Borders and Boundaries in Daily Urban Mobility Practices of Refugees in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

This ethnographic study investigates the ways in which the label of refugee creates and reinforces particular kinds of boundaries and borders in mobility and survival efforts. Specifically, it looks at refugees’ movement in Bellville, Cape Town, to see how state and local borders affect intra-city refugee movement and how refugees deal with these obstacles in order to find localised protection and long-term survival strategies. This article builds on Nyamnjoh’s work on “nimble-footedness” and “conviviality” to show how refugees use nimbleness to form convivial social networks, which they convert into social capital. Despite their accommodation in the National Constitution, this article shows how refugees in Bellville are continually excluded and marginalised due to state and local level boundaries and borders. This article examines police blockages and state-based COVID-19 lockdowns and curfews and their effects on refugees and their movement. The findings show that, while having significant impact on their daily lives, refugees still find ways to negotiate through, around or avoid these barriers, as they navigate the city in search of livelihoods, services, and forms of protection. By utilising nimble-footedness and conviviality, this article depicts refugees as rational individuals who rely on numerous interconnections, inseparable entanglements, and creative interdependencies to survive.