“We Are Working Hand to Mouth”: Zimbabwean Teachers’ Experiences of Vulnerability in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa’s (SA) magnetism in attracting skilled and unskilled migrants, particularly in a post-apartheid context, has been highlighted in various studies. However, there appears to be limited studies that examine the experiences of skilled immigrants in SA in this context. Furthermore, there are none that focus specifically on immigrant teachers despite immigrants fulfilling SA’s need for teachers in specialist subjects like Maths and Science. This paper explores the experiences of Zimbabwean immigrant teachers in SA, who are the largest cohort of foreign teachers in that country. The article draws its empirical evidence from an ethnographic study in 2011 which sought to understand the nature of Zimbabwean teachers’ immigration to SA. The data is generated from thirteen semi structured interviews with Zimbabwean immigrant teachers located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, an east coast province of SA. Their experiences in SA included a complex and frustrating process of acquiring documentation to legally enter SA’s labour market, difficulty in acquiring job security, xenophobic attitudes by locals and workplace exploitation. Their experiences expose their vulnerability, in particular their attempts to meet their family responsibilities as they were occupying a critical role in the household and living transnational lives. A shared thread amongst Zimbabwean immigrant teachers was that their qualifications married to their specialist teaching expertise did not provide them with easy access into the professional education domain in SA; they had to settle for a reduction professionally and some for naught by virtue of being highly skilled non-citizens.