The relationship between migration and food security in urban areas is an emerging area of research internationally. To date, with the exception of studies in India, Kenya, and Namibia, little attention has focused on food insecurity experienced by migrants in cities of the Global South. Building on earlier work in Namibia, this paper interrogates the relationship between migration and food security in the city of Windhoek. Windhoek has experienced significant rural–urban migration in recent years, especially since Namibia’s independence in 1990. Many migrants have settled in the northern and north-western areas of the city, primarily in the informal settlements. Most of the migrant households are poor and food insecure. In an effort to mitigate their insecure food situation, they make use of various strategies including receiving food transfers, obtaining food from informal markets, and other informal methods. This paper documents the dimensions and variations in food security amongst migrant households and examines the linkages between migration and food insecurity in a rapidly-growing African city.

Rapid urbanization and increasing urban poverty are shifting the historical locus of food insecurity from the rural areas to the cities of Africa. This article uses data from the African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN) baseline survey carried out in 11 cities in 9 southern African countries in 2008–2009 to demonstrate the existence of extremely high levels of urban food insecurity. The lack of access to food is primarily the result of household poverty, high unemployment, and limited income-generating opportunities rather than any absolute food shortages. The article also shows the growing importance of supermarkets, and the relative insignificance of urban agriculture in the food sourcing strategies of the urban poor.

The departure of health professionals to Europe and North America is placing an intolerable burden on public health systems in many African countries. Various retention, recall, and replacement policies to ameliorate the impact of this brain drain have been suggested, none of which have been particularly successful to date. The key question for the future is whether the brain drain of health sector skills is likely to continue and whether the investment of African countries in training health professionals will continue to be lost through emigration. This paper examines the emigration intentions of trainee health professionals in six Southern African countries. The data was collected by the Southern African Migration Program (SAMP) in a survey of final-year students across the region which included 651 students training for the health professions. The data also allows for the comparison of health sector with other students. The analysis presented in this paper shows very high emigration potential amongst all final-year students. Health sector students do show a slightly higher inclination to leave than those training to work in other sectors. These findings present a considerable challenge for policy makers seeking to encourage students to stay at home and work after graduation.

Conventional wisdom holds that the ‘brain drain’ of health professionals from Africa is deeply damaging to the continent. Recently, a group of North American and European neoliberal economists has challenged this view, variously arguing that the negative consequences are highly exaggerated and the compensating benefits many. The benefits include various forms of diaspora engagement in which those who have left then engage in a variety of activities and actions that bring substantial benefits to their country of origin. This article examines the case of South African physicians in Canada to test this argument. The study on which the article is based found that these physicians constitute a profoundly disengaged diaspora. The quantitative evidence shows that while they continue to assert a South African identity and take some interest in events in the country, they do not participate significantly in any of the activities that typify diaspora engagement. The article then uses the qualitative narratives of the physicians to discuss how they justify this situation to themselves. As we show, at the heart of these narratives is a dystopic set of images that show nothing of value and nothing praiseworthy in post-apartheid South Africa.

The paper presents the results and discusses the implications of a national survey of South African health professionals which found extraordinarily high levels of dissatisfaction with working and living conditions in the country. Emigration potential is very high, and retention strategies have been largely unsuccessful. The survey findings suggest that remedial efforts within South Africa will not slow the brain drain. This has serious negative repercussions for the quality and level of health care available to patients in the country. The only workable retention strategy is for Western countries to stop issuing immigration and work permits to South African health professionals, a policy that would be consistent with their attitude to most other South African workers. However, as long as health professional shortages continue in Western countries and their immigration policy remains divorced from their international development policy, this scenario seems unlikely.

The paper presents the results and discusses the implications of a national survey of South African health professionals which found extraordinarily high levels of dissatisfaction with working and living conditions in the country. Emigration potential is very high, and retention strategies have been largely unsuccessful. The survey findings suggest that remedial efforts within South Africa will not slow the brain drain. This has serious negative repercussions for the quality and level of health care available to patients in the country. The only workable retention strategy is for Western countries to stop issuing immigration and work permits to South African health professionals, a policy that would be consistent with their attitude to most other South African workers. However, as long as health professional shortages continue in Western countries and their immigration policy remains divorced from their international development policy, this scenario seems unlikely.

In adopting a framework that applies both macro and micro variables to the study of migration in Namibia, the analysis of the findings of the Namibia Migration Project emphasizes the utility of combining different scales and methods of data collection in terms of explaining migration dynamics and extending trends and patterns to future scenarios. It is argued that the contextual and explanatory macro factors such as political history, poverty, population, environment, epidemics and culture are crucial to the understanding and interpretation of the micro data collected through the standardized questionnaire, survey and the case study material. Equally important is the iterative relationship that the macro/micro approach fosters in the research design and in the analysis of the data between the macro and micro scales of investigation.

Notwithstanding this initiative by SADC to increase regional economic and social integration, xenophobia and stricter border controls are on the rise within much of SADC (McDonald et al. 1998; McDonald 2000; Crush 1999; 1). Reasons given include the enduring and worsening poverty within member states and the rise in crime and social problems, and these factors are seen to have at their roots the in ux of migrants, documented and undocumented, into national space. However, the argument that increased cross-border migration within SADC will promote economic hardship for nationals of recipient countries, and result in higher crime levels, is not supported by the data from the region. The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) has conducted several migrationrelated surveys within southern Africa over the past three years. These surveys have found overwhelmingly that immigration to member countries of people from with SADC may not be on the scale suggested in the media and by politicians , nor does it account for worsening poverty and crime experienced in the region (Crush 1997; Peberdy and Crush 1998; Dodson 1998; De Vletter 1998; Sechaba Consultants 1997; McDonald et al. 1998).

American AnthropologistVolume 85, Issue 4 p. 995-996 Free Access Applied: Black Villagers in an Industrial Society: Anthropological Perspectives on Labour Migration in South Africa. Philip Mayer, ed. Wade Pendleton, Wade Pendleton San Diego State UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Wade Pendleton, Wade Pendleton San Diego State UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: December 1983 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1983.85.4.02a00580AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume85, Issue4December 1983Pages 995-996 RelatedInformation