Everyday survival during the Covid-19 pandemic: The livelihood challenges and coping strategies of African migrants working in the informal sector in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

On March 15, President Ramaphosa invoked the Disaster Management Act and announced a national state of disaster in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement was followed by a suite of COVID-19 containment measures featuring national lockdown, shutdowns on business and restrictions on mobility among others. The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted unparalleled precarity on minority communities especially on black African migrants in the informal sector, compromising their wellbeing and livelihoods. The South African government implemented social protection schemes designed for its citizens, however, these excluded foreigners exacerbating their vulnerability. Against this context, I argue in this dissertation that while the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the lives and livelihoods of African migrants and exacerbated their precariousness and existential crisis, it also simultaneously activated and reactivated new and old modes of being which enabled these migrants to survive and negotiate the existential threats of the pandemic. To gather data, the study engaged twenty participants from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Nigeria, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and further drew on the expertise of three key informants working with African migrant communities. Primary data collection was conducted through in-depth, face-to-face interviews, supplemented by online interactions via WhatsApp, Microsoft teams and documentary analysis. The study shows that in times of crisis modes of belonging mediate self-organization and self-help initiatives which cement both individual and collective agency that allow migrants to negotiate the crisis. Therefore, my study both compliment and challenge dominant narratives about migrants and how they experience and respond to economic and public health crisis.