Heading south alone : how young independent migrants in Cape Town exert their agency

(1)

1

Heading South Alone

How Young Independent Migrants in Cape Town

Exert their Agency

A

Lisa Schnell

Research Master International Development Studies

University of Amsterdam

May 2014

(2)

2

COLOPHON

Thesis submitted on the 30. May 2014 in part fulfilment of a M.Sc. in International Development Studies (Research Master) Graduate School of Social Sciences

University of Amsterdam

“Heading South Alone - How young independent migrants in Cape Town exert their agency”

Supervisor Dr. Darshan Vigneswaran Local Supervisor Dr. Derica Lambrechts Second Reader Dr. Jacobijn Olthoff

Cover Pictures: Youth staying at Beth Uriel, by Sonja Wolters; Signpost and Taxi Rank in Cape Town, both by Lisa Schnell Date May 2014 Lisa Schnell 6139434 Lisa.aachen@yahoo.de

(3)

3

ABSTRACT

Young people’s navigation of their futures and the way in which agency plays a role in this has recently become focus of attention. Especially the question whether or not young people should be understood as active agents who take autonomous decisions has been examined in a range of research projects on children and youth. One group of young people for whom the question of agency is very pressing is that of young independent migrants (YIM), thus young people who migrate across international boundaries without their parents or other adult caregivers. This thesis looks into how young independent migrants from Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo shape their lives in Cape Town, South Africa. It seeks to challenge existing dispositions of children and youth as non-agents that are dependent on the adult world by examining how YIM exert their agency within three main areas of their migratory process: their departure from their home country, everyday activities and interaction with service providers. Based on in-depth interviews with male young independent migrants as well as service providers that cater for these young people in Cape Town, the thesis also examines service provider’s perceptions of YIM’s agency, how these perceptions inform their support towards YIM and how young independent migrants navigate and act in relation to the services that are offered to them.

In contrast to prevalent notions of young independent migrants that often depict these young migrants either as vulnerable victims or as romantic heroes, this thesis suggests that YIM’s agency is far from one-dimensional and can best be conceptualized within a continuum. In many instances young independent migrants’ agency is best conceptualized as constrained by the context in which they operate, as it often limits their ability to exercise their agency, and YIM’s agency in many cases is an immediate response to specific conditions of their lives rather than a long-term strategy. However, the accounts given show that young independent migrants do not necessarily comply with the image of vulnerable non-agents that is often associated with them in laws, policies and advocacy work. Whilst the analysis general supports the line of thinking of new social studies of childhood – where young peoples’ agency is put central – one must remain cautious not to overemphasise YIM’s agency and continue to look into the influence of context. Representing young independent migrants’ agency as diverse and situated within a continuum, this thesis makes a theoretical contribution towards our conceptualization of agency by proposing a new agency typology.

This typology does not only advance our understanding of young migrants’ decisions and activities and the ways in which they try to shape their lives despite difficult contexts that often offer few opportunities, it might also be applicable to other contexts where questions of the interplay of individuals’ agency with restrictive contexts are central.

(4)

4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With trains, buses, jam-packed taxis and – as a true geographer – a map by my side, the research for this thesis took me all over Cape Town. From the skyscrapers in town to places far afield in the city’s eastern offshoots. To offices and cafés, to grass fields and a circus. As varied as my journeys throughout Cape Town were the stories that the young Zimbabwean and Congolese migrants shared with me. It kept surprising me with which trust and honesty they shared their views, ideas, feelings and aspirations with me. Therefore, my first and foremost thanks go to the young independent migrants who participated in this research. I am grateful to have met all of them and consider myself very lucky to be able to share their stories.

I would also like to thank all staff of service providers for familiarizing me with the context of service provision. I especially owe a big thanks to Adonis Musati Project where I interned for two months prior to my research. I truly admire their work and the dedication with which staff and volunteers work towards giving a helping hand to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. My time in Cape Town and my research experience would not have been the same without AMP.

Darshan Vigneswaran has been a great supervisor. His critical insights and constructive feedback were an encouragement throughout research and thesis writing.

My thanks also go to all who accompanied me throughout last year’s process, in South Africa, the Netherlands and Germany. To all those great and inspiring people, old and new friends, I was able to spend time with in Cape Town! To the Bushuis crew for support, lunch, geselligheid and for seeing light at the end of the tunnel (or the one window, for that matter). To everyone who took the time to prevent my thesis being one long German multi-clause sentence. To all my friends for being who they are and for believing in me. Finally, to my family: my parents and my sister who have supported me not only in this process but throughout my entire studies and on whom I can always rely, whatever path my life may take.

(5)

5

FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Agency Typology Figure 2: Conceptual Scheme

Figure 3: Map of South Africa and its Neighbours; Research Location Cape Town

Figure 4: Map of Research Location Cape Town and Indications of Locations of Service Providers Figure 5: Map of Home countries of YIM: Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe

Figure 6: Map of Migration Routes

Figure 7: IMY’s Accounts of Agency in Agency Typology

Table 1: Interviews with Young Independent Migrants

Table 2: Interviews with Staff of Service Providers Table 4: Service Providers According to Type

(6)

6

ABBREVIATIONS

AMP Adonis Musati Project

ARESTA Agency for Refugee Education, Skills Training & Advocacy CoRMSA Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa CTMSC Cape Town Multi Service Centre

CTRC Cape Town Refugee Centre

CYCC Child and Couth Care Centre

DHA Department of Home Affairs

DRC Democratic Republic of Congo

DSD Department of Social Development

HDI Human Development Index

YIM Young Independent Migrants

IOM International Organisation for Migration

PASSOP People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty

R South African Rand

RSDO Refugee Status Determination Officer SAMP Southern African Migration Project SRA Strategic Relational Approach

UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

(7)

7

1 INTRODUCTION

Public debates, advocacy work and (inter-) national policies often focus on the exploitative, abusive or traumatizing nature of young independent migrants’ experiences. Often, young people who migrate independently are alluded to in contexts of human trafficking and emphasis is put on their dependency, vulnerability and lack of agency (Ensor & Gozdziak, 2010, Whitehead et al, 2005). For some young independent migrants (YIM), such kinds of account may quite truthfully represent their lived realities. For others, however, such accounts do not do justice to their migratory experiences and obscure that they are independent actors who consciously try to shape their lives through their decision to migrate. More generally, as Ensor and Gozdziak assert, “an excessive focus on migratory processes that are imposed,

difficult, and even traumatic may lead to the erroneous assumption that all forms of child migration are necessarily exploitative” (Ensor & Gozdziak, 2010:3). Although only a couple of articles focus on this issue

(Hillier, 2007; Howard, 2012; Mahati, 2012; Yaqub 2010), they suggest that not all children and youth that migrate on their own experience their situation as exploitative or see themselves as especially vulnerable and pushed to certain decisions by their environment. Even in situations that are a priori defined as exploitative and abusive, such as human trafficking, young people can take active roles, for example by choosing to be trafficked in light of lacking alternatives in the home situation (Arias, 2011; Howard, 2012). Within children and youth studies more generally, a shift occurred towards acknowledging young people’s agency, thus their capacity to take autonomous decisions and act upon them. A few studies on young independent migrants have incorporated similar types of approaches. However, images of YIM as capable agents mostly remain limited to academics and emerge less clearly within (inter) national law and policies. Depictions of independent child and youth migrants as passive victims that are incapable of taking decisions and shaping their own lives do not always do justice to the situations within which many of these young people find themselves (IOM, 2011; UNICEF, 2007). They can prevent genuine analysis of YIM’s agency and hamper the applicability of policies and programmes that are designed to protect this group.

For this reason, I chose to take a look into young independent migrants’ exertion of agency. This thesis can be seen as an attempt to assess to what degree YIM are agentic. I look into how young independent migrants navigate their lives within contexts that can be difficult and challenging and that might offer little opportunities. Agency within this research is seen as young people’s capacity to influence their daily activities as well as their broader livelihood strategies in relation to existing structures and processes (Emirbayer and Mische, 1998). Young independent migrants’ agency is examined within three domains of their migratory process: within departure from their home countries, within everyday life and throughout interaction with service providers. It has to be emphasized, however, that I do not wish to attribute resilience and the ability to cope with difficult situations to YIM on an a priori basis. Rather, my aim is to see how they handle situations that might not be conducive to their aspirations and whether or not they are able to direct their lives in the way they want to.

South Africa, the country where this research took place, is a prominent destination for migrants from countries within southern and central Africa and young people increasingly migrate independently to

(10)

10

the country, especially from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe (Schreier, 2011). Whereas previous research on young independent migrants in South Africa has mainly focused on the northern parts of the country, Johannesburg and places close to the borders such as Musina and Louis Trichardt (Mahati, 2012; Ortelee, 2009; Save the Children, 2007), my research looked at young independent migrants in Cape Town, the city that is most far away from the country’s northern border regions. Main reason for this was to provide a study on a city where little research on YIM exists and where dynamics of independent migration of young people considerably differ from those in the north of South Africa.

The main research question that guided this research is ’In which ways do young independent

migrants exercise agency throughout various areas of their migratory process and how is it enabled or constrained by the strategically selective context?’ In order to answer this question, interviews were

conducted with male young independent migrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe who migrated to South Africa without their parents when they were below the age of 18. At the time of research, most of them have been living in South Africa for a couple of years and were engaging in a variety of activities, including going to school, studying or working. The strategically selective context within which YIM navigate their lives consists of the general political and economic situation in South Africa and YIM’s home countries, the South African policy setting for children and migrants as well as the capetonian system of service provision for YIM. Therefore, in addition to the YIM, staff of various organizations and institutions throughout Cape Town that provide support, protection and help for young independent migrants have been interviewed.

This thesis aims to contribute towards our understanding of young people’s agency in difficult circumstances. In order to bypass existent binaries of independent migrant children as either victims or heroes, I propose a typology of agency that understands agency as a continuum and that enables to map YIM’s actions within this continuum. Two main concepts of agency provide the building blocks for this typology: the concept of thin/thick agency, which attempts to gauge the extent to which the context offers room for manoeuvre and the concept of strategic/tactical agency that analyses agency in terms of the short- or long-term focus. Young independent migrants’ actions within the three areas of their migratory process (departure, everyday life and interaction with service providers) are analysed from these concepts and consequently placed within the typology.

The findings suggest that young independent migrants’ agency is multi-dimensional and the young migrants are variously influenced by the context in which they operate. Many engage in actions that indicate thin and tactical agency, but some are able to exert types of agency that can be described as thick and/or strategic, indicating limited influence of the context on their decisions and actions. Based on these findings, I propose that current notions of YIM as victims and non-agents provide a one-sided conceptualization of their lived realities, just as much as notions that portray children as capable agents and that do not pay attention to the circumstances within which they undertake their actions. This thesis, by giving concrete manifestations of the interaction between agency and structure, contributes towards diminishing the existing knowledge gap on young independent migrants’ formulation of agency.

(11)

11

Structure of the thesis

After having introduced young independent migrants’ agency as the topic of this thesis and elaborated upon the relevance to undertake research on this topic in this chapter, chapter two gives a theoretical conceptualization of agency and discuss what motivates people to migrate. The chapter concludes with a short note that explains why the term young independent migrants is employed throughout this thesis and concludes with the presentation of the conceptual scheme where the main concepts of this thesis are linked. Chapter three presents, after stating the research questions and giving a methodological positioning, the main research methods and the respondents that this research is based on. It discusses the quality indicators, limitations and ethical considerations that apply to this research. Chapter four provides an overview of the context within which the research has to be understood by introducing South African laws and policies for children and migrants, giving background information on the two countries from which young independent migrants in this research originate and presenting Cape Town as a research location. It also provides an introduction to the structural context of service provision. Chapter five, after giving an overview of young independent migrants’ origins, reasons to leave their home countries and journeys they undertook to arrive in Cape Town, elaborates on their daily activities, the problems they face throughout everyday life and the aspirations they have for the future. Consequently, chapter six presents an analysis of young independent migrants’ agency throughout three areas of their migratory process and explain how they exert their agency and the way in which the context influences their actions. Finally, chapter seven functions as a conclusion and, after summarizing the main findings of this research, gives a theoretical conclusion with regards to the conceptualisation of agency as well as recommendations for policy, practice and future research.

(12)

12

2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The main theoretical concept upon which this thesis rests is agency. The conceptualization of agency I present below puts young independent migrants’ activities and aspirations into perspective and presents a framework that helps to look at the influence of context on YIM’s agency. As this research is based on subjectivist ontology and a post-positivist epistemological stance, I consider myself as revealing the multiple truths that my respondents experience. It is therefore necessary to look at YIM’s actions from different perspectives and remain open towards both agentic and structural influences. In order to understand YIM’s departure to South Africa within the broader migration literature, I continue with theories on the causes of migration. I conclude this chapter with an elaboration on how I understand my major concepts to link, resulting in the presentation of my conceptual framework.

2.1 CONCEPTUALIZATION OF YOUNG INDEPENDENT MIGRANTS AGENCY

In order to understand why and how I came to the conceptualization of agency that I used throughout research and thesis writing, I consider it necessary to elaborate on notions of childhood that underlie this conceptualization and the implications of these notions. Hence, I begin with an elaboration of the main characteristics of Apollonian notions that prevail the dominant discourse on childhood. I continue to explain how an Apollonian portrayal of children as being passive and vulnerable impacts upon policies and programmes that aim at protecting children, explaining that such a discourse does not do justice to the actual situation of many children and can hinder genuine analysis. Rather, as I explain below, analysing children’s situations and activities from an agency perspective, as is done in new social studies of childhood, is necessary if we truly want to understand their lived realities. However, children’s agency has to be understood within a certain context and therefore I present the concepts of thin/thick and strategic/tactical agency as they allow us to study children’s agency without neglecting the enabling and disabling functions of the structural context. After that, I also elaborate on the limitations of the approach before explaining how I applied the concept throughout my research and why it supports and advances my analysis.

2.1.1 Apollonian Childhood as the Dominant Discourse

The dominant discourse on childhood and children that prevails throughout most of the global North1 and South is greatly influenced by an Apollonian2 notion of childhood, which emerged throughout the 20th and

1_{The term global North and global South are employed in order to skirt judgemental terminology of ‘developed’ and}

‘developing’ countries. Global South refers to countries that possess a disadvantaged societal, political and economic position within the global system whereas global North includes countries whose position in these respects is more privileged.

(13)

13

21st century. The Apollonian view of childhood portrays childhood as an idyllic phase with children being free from many of the responsibilities that adults have (Abebe, 2011). It strongly emphasizes the innocence and passivity of children and incorporates the idea that children have limited access to knowledge and information. This leads to them being excluded from many decisions made that are relevant for their lives and thus keeps them passive and dependent on adults. Also incorporated into the Apollonian childhood discourse is the idea that childhood should be a period free of work and that children should focus on playing and learning rather than working. In a nutshell, from an Apollonian perspective children are seen as non-agents, as inactive, as dependent on the adult world and consequently often not perceived as individual beings (Howard, 2012). This means that through an Apollonian lens, children are denied agency and focus is put on contextual and structural factors in explaining children’s circumstances and actions.

These notions of childhood commonly lead to calls for the protection of children – not to protect them from themselves but from the world and society they are living in (Ansell, 2005: 11). Only in the family and at school are children protected from the dangers of the outside world, with the most apparent danger being the economy and the risk for children to be engaged as labourers within this economy (Ansell, 2011). An Apollonian perspective on childhood identifies the home as the optimal setting to raise children, from which logically results that children should not migrate independently (Howard, 2012).

As Howard explains, the Apollonian view of childhood, originating from the global North, expanded into much of the global South as the dominant discourse on childhood through

“the combined processes of colonial expansion, the growth and spread of the

Minority World3, the combined processes of colonial expansion, the growth and spread of post-colonial international organizations such as UNICEF and the ILO (which are of course funded and staffed predominantly by the Minority World) and cultural and economic ‘globalization’ ’’ (Howard, 2012:119-120).

Notions of childhood that essentially developed within the global North are thus reproduced throughout much of the global South. This is also the case in South Africa, where, according to Schmid (2009) discourses on childhood emanating from the global North are easily absorbed and incorporated into policies, due to a construction of “first world approaches as superior and [because of] attempt[s] to meet

‘international standards’” (Schmid, 2009:2107). Although one cannot fully deny that local constructions of

childhood feature in policies and programs on child care and protection, Apollonian notions still influence to a great extent how we understand and contextualize children’s’ experiences and often translate into approaches towards children throughout policy making and protection (Schmid, 2009). For example, the Apollonian notion that the family home is the ideal setting for children to grow up and to protect them from the dangers of the outside world, translates into policies that focus on keeping children within their families

2_{Apollonian views of childhood stand in contrast to Dionysian ones which were omnipresent before the emergence of}

apollonian notions of childhood. From an Apollonian perspective, children are perceived to be intrinsically good and innocent, whereas a Dionysian view of childhood implies that children are born evil. The terminology derives from Greek mythology where Apollo and Dionysus, both sons of Zeus, are described as the ‘’heir to sunshine and light, the

espouser of poetry and beauty’’ (Jenks, 2005:64) (Apollo) and the ‘’prince of wine, revelry and nature’’ (ibid:62) and thus

intrinsically sinful (Dionysus).

(14)

14

or that aim at restraining children from migrating independently (Howard, 2012). From such a perspective, independent migrant children are assumed to be exploited or abused, irrespective of whether these children perceive themselves as being so or not (Howard, 2012:172). They are separated from their families and therefore their childhood deviates from the ideal setting to grow up. The Apollonian childhood discourse also affects childcare and protection policies through preferences for certain ‘groups’ in terms of sponsoring:

“external funding may result in the targeting and thus problematizing of certain groups, reinforcing a pathology rather than a strengths-based view, based on a particular subjectivity palatable to the ‘international community’’ (Schmid, 2009: 2107).

With regards to my research topic, this means that independent child migrants might be specified as particularly vulnerable and in need of protection compared to other groups, and this might result in certain flaws. The reason why it is relevant to pay attention to the way in which policies and programmes are often shaped by the prominent discourse on childhood and children becomes explicit in relation to the concept that forms a central part of this thesis, children’s agency. Incorporating the notion of children as passive and incapable of exercising agency into child care and protection policies and programmes can hamper the applicability and appropriateness of these policies and programmes. I will now present some examples that help to further elaborate on this.

Consistent with the global discourse on childhood, protection of children often is accompanied by mechanisms that put a lot of emphasis on controlling and managing (Bordonaro, 2012). In this sense, children who lead lives that deviate from Apollonian notions of childhood are pushed back into forms and lifestyles that are perceived to be more appropriate for children. Childcare and protection mechanisms often exhibit forms of supervision and instruction that aim at regulating or revising deviating behaviour towards conforming with conventional norms of childhood (Bordonaro, 2012:414). These types of child care and protection services restrict the autonomy of children in taking decisions free from coercion. Adebe (2011) explains this in the context of children who engage in paid labour in order to cater for their income. These children are often “penalized by national law and social policies”, their activities are “criminalized” and they are often referred to as having lost their childhood (Adebe, 2011: 768).

Apollonian perceptions of childhood underlie many policy documents on children: internationally acknowledged policy documents on children tend to describe them as passive agents and thereby neglect their agency in taking decisions throughout their migratory process (IOM, 2011; UNICEF, 2007; Hashim, 2008; Whitehead, 2005). Their passivity and agency are for example institutionalized in the United High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) guidelines on policies and procedures in dealing with unaccompanied children seeking asylum. The guidelines explain that children “may have been sent, willingly or otherwise, to

secure a better future in what their caregivers have perceived to be more developed countries” (UNHCR,

1997:4). Although within the guidelines it is acknowledged that children might be leaving ‘willingly’, they are still presented as passive agents because it is not them but their caregivers who decide for the child to leave to a certain country and the child just merely agrees or conforms. Also within the UN Protocol to Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, children’s agency is not fully acknowledged as the protocol considers children who willingly cross the border with the help of a smuggler as trafficked (Whitehead,

(15)

15

2005). The protocol makes a division between smuggling and trafficking, whereby smuggling is defined as border transportation with the consent of the person transported while trafficking refers to cross-border transportation without consent and involving means of force or coercion. However, this difference only applies to people who are 18 years or older. The protocol considers any “recruitment, transportation,

transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation” (UN, 2001) as ‘trafficking’, irrespective

of whether or not a child has consented to this (UN, 2001 in: Whitehead, 2005). Thus, according to this definition, all children that cross the border to South Africa willingly but with the help of a smuggler would be considered to be trafficked. Although there might be cases of child migrants where it is difficult to establish whether they have been trafficked or chose to come to South Africa on their own will, viewing all independent child migrants as trafficked does not do justice to their situation and neither does it help in addressing their rights and needs.

Likewise, the dominant discourse on childhood is incorporated into child care and protection programmes. For example, as Mahati (2012) explains, Apollonian discourse on childhood informs views of and responses towards independent child migrants. Especially during the decision-making process to migrate, a lot of literature denies children’s potential active role and focuses on family and other structures that left the children no other choice but to migrate.

Implications of Apollonian childhood as a dominant discourse

What are the implications, then, of framing independent child migrants in terms of their vulnerability and passive position as it is done in many policies and programmes? The way in which independent child migrants are labelled often hides assumptions about their position and sense of agency. Depending on how children’s agency is seen, different types of labels are used to describe them, e.g. unaccompanied minors, independent or voluntary child migrants (UNICEF, 2007). Labelling can have effects on the support mechanisms that are available for these children and can include or exclude children from these mechanisms (UNICEF, 2007). By viewing children as victims only, the diverse reasons that made children migrate are not taken into account and this can lead to inconsistent responses that aim at supporting these children (IOM, 2011). Although there are child migrants who migrate against their will and who are exploited both throughout their ‘journey’ as well as in the country of destination, depicting all child migrants as passive victims, incapable of making decisions and shaping their own lives and analysing their experiences and actions from this perspective, does not capture the full complexity of the situation in which many children find themselves (IOM, 2011; UNICEF, 2007). It also neglects their individual role in decision-making and their resilience and ability in coping with difficult situations (Palmary, 2009). As Cheney explains, defining children only in terms of their vulnerability can actually aggravate their vulnerability instead of diminishing it (Cheney, 2010). From the perspective of new social studies of childhood, taking Apollonian notions of childhood as the sine qua non of child protection policies and programmes can promote perceptions of childhood and children that are incongruent with local realities, which likely results in ill-fitted approaches. Hence, a more nuanced understanding of children’s agency is necessary in order to adapt policies and programmes to the needs of children. It is for these reasons that new social studies of childhood emerged.

(16)

16

2.1.2 New Social Studies of Childhood

Within the 1990s a shift within the academic debate and literature occurred, advocating for a greater acknowledgement of the social construction of childhood and children’s agency (Ansell, 2001:21; Bray et al, 2010). This approach, commonly known as the new social studies of childhood, emphasises the importance to study children in their own right in order to develop a new discourse on children and childhood that takes account of the social surroundings in which children find themselves. In line with this approach, various authors have emphasized that it is important to see children as being ‘actively involved in the construction of

their own social lives’ (Prout and James, 1990: 8-9 in Ansell, 2001:21) and to acknowledge their ability to take

decisions and employ their agency. Also South African scholars started to engage with the way in which children participate and influence their live throughout the 1990s (Bray et al, 2010). Studies have been starting to look into children’s and youths agency, for example youth assertion of political agency throughout the township revolts in the 1980s (Bray et al, 2010).

If we want to understand the complex situation of independent migrant children, it is important not to neglect their capability to influence their own lives. For this reason, I look at independent migrant children’s activities and aspirations from an agency perspective. I frame agency as put forward by Emirbayer and Mische (1998: 971), who describe agency as ‘the capacity of actors to critically shape their own

responsiveness to problematic situations’. Applying this definition to my research, ‘responsiveness’ refers to

children’s daily activities and strategies, whereas ‘problematic situations’ is children’s general situation as being a foreigner in South Africa and the hardships and problems that they encounter forthcoming from this situation. Agency, thus, is children’s capacity to influence both their daily activities as well as their broader livelihood strategies in relation to existing structures and processes.

After having established the rationale for analysing independent migrant children's activities and aspirations from an agency perspective, I will now turn to some fallacies that can emerge when working from an agency perspective. Acknowledging children’s agency is important if the objective is to understand their lives. However, one needs to be cautious not to assume agency as a given feature that all children can exercise at all times. Throughout the agency – structure debate one is easily captured by either of the sides, although a more nuanced position is likely to give a more genuine picture of reality. In the case of independent migrant children this means that attention needs to be paid to “avoid considering them either

solely as ‘romantic heroes’ or as ‘passive victims’” (UNICEF, 2007:2), whereby ‘romantic heroes’ refers to an

act of idealizing the way in which children are able to act as actors fully capable of taking decisions and shaping their futures.

Some authors (Lancy, 2012; Bordonaro, 2012) have elaborated on precisely this and pointed towards shortcomings and fallacies of the new social studies of childhood and the emphasis on agency within this approach. Referring to the conceptualization of children as fully capable actors that is inherent in this approach, Lancy (2012) puts forward that understanding children as agents does not automatically result in genuine research because it can come along with a dismissal of the role of other factors that might constrain children’s actions, such as culture. It also raises new types of questions and dilemmas. One such question, in which Bordonaro (2012) engages, relates to how service providers can translate notions of children’s agency into their programmes and services. He finds that even service providers who acknowledge children’s agency often still try to mainstream their behaviour towards conforming to Apollonian notions of childhood. Hence, he states that a thorough debate is needed on how theoretical

(17)

17

insights into children’s agency need to translate into childcare and protection policies and programmes (Bordonaro, 2012). Bordonaro also calls for critical examination of the specific notion of agency that is referred to within the academic new social studies on childhood. Agency is often understood as a positive feature that results in children’s ‘’ability to endure hardships, rework structures, and resist oppression’’ (Bordonaro, 2012:422). As soon as children exert their agency in order to engage in activities that are deemed morally inappropriate for their age, such as children that live on the street, migrate independently or are fighting in wars, their agency is contextualized as ‘constrained’ or ‘thin’ in order to establish how children purely opted for these options in the light of a lack of alternatives. Moral and ethical notions are inherent in these types of descriptions of agency, as Bordonaro explains:

“The distinction between children’s ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ agencies appears to hinge on a moral distinction between appropriate and inappropriate actions, as the acknowledgment of ‘thin’ agency is not based only on a sociological analysis of its pre-conditions but also on a moral assessment of actor’s actions and on assumptions about what actions the exercise of agency should result in, about what agency is’’ (Bordonaro, 2012:421).

Like Bordonaro, Valentine stresses that children’s agency has to be seen within its specific context and can therefore never be neutral. It can ‘’both reproduce norms and sometimes disrupt them’’ (Valentine, 2011:355), and can thus expand beyond the positive notion that often is ascribed to it.

2.1.3 Placing Children’s Agency in a Continuum

Taking aforementioned critiques and points of attention into consideration, throughout my research I want to recognize children’s agency without romanticizing and taking into account that their actions and choices can be enabled or constrained by various structures and actors. I hope to be able to overcome the dualistic way in which is often thought of children either as ‘victims’ or as ‘competent actors’ (Abebe, 2011). I also want to conceptualize agency as varying dependent on the aim or focus that underlies children’s actions, i.e. the short- or long-term focus. In order to analyse independent migrant children’s agency, I therefore employ two conceptualizations that enable to put agency on a continuum between two opposing ends. The first concept is constrained agency as developed by Klocker (2007), who distinguishes between ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ agency. Based on a conceptualization by de Certeau (1980) and Honwana (2000) the second concept puts tactical and strategic agency at the two opposing ends of the agency continuum.

Thin and thick agency

The concept of constrained agency enables to picture agency as a continuum and to acknowledge that there is a variation in the extent of agency that individuals can exercise. Within this concept, it is acknowledged that there are opportunities and constraints that influence children’s agency and therefore it can help bypassing the dualistic nature in which is often thought about structure and agency (Klocker, 2007). Klocker distinguishes ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ agency as being situated at the two opposing ends of the agency spectrum. Thin agency refers to “decisions and everyday actions that are carried out within highly

(18)

18

latitude to act within a broad range of options” (Klocker, 2007 in Bell, 2011: 284). Contextual and structural

factors are responsible for thickening or thinning children’s agency, either by providing opportunities for or by putting constraint on their ability to exercise agency (Bell and Payne; 2009: 1029).

‘’Agency appears to be inhibited or encouraged by young people’s (constrained/ opportunistic) locational contexts; identities they are expected to fulfil, and alternative identities they choose to portray; their position of power/lessness, their state of emotions and well-being at a particular time; their stage in life course and other factors’’ (Robson et al, 2007:142)

It is thus the context within which children exercise their agency that defines their agency as tending towards thick or thin. Agency is (tending towards) thick if it is exercised within a context that offers various opportunities and thus leaves room for different types of action. It is (tending towards) thin when decisions are made in situations where few types of actions are thinkable or where the context clearly suggests a certain type of action.

Strategic and tactical agency

The second concept I use in order to conceptualize independent migrant children’s agency is that of strategic versus tactical agency. In her conceptualization of strategic and tactical agency, Honwana (2000) draws on a distinction between strategies and tacticals made by de Certeau (1980) whereby he distinguishes between strategies as ‘manipulations of power relations’ and tacticals as ‘manipulations of events with the aim of turning them into opportunities’ (de Certeau,1980:60-61 in Honwana, 2000:75). The basic distinction between strategic and tactical agency that Honwana derives from de Certeau’s conceptualization relates to the aim and ‘expansion’ of actions in terms of a long- versus short-term focus. Strategic agency, thus, refers to agents that control the long-term consequences of their actions and possible gains and losses, whereas tactical agency is much more a practical and very immediate response to the circumstances in which individuals find themselves (Honwana, 2000:61). Individuals who employ tactical agency are fully aware of the immediate results of their actions but not do not consider possible long-term consequences. Strategic agency, on the other hand, is much more focused on the long-term implications of actions and strategic actors are thus, as Honwana describes it ‘masters of [their] wider horizon’ (Honwana, 2000:76). Also, and this is maybe the most rudimentary distinction between tactical and strategic agency, strategic agency implies that a power base exists whereas tactical agency happens on the ground of a position of weakness. Actors that employ strategic agency have the possibilities, and thus power, to make decisions that work in their benefit in the long run and thus are able to control their lives and create their own pathways. Tactical agency, on the other hand, is employed by actors that do not possess the same possibilities and power to exert long-term control over their lives as strategic agents do. Therefore, according to Honwana, their pathways can best be described as ‘indirect and stray routes, obedient to their own logic’ (Honwana, 2000:74).

The two binaries – thin/thick and strategic/tactical – thus account for different dimensions of agency. Thin/thick agency has a strong focus on the context and helps to situate agency between the two opposing notions of agency and structure whereas strategic/tactical agency looks more at personal motivations and future implications of individuals’ actions.

(19)

19

Typology of thin/thick and strategic/tactical agency continuum

Based on my conceptualization of agency and the resulting agency continuum I composed below typology, which I employed to analyse my research findings. As Ahlquist and Breunig explain, creating typologies through “classifying complex objects into some smaller number of categories is fundamental to the scientific

enterprise” (Ahlquist & Breunig, 2012:92). The complex object, in this study, is agency, which I classify into

four main categories or types: Thin and tactical agency, thick and tactical agency, thin and strategic agency and thick and strategic agency. The construction of different types of a phenomenon helps to facilitate understanding and explanation of complex social realities (Kluge, 2000). Herein, each type represents a combination of certain attributes, e.g. for this research the type of thin and tactical agency is composed by the attributes thin agency and tactical agency. Through such kind of typologies, existing variety is reduced to a certain amount of types and “empirical analyses are combined with theoretical knowledge”, resulting in the construction of ‘empirically grounded types’ (Kluge, 2000). Such typologies, then, can facilitate theory-building because they help to explain, understand and in some cases predict certain social phenomena. In this case, the typology of agency I propose helps to explain how I understand the interaction of thin/thick and strategic/tactical agency and maps out my research findings with regards to the four types.

When analysing young independent migrants’ agency, the scheme was employed as follows. I first looked into whether their agency tends towards thick (green) or thin (blue). Consequently, their actions were analysed in terms of tactical (dotted) versus strategic (striped) agency. I could then allocate the accounts of agency that I analysed to one of the four types, which is one of the four squares in the typology. Hence, agency can be thick and tactical, thick and strategic, thin and tactical, or thin and strategic. However, I would like to add that, since I understand agency as a continuum, the four squares are not always clearly separated entities, as the scheme might suggest. I do not wish to imply that the four types of agency are in all cases clear cut, as in some cases boundaries between certain types are likely to be blurred. The scheme allows for such a variety and blurriness through the visual allocation of accounts of agency at a certain position within the scheme. However, despite potential blurredness, the typology helps to map out young independent migrants’ agency with regards to the influence of contextual factors on it and its temporal orientation and consideration of consequences.

Figure 1: Agency Typology

thick + tactical thin + tactical thin + strategic thick + strategic TACTICAL STRATEGIC THICK THIN

(20)

20

Throughout this thesis, above explained agency approach is used in order to shed light on young independent migrants’ decisions, activities and aspirations throughout the three areas of their migratory process. Especially chapter six will dwell on how their actions can be analysed with regards to above concepts and map their actions and the resulting type of agency in the typology. As agency throughout the young independent migrants’ departure from Zimbabwe and the DRC is one of the three areas of focus, I will now elaborate on theories that try to explain why people migrate and discuss the role that is given to agency within these theories.

2.2 WHAT MAKES PEOPLE MIGRATE?

A major question underlying much research and literature on migration is what makes people migrate. In order to generate a conceptualization of migration, in the following I will present the most common theories that try to explain people’s movements across national borders and relate these theories to the discussion of migrants’ agency that has been central in the foregoing chapter.

Classical and neoclassical theories try to explain migration on the basis of wealth differences between home and host countries, leading individuals to leave their home country in order to maximize their income in the host country. Rational choice theory argues from the same underlying principle, seeing migration as induced by individual behaviour and decisions, based on a cost-benefit analysis of migration and its alternatives (Massey et al, 1993; Haug, 2008:587). However, these theories usually fail to explain why more people from poor countries don’t migrate to more wealthy countries or the fact that it is usually not the poorest of a society that migrate. The theory of New Economics of Labour Migration partly addresses these gaps; it sees migration as a strategy to improve one’s position in relation to others in the community (Stark and Bloom, 1985). A different approach aiming to explain causes and especially perpetuation of migration that focuses on the role of social networks has been put forward by Massey et al (1993; 1994). This approach seeks to explain migration on the basis of social networks between migrants, their community at home and future migrants from that community. Information and support is provided along these social networks and new migrants are likely to follow this path, benefitting from established connections (Massey et al, 1994).

Despite their different approaches in trying to explain the causes of migration, migration theories usually assert a certain degree of agency towards migrants. Although contextual factors are generally acknowledged to influence their departure, after all, it is only some that take the step to leave the country and hence, individual agency must play a role in this decision (Bakewell, 2010). This is also evident in common descriptions of ‘regular’ migration as voluntary migration – in contrast to forced migration which refers to refugees. In contrast to voluntary migrants, refugees are perceived to have had limited choice to leave the country as they were forced by the circumstances. Hence, their agency throughout departure is seen as limited and they are often not included in migration theories. (Bakewell, 2010:1690). However, the usefulness of assigning migrants to either of these opposing categories is questionable. According to Orgocka, the categories of voluntary and forced migration represent an artificially binary and he states that

(21)

21

(Orgocka, 2012: 5). Therefore, this thesis includes all young people that independently leave their home country, regardless of whether their motivation to leave would commonly classify their migration as voluntary or forced.

2.3 BRINGING THE CONCEPTS TOGETHER

In the above sections I have elaborated on the conceptualization of agency that underlies my research and discussed prominent theories that try to explain why people migrate and which effects people’s migration has on their home countries. In the following, I aim to bring these two angles together and explain how they relate to my research. Before doing so, I will discuss my definition of young independent migrants and explain why and how this terminology is employed throughout this thesis. The theoretical framework concludes with a short elaboration on the Strategic Relational Approach (SRA), resulting in the presentation of my conceptual framework where the concepts that I have been elaborating upon are linked and where I explain how I understand their connection and interaction on a theoretical level.

The rationale for employing the term young independent migrants throughout this paper is threefold. Firstly, the terminology of ‘young’ refers to youth (instead of children and adults) and helps to bypass the binary way in which young people are often allocated to either belonging to the group of children (under 18) or adults (18 years and above). Although definitions of young people or youth slightly differ, according to both international and South African Definitions, the term youth includes persons under and above the age of 18, and thus includes both children and adults4. Policy documents and laws often employ the age of 18 as a threshold for in- or exclusion from laws (e.g. the UNCRC), as soon as one turns 18, one is defined as an adult, with all accompanying duties (Chase & Allsopp, 2013) However, “in reality the

transition to adulthood is shaped by multiple intersecting social and cultural factors” and referring to youth,

rather than children and adults, enables to encompass the broad range of young peoples’ experiences that they make along the transition from children into adults without making an arbitrary division of children’s versus adults experiences. The term is especially applicable to my research as I talked to young migrants who were 18 years or above (thus legally defined as adults) at the point of interview, but who talked about their experiences of migration both now and when they were younger (and legally defined as children). Secondly, referring to them as ‘young independent migrants’ enables to include all young people who migrated on their own, that is without any adult caregiver, irrespective of whether or not they fit within institutional definitions of ‘unaccompanied minor’ or ‘unaccompanied asylum seeking minor’ (Chase & Allsopp, 2013). The third reason for the use of the terminology ‘young independent migrants’ throughout this thesis relates to the term ‘migrant’ with which I aim to include all non-South African citizens that came to South Africa, irrespective of their documentation status (e.g. asylum seeker, refugee, work or study

4

The United Nations define youth as “persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years” (UNESCO, 2014) whereas the African Union and South Africa employ broader definitions, defining youth as “every person between the ages of 15 and

35 years” (AU, 2006) and “young people […] falling within the age group of 14 to 35 years” (Government of South Africa,

(22)

22 permit, undocumented).

Forthcoming from my research topic and the theoretical lens from which I am approaching it, I consider both structure and agency as important ‘forces’ of reality and am interested in their interplay when it comes to YIM’s actions. I will elaborate more intensively on the underlying ontology and epistemology that underlies my research in chapter three, but here I would like to present the strategic relational approach on which my conceptual framework is based. The strategic relational approach emphasizes the dual relationship between structure and agency whereby structure is defined as the strategically selective context in which agents make strategic calculations that then lead to strategic action. The SRA is useful in the sense that it enables to look at structures as a selective context that is different for different actors and also sees actions as an interaction of structure and agency.

Figure 2: Conceptual framework

Above conceptual framework visualizes the concepts that underpin my research and shows how they relate to each other. The actors of my research are young independent migrants, originating from the DRC and Zimbabwe. These actors are situated within strategically selective contexts, which in this research were twofold: the South African national context and the context of their home country. Actors’ motivations and aspirations are likely to be influenced by the strategically selective contexts, or rather by the opportunities and constraints they perceive the contexts are offering. Agency, defined as ‘the capacity of actors to critically

shape their own responsiveness to problematic situations’ (Emirbayer and Mische, 1998: 971) refers to actors’

formulation of actions within the strategically selective context. Agency is thus the momentum that leads CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICAN REGIONAL CONTEXT

STRATEGICALLY SELECTIVE CONTEXTs

SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT

ACTORS

Young Independent Migrants

AGENCY Formulation of actions

within context

ACTIONS

Legal setting for childrenand migrants

DRC AND ZIMBABWEAN CONTEXT System of service provision Family environment Aspirations Motivations

(23)

23

actors, based on their motivations and the strategically selective context, to take a decision for a certain action and consequently to act upon this decision. YIM’s agency is perceived to be influenced by their aspirations and motivations as well as the strategically selective contexts. The last concept of my conceptual framework is YIM’s actions as they constitute the concrete ways in which YIM’s agency is expressed in reality. Actions include YIM’s activities and actions in Cape Town as well as on their journeys and in some cases related to their decision to leave Zimbabwe or Congo.

(24)

24

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

As has been argued in the previous chapters, the question that needs to be explored is not whether young independent migrants have agency but how their agency is expressed throughout various areas of their migratory process. The aim of the research is to contribute to the understanding and conceptualization of young people’s agency in a context of independent migration. The main research question is therefore as follows:

In which ways do young independent migrants exercise agency throughout various areas of their migratory process and how is it enabled or constrained by the strategically selective context? A number of sub-questions guided my research and provide the building blocks to answer my main research question:

1. What are young independent migrants’ everyday activities and aspirations?

2. How is service provision for young independent migrants in Cape Town organized and what are its enabling and constraining functions with regards to YIM’s agency?

3. How do young independent migrants exercise their agency within the initiation of their migratory process, everyday life and throughout interaction with service providers?

3.2 METHODOLOGICAL POSITIONING

My research is based on subjectivist ontology. Subjectivism works from the notion that although there is one reality people experience this reality in different ways and therefore have different perceptions of reality. From a subjectivist approach, a researcher is not revealing the ‘truth’ but rather a multiplicity of truths that others experience. Regarding the epistemological stance, my research is conducted from a post-positivist perspective. A post-post-positivist epistemological perspective supports the notion of a ‘physical reality which exists independently of the researcher’ (Sumner and Tribe, 2008: 58-63) and which is subjectively observed and interpreted by the researcher. In my research, this means that YIM’s actions within the different areas of the migratory process can be explained from different stances, i.e. seeing them as an exertion of agency vs. focusing on structural factors as an explanation.

The theoretical perspective that derives from the above ontology and epistemology and that builds the major epistemological-theoretical foundation of my study is critical realism. Critical realism is contingent with subjectivism and post-positivism in that it assumes that there is one reality, that this reality exists independently of our observation of it and that it is differently interpreted by different actors (Jessop,

(25)

25

2005; Hay, 2002). Critical realism posits that we cannot fully observe and experience the complex structures and processes that are part of the ‘real’. The ‘real’ is one of the three domains of reality that critical realism distinguishes, next to the ‘actual’ and the ‘empirical’. The ‘real’ are structures, mechanisms and powers that are the causal forces that underlie things and events that happen. The things and events that happen are part of the domain of the ‘actual’ and these are independent from whether we experience these things or not. Only in the ‘empirical’ do we experience and observe these actual events (Jessop, 2005: 41). I take on a critical realist position because it enables me to consider both structure and agency as important ‘forces’ of reality. An approach that further conceptualizes the dual relationship between structure and agency and that I take as a more specific theoretical perspective is the strategic relational approach (SRA), which will be elaborated upon in the theoretical chapter.

Based on subjectivism and critical realism, I applied a qualitative methodology. A qualitative methodology is appropriate regarding the explorative nature of my research. It allows taking account of the subjectivity of the researcher and thus enables me to reflect on my own values and to take into account that they might influence my research. I can thus recognize my subjectivity in order to be reflective of it (Ratner, 2002). A qualitative methodology also gives room to critically analyse people’s viewpoints and this is crucial, since viewpoints do not necessarily give information about the ‘true’ nature of things. People’s perceptions have to be interpreted and analysed against the contextual background in order to obtain a ‘contextual understanding of social behaviour’ (Bryman, 2012). Next to being qualitative, my research was also partly explorative and ethnographic in nature. The explorative nature of my research mainly derives from the fact that there is currently only very limited knowledge on agency and activities of young independent migrants in the specific context of Cape Town. Therefore, an approach was needed that enabled to look at questions of ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ and that offered rich information in order to examine the nature of youth’s activities. Due to its exploratory nature, no clearly formulated hypotheses underlay my research as it mainly aimed at generating new rather than test existing hypotheses.

3.3 RESEARCH METHODS

The main research method I applied during this research were semi-structured interviews. These were conducted with two types of respondents: young independent migrants and staff of service providers for YIM. Interviews were chosen as the main research method because they enable to capture people’s understandings of their worlds by giving them the opportunity to voice their views and opinions about reality. In contrast to more structured or quantitative methods, such as surveys, interviews leave room for people’s own interpretations instead of prescribing a range of possible answers. This was especially important because of the little existing knowledge on this group of young migrants. It would have been very difficult, maybe even unfeasible; to develop a survey that appropriately captures young independent migrants’ activities and aspirations. Furthermore, for surveys to be statistically relevant, large numbers of respondents are necessary; practical and security reasons would have deterred me to include an adequate number of respondents for this method. As I researched children and young people’s activities and aspirations, I considered it necessary to include their voices in my research. The importance of doing so has

(26)

26

widely been emphasized in childhood and youth research (Howard, 2013, Morrow, 2004). Participant observation was employed marginally; practical and security issues deterred me from using this method for more participants.

The interviews mostly consisted of open-ended questions that, according to Howard (2012:212), allow “participants to exercise their agency in shaping the encounter, which can in turn provide more (and more

contextual) data than which can often be obtained through the closed survey questioning of traditional social science research”. During my research, I experienced this to be true. Much of the information that I obtained

during the interviews would have been impossible to gather if I had adhered to a strict set of questions, asked in a particular sequence. They were a useful tool that enabled me to grasp young independent migrants’ perceptions on complex issues such as needs and agency and left enough room for respondent’s points of focus. A check-list of the questions that I took to all interviews with YIM’s is reproduced in the appendix.

Next to interviews with young independent migrants I also conducted interviews with staff of service providers that cater for YIM. These interviews served three main functions: providing general contextual information about the system of service provision in Cape Town, extracting service providers’ views on children’s needs, vulnerability and agency and triangulating some of the information I obtained during interviews with YIM. As Morrow (2004) discusses, there are several limitations to research methods that engage with children or young people. Due to age, status and cultural background, disparities between my respondents and myself might induce hesitance to tell their experiences and views and might produce ‘socially desirable’ answers. Comparing and triangulating these data with that obtained in the semi-structured interviews with service providers enabled me to generate a picture that captures the full range of views of the different respondents.

During the first two months in Cape Town I interned at a service providing organization, Adonis Musati Project (AMP), which caters for refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. During my time at AMP I did many observations of the functioning of the organization and the interaction between staff and clients. As AMP also provides services to YIM, the Independent Living programme, I was able to get to know YIM and obtain first hand experience of the field. The four YIM who AMP was supporting came to the office regularly to collect financial support and I engaged in informal chats with them. Especially one of them came to the office very often, as he also did some volunteer work for the organization. This meant that I was able to engage in participant observation and obtain a rich picture of his daily life and the way he interacts with AMP. I also made observations during meetings, conferences and trainings that were part of my internship and where I met other service providing organizations that focus on migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

3.4 RESPONDENTS

As explained above, two groups of respondents were included in my research; these are young independent migrants and staff of service providers that cater for YIM. Below I will explain how and why I chose the respondents that are included in my sample (3.4.1) and thereupon elaborate on some key characteristics of the two types of respondents (3.4.2).

Heading south alone : how young independent migrants in Cape Town exert their agency