“You are a foreigner, you are a foreigner, as if you are an outcast”: Exploring the Dynamics between Discrimination and Identification amongst Nigerian Immigrants in Durban, South Africa.
Authors
Ashby, David John ; Diener, Waldemar
Term
4. term
Publication year
2014
Submitted on
2014-07-31
Pages
146
Abstract
Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan diskrimination former nigerianske migranters identifikation og tilhørsforhold i Durban, Sydafrika. Med udgangspunkt i et kvalitativt, eksplorativt case-studie spørger forfatterne, hvilke former for diskrimination migranterne oplever, hvilke håndteringsstrategier de anvender, hvorfor netop disse vælges, og hvordan disse processer påvirker deres etniske og nationale identiteter. Studiet bygger på dybdegående, semistrukturerede interviews med seks nigerianske migranter samt to institutionelle perspektiver fra redaktøren af The Nigerian Voice og formanden for Nigerian Union of South Africa (NUSA) i KwaZulu-Natal. Teoretisk anvendes social identitetsteori og Ouroboros-metaforen til at belyse løbende (re)forhandlinger mellem personlige erfaringer og offentlige repræsentationer. I en post-apartheid kontekst præget af fremmedfjendtlighed og særlige stereotyper om nigerianere som kriminelle, viser studiet, at udbredt offentlig og institutionel diskrimination er en del af hverdagen. Migranterne udvikler både pragmatiske og diskursive strategier – fra at imødegå stigmatiserende fortællinger til positiv reartikulation af nigerianskhed – og deres identiteter omformes i mødet med et ofte fjendtligt miljø. Et centralt fund er, at national identitet generelt vejer tungere end etnisk tilhørsforhold, idet betydninger knyttet til etnicitet ofte overføres til og genforhandles gennem nationalitet. Samtidig kan forskelle mellem personlige og institutionelle strategier hæmme samarbejde og mobilisering mod misrepræsentation og manglende anerkendelse.
This thesis examines how discrimination shapes Nigerian immigrants’ identification and sense of belonging in Durban, South Africa. Using an exploratory qualitative case study, it asks what kinds of discrimination migrants experience, which coping mechanisms they use, why these are adopted, and how these processes affect ethnic and national identities. The study draws on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six Nigerian migrants and two institutional perspectives from the editor of The Nigerian Voice and the chairman of the Nigerian Union of South Africa (NUSA) in KwaZulu-Natal. Guided by social identity theory and the Ouroboros metaphor, the analysis traces ongoing (re)negotiations between personal experience and public representation. In a post-apartheid context marked by xenophobia and specific stereotypes of Nigerians as criminal, the study finds widespread public and institutional discrimination as part of everyday life. Migrants deploy both pragmatic and discursive strategies—from contesting stigmatizing narratives to positively rearticulating Nigerianness—and their identities are reshaped within a frequently hostile environment. A key finding is that national identity tends to be more salient than ethnic belonging, with meanings associated with ethnicity often transferred to and renegotiated through nationality. At the same time, gaps between personal and institutional approaches can hinder cooperation and mobilization against misrepresentation and misrecognition.
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