, this conference recognises that there is no single story of African queer and trans displacement. Rather\, there are specificities of experience that emerge when migration and asylum interact with different political\, discursive\, ideological and ontological formations linked to gender and sexuality. By curating this conference according to its geographical focus\, rather than emphasising thematic or disciplinary links\, we hope to spotlight the lived realities of migration and diaspora as they relate to queer and trans Africans. \nAfrican Queer & Trans Displacements is hosted by the African Centre for Migration and Society (University of the Witwatersrand) and the Centre of African Studies (University of Edinburgh). \nThe conference will be held in person in Johannesburg\, South Africa\, on 1–2 December 2022 (keynote addresses will be live-streamed). \nRegistration for the conference is limited. If you wish to register for the conference please do so here URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/conference-african-queer-and-trans-displacements/ CATEGORIES:Conference ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screenshot-2022-11-01-at-13.19.56.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221101 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221102 DTSTAMP:20260803T142928Z CREATED:20260803T142928Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142928Z UID:30000205-1667260800-1667347199@migration.org.za SUMMARY:Book Launch: African Queer and Trans Displacements DESCRIPTION:Please join us on the 30th of November 2022 for a book launch and discussion\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nB Camminga (African Centre for Migration & Society)\, John Marnell (African Centre for Migration & Society)\, Verena Hucke (University of Kassel) and Godfried Asante (San Diego State University) \nin conversation with\nLetlhogonolo Mokgoroane (Cheeky Natives) \n30th of November 2022\nBreezeblock\, Brixton\n17:30 \nPlease register for launch. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/book-launch-african-queer-and-trans-displacements/ CATEGORIES:Book launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Book-Cover-Title.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221019 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221020 DTSTAMP:20260803T142928Z CREATED:20260803T142928Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142928Z UID:30000203-1666137600-1666223999@migration.org.za SUMMARY:Virtual Discussion: Arrival at the Margins DESCRIPTION:The editors and contributors of ‘Arrival at the Margins\,’ invite you to attend a virtual discussion of their new special issue of Migration Studies. With interdisciplinary contributions from five continents\, the issue calls on scholars to simultaneously centre and unsettle the margin: to recognise the multiplicity of margins as politically generative spaces\, frequently contoured by sustained and varied forms of mobility.  It helps to recalibrate the study of human mobility\, drawing attention to approaches\, spaces\, and transformative process underrecognised in contemporary scholarship. \nDate: 19 October 2022 \nTime: 2-3 pm UK / 9-10 am NYC \nRegistration: Click here to register \nClick here for a free download of the introduction by Natasha Iskander and Loren B Landau URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/virtual-discussion-arrival-at-the-margins/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ArrivalMarginsPosterFinal.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20220913T130000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20220913T143000 DTSTAMP:20260803T142928Z CREATED:20260803T142928Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142928Z UID:30000202-1663074000-1663079400@migration.org.za SUMMARY:Virtual Book Talk: Right Where We Belong: How Refugee Teachers and Students Are Changing the Future of Education DESCRIPTION:Half of the world’s 26 million refugees are children. Their formal education is disrupted\, and their lives are too often dominated by exclusion and uncertainty about what the future holds. Even kids who have the opportunity to attend school face enormous challenges\, as they struggle to integrate into unfamiliar societies and educational environments. \nIn Right Where We Belong\, Sarah Dryden-Peterson discovers that\, where governments and international agencies have been stymied\, refugee teachers and students themselves are leading. From open-air classrooms in Uganda to the hallways of high schools in Maine\, new visions for refugee education are emerging. Dryden-Peterson introduces us to people like Jacques—a teacher who created a school for his fellow Congolese refugees in defiance of local laws—and Hassan\, a Somali refugee navigating the social world of the American teenager. Drawing on more than 600 interviews in twenty-three countries\, Dryden-Peterson shows how teachers and students are experimenting with flexible forms of learning. Rather than adopt the unrealistic notion that all will soon return to “normal\,” these schools embrace unfamiliarity\, develop students’ adaptiveness\, and demonstrate how children\, teachers\, and community members can build supportive relationships across lines of difference. \nIt turns out that policymakers\, activists\, and educators have a lot to learn from displaced children and teachers. Their stories point the way to better futures for refugee students and inspire us to reimagine education broadly\, so that children everywhere are better prepared to thrive in a diverse and unpredictable world. \nSarah Dryden-Peterson is Associate Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is the founder and director of REACH\, which promotes research\, education\, and action for refugees. In addition to her university teaching\, she has taught in primary and secondary schools in the United States\, South Africa\, and Madagascar. \nDate: 13  September 2022 \nTime:13:00 – 14:30 SAST \nRegistration: Click here to register URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/virtual-book-talk-right-where-we-belong-how-refugee-teachers-and-students-are-changing-the-future-of-education/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Virtual-book-talk90-scaled-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20220802T143000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20220802T160000 DTSTAMP:20260803T142927Z CREATED:20260803T142927Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142927Z UID:30000201-1659450600-1659456000@migration.org.za SUMMARY:Panel Discussion: Implications of Xenophobic Violence for Trade & Transformation DESCRIPTION:Wits University’s African Centre for Migration & Society and the Wits-Oxford Mobility Governance Lab\, invite you to a panel discussion reflecting on the meaning and implications of xenophobic violence for South Africa’s economic and political future. \nThe discussion stems from a newly released  Xenowatch report: Xenophobic Violence in South Africa: An Analysis of Trends\, Causal Factors and Responses. Drawing on more than a decade of original research across South Africa\, the report describes xenophobic violence as an increasingly integral part of the country’s socio-economic and political landscape. Abetted by anti-immigrant attitudes\, xenophobic violence is rooted in democratic deficits: threats to rule of law and constitutional credibility. It highlights that violence is distinctly spatialised\, often occurring repeatedly in specific localities where economic and political competition is acute. It demonstrates that while inequality fuels popular dissatisfaction\, political opportunists and entrepreneurs scapegoat and victimise immigrants and other outsiders for their own advantage. \nThe consequences of South Africa’s anti-outsider violence extend far beyond the immediate victims but affect lives across many townships and informal settlements. Yet while violence has long been a local matter\, the forthcoming national leadership contest has seen xenophobic rhetoric and mobilisation become increasingly well-organised and national. Together these reflect a dangerous politics of localism and entitlement\, a rationing of access to rights and opportunities\, and a threat to prosperity and the constitutional order. It is these implications that this panel intends to explore. \nPresented in a hybrid format open to a live and virtual audience\, the panel will include representatives from academia\, civil society\, the media\, and former civil servants. Over ninety minutes the discussion will consider the implications of xenophobic mobilisation for South Africa’s efforts to promote economic inclusion\, democratic institutions\, and security for all its residents. It will explore implications for domestic and regional trade\, security\, and political accountability. \n  \nPANELISTS: \n\nMavuso Msimang (Former Corruption Watch Chairperson)\nSiphelele Ngobese (Researcher in the Inclusive Cities Programme\, SA Cities Network)\nJean Pierre Misago (Senior Researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society\, Wits University)\n\nIN CONVERSATION WITH: \n\nLoren Landau (Professor of Migration and Development at the University of Oxford\, and co-director of the Wits-Oxford Mobility Governance Lab)\n\nFor more information on the panel or the report\, contact info@mobilitygovernancelab.com \nDate: 2 August 2022 \nTime: 14.30 – 16.00 \nVenue: Senate Room\, 2nd Floor\, East Wing\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand and Online via Zoom \nRegistration: https://wits-za.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYucuCrpjspGNVxvTb1N94yQKQmYGA4_prF  URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/panel-discussion-implications-of-xenophobic-violence-for-trade-transformation/ LOCATION:Senate Room\, Second Floor East Wing\, Solomon Mahlangu House\, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Panel-Discussion-on-Xenophobia.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220720 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220721 DTSTAMP:20260803T142927Z CREATED:20260803T142927Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142927Z UID:30000200-1658275200-1658361599@migration.org.za SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: "The Blinded City: Ten Years in Inner-City Johannesburg" by Dr Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon DESCRIPTION:Wits Anthropology\, the African Centre for Migration & Society\, and the Humanities Graduate Centre cordially invite you to a launch of\, and panel discussion on\, Dr Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon’s book “The Blinded City: Ten Years in Inner-CityJohannesburg” (Pan Macmillan SA\, 2022)\, Thursday 25 August 11:30 am -1 pm\, at the Atrium\, Wits Humanities Graduate Centre and online. \nDISCUSSANTS: \n\nCikizwa Ggokoma (Inner City Federation)\nDr Kudakwashe Vanyoro (African Centre for Migration & Society)\nSiyabonga Mahlangu (Inner City Federation)\n\nFACILITATED BY: \n\nDr Kholeka Shange (Wits Anthropology)\n\nFor in-person attendance RSVP is essential. Please write to wilhelmsolomon@gmail.com with the heading ‘RSVP: Wits Blinded CityLaunch.” \nSYNOPSIS: \n‘One of the best works of narrative non-fiction to emerge from the country in years. Quite simply brilliant.’ – NIREN TOLSI \nAmid evictions\, raids\, killings\, the drug trade\, and fire\, inner-city Johannesburg residents seek safety and a home. A grandmother struggles to keep her granddaughter as she is torn away from her. A mother seeks healing in the wake of her son’s murder. And displaced by the city’s drive for urban regeneration\, a group of blind migrants try to carve out an existence. \nThe Blinded City recounts the history of inner-city Johannesburg from 2010 to 2019\, primarily from the perspectives of the unlawful occupiers of spaces known as hijacked buildings\, bad buildings or dark buildings. Tens of thousands of residents\, both South African and foreign national\, live in these buildings in dire conditions. This book tells the story of these sites and the court cases around them\, which strike at the centre of who has the right to occupy the city. \nIn February 2010\, while Johannesburg prepared for the FIFA World Cup\, the South Gauteng High Court ordered the eviction of the unlawful occupiers of an abandoned carpet factory on Saratoga Avenue and that the city’s Metropolitan Municipality provide temporary emergency accommodation for the evicted. The case\, which became known as Blue Moonlight and went to the Constitutional Court\, catalysed a decade of struggles over housing and eviction in Johannesburg. \nThe Blinded City chronicles this case\, among others\, and the aftermath – a tumultuous period in the city characterised by recurrent dispossessions\, police and immigration operations\, outbursts of xenophobic violence\, and political and legal change. All through the decade\, there is the backdrop of successive mayors and their attempts to ‘clean up’ the city\, and the struggles of residents and urban housing activists for homes and a better life. The interwoven narratives present a compelling mosaic of life in post-apartheid Johannesburg\, one of the globe’s most infamous and vital cities. URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/book-launch-the-blinded-city-ten-years-in-inner-city-johannesburg-by-dr-matthew-wilhelm-solomon/ CATEGORIES:Book launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/The_Blinded_City_Invite_1080x1080px_Wits.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220426 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220427 DTSTAMP:20260803T142927Z CREATED:20260803T142927Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142927Z UID:30000199-1650931200-1651017599@migration.org.za SUMMARY:The UK-Rwanda Asylum Deal: What does it mean for refugees and the global refugee regime? DESCRIPTION:This special seminar is being hosted by the Refugee Law Initiative (RLI) in London\, the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) in Johannesburg\, and the East African Centre for Forced Migration and Displacement (ACFMD) in Nairobi. \nThe seminar will discuss the recent Asylum Partnership Arrangement signed between the \nUK and Rwanda\, under which certain asylum-seekers can be relocated to Rwanda from the UK for possible permanent settlement. The seminar draws on a range of perspectives from researchers and practitioners engaging with this issue. \nThe event facilitates topical debate about the legality and feasibility of this agreement and the likely impact it will have on affected populations: \n\nWhat does this agreement mean for refugees and asylum seekers?\nWhat does the agreement signal for the global refugee regime at large?\nWhat are the major legal and practical obstacles likely to be encountered?\nWhat are the alternatives to such an approach for the UK?\nWill it have wider ramifications for refugees seeking protection within the EU?\n\nDiscussants include: \n\nAllan Munyao Mukuki\, East African Centre for Forced Migration\nDr Nikolas Feith Tan\, PhD Fellow at the Danish Institute for Human Rights and Aarhus University in international refugee law\nZoe Bantleman\, Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association\n\nLocation: Online \nDate: Thursday 28th April at 2pm (UK time) \nTo register please use this link: https://rli.sas.ac.uk/events/event/26192 URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/the-uk-rwanda-asylum-deal-what-does-it-mean-for-refugees-and-the-global-refugee-regime/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Screenshot-2022-04-26-at-11.55.46.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220317 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220318 DTSTAMP:20260803T142927Z CREATED:20260803T142927Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260803T142927Z UID:30000198-1647475200-1647561599@migration.org.za SUMMARY:Call for Papers & Panels: African Queer & Trans Displacements DESCRIPTION:African Queer & Trans Displacements is a two-day conference bringing together scholars\, policymakers\, practitioners\, advocates and activists working on the forced or voluntary migration of lesbian\, gay\, bisexual\, transgender\, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) Africans. The intersection of sexuality\, gender and displacement remains understudied\, especially in Global South contexts\, despite the fact that the vast majority of the world’s queer migrants\, refugees and asylum seekers live in these countries. At the same time\, the social\, legal\, political and economic needs of LGBTQI+ migrants\, refugees and asylum seekers remain overlooked by both queer rights movements and migrant/refugee rights movements\, resulting in inadequate support services and poorly developed policies. This conference aims to foster dialogue across these divides\, while also providing space to engage with migration scholarship centred on Africa and its peoples. \nExisting scholarship tends to elide the cultural\, linguistic and social differences of LGBTQI+ individuals seeking asylum\, homogenising disparate experiences and backgrounds under the broad category of ‘queer asylum seeker’. Countries of birth are largely presented as inconsequential\, or as narrative elements rather than critical considerations. This provides little clarity of the specificities of leaving any one place\, and even less of an understanding about the relationship between places left behind and those where asylum is sought. At the same time\, queer and trans Africans in the diaspora are projecting new identity formations and signifying practices back towards the continent. To this end\, this conference recognises that there is no single story of African queer and trans displacement. Rather\, there are specificities of experience that emerge when migration and asylum interact with different political\, discursive\, ideological and ontological formations linked to gender and sexuality. By curating this conference according to its geographical focus\, rather than emphasising thematic or disciplinary links\, we hope to spotlight the lived realities of migration and diaspora as they relate to queer and trans Africans. \nThis is the first conference to focus specifically on the movements of queer and trans Africans. We invite paper abstracts and panel proposals from scholars working in all disciplines\, as well as from policymakers\, practitioners\, activists and others working in this field. Please send 250-word abstracts or 400-word panel proposals to almresearchnet@gmail.com by the 1 May 2022. \nAfrican Queer & Trans Displacements is hosted by the African Centre for Migration & Society (University of the Witwatersrand) and the Centre of African Studies (University of Edinburgh). The conference will be held in person in Johannesburg\, South Africa\, on 1–2 December 2022 (keynote addresses will be live-streamed). \nNo registration fees will apply\, though delegates are responsible for their own transport and accommodation. Three bursaries covering travel and accommodation are available. If applying for a bursary\, please include a one-page motivation letter along with your abstract. \nEnquiries and abstract submissions should be forwarded to almnresearchnet@gmail.com. \nThis conference is generously supported by the British Academy and  the South African National Research Foundation.[higgs_logo width=”360″ border=”true” brd_padd=”pb-padd-30″ image=”8668″] URL:https://migration.org.za/acms-event/call-for-papers-panels-african-queer-trans-displacements/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Africans-Border-copy-2-scaled-1.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR