The Diasporean II: Perspectives from Beyond Southern Africa

Abstract

Preface World-historical events such as the fall of the Berlin wall, and the fall of ideologies such as apartheid, opened borders for world travel and the global movements of people, like seldom before. Often driven to move away from drought and disaster-prone geographical areas, some people also move to new countries in search for better education, working, or health opportunities. For whichever decisions people move, and especially when they move with their immediate family, such movements themselves are often perilous, in addition to which one then has to set up a home, and become a member of the population of the new country of adoption. Conceptualised by the late Katie Mutula, these two volumes of The Diasporean, are together, simultaneously, a prime sample of research excellence and, the power of inter-, and multidisciplinary research, focused on such a fluid social and historical phenomenon as human movement, migration, as well as challenges that accompany our diaspora communities of the world. The Diasporean I: The Southern African Perspectives, covers five main sections, all together presenting 11 exceptional chapters. The main topics covered are, • financial integration, that covers issues related to financial development dynamics in both home and host countries, and access to credit; • xenophobia and Afriphobia in the contexts of increasing forms of local nativisms and populist xenophobia on social media; and family language policies of home country languages; • feminisation and gendered roles in migration, within transnational relations; how it impacts family life, and how diasporean experiences are also in themselves gendered, in the transnational space; and • the significance of technology and skills transfer for developing sustainable livelihoods, and also the significance of education, in this context, especially postgraduate education. • The final chapter in The Diasporean I, covers food security challenges that migrants experience in South Africa. The Diasporean II: Perspectives from Beyond Southern Africa, likewise cover five main thematic focuses. These are, the study of existing diaspora policy in Africa, including how these determine challenges concerning ‘capital structure’ and the growth of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Africa, as well as philanthropy in rural areas; • Foreign remittances bring data and related arguments to the fore, on the impact of COVID-19 on remittances, the nature, size and scale of foreign remittances from elite migrants, and how remittances also impact rural development in home countries. • Section three develops topics on immigration policy, analyzing how diasporeans’ human dignity is harmed in how they are portrayed and framed in the press, how it impacts family structures and careers, and how repatriation or deportation are portrayed by the online press in South Africa and in Britain. • This is followed by a section on the notion of the ‘brain drain’ and skills transfer related to possibilities for multi-sectoral collaboration in the medical field, and challenges of skills transfer in diaspora contexts. • The final section on the digital economy, addresses the acceleration of the digital economies world-wide during the COVID-19 pandemic, and investment opportunities that accompany the diaspora movements of peoples. Each in its own way, but also as a two-volume collaborative research project, The Diasporean I and The Diasporean II, are comprehensive and are the result of incisive scholarship in a critical field of study both in South Africa and Africa more further afield. We are thankful, that Prof. Stephen Mutula and the team who was working with the late Katie Mutula, saw the project through to its conclusion. The project itself as well as the quality of the research for the two volumes, stand as a testimony to Katie’s character and a monument in her name on behalf of all those mentioned or not mentioned, who formed part of the project, and too, those who have passed on due to migratory experiences, and the nameless ones, who got lost at sea or in sandy deserts or forests or strange countries. Prof Johannes A. Smit, Chair: College of Humanities, Institute University of KwaZulu-Natal