Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Crash landing in Cape Town : testing the port-of-entry conceptualisation and examining Cape Town's spatial policy for cognisance of migrant's diverse spatial and livelihood strategies

Since the fall of Apartheid, and the subsequent dawn of democracy, South Africa has increasingly become a destination space for asylum seekers and refugees from throughout Africa. It is apparent that many of these asylum seekers and refugees (collectively defined as migrants within this dissertation...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: East, Christopher Mark
Other Authors: Winkler, Tanja
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics 2014
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613236575076353
access_status_str Open Access
author East, Christopher Mark
author2 Winkler, Tanja
author_browse East, Christopher Mark
Winkler, Tanja
author_facet Winkler, Tanja
East, Christopher Mark
author_sort East, Christopher Mark
collection Thesis
description Since the fall of Apartheid, and the subsequent dawn of democracy, South Africa has increasingly become a destination space for asylum seekers and refugees from throughout Africa. It is apparent that many of these asylum seekers and refugees (collectively defined as migrants within this dissertation) although granted comprehensive rights by the South African Constitution, are unable to access or 'realise' these rights. Migrants throughout the country have been encouraged to integrate into South African society and become active agents of their own integration. This has resulted in the Department of Home Affairs granting all individuals in possession of an asylum seeker permit the right to work, negating the need for work permits within migrant communities. This has resulted in most migrant communities living within the urban fabrics of South Africa's cities. As Cape Town has become a primary destination space for migrants, its spatial policy requires cognisance of their diverse spatial and livelihood strategies in order to augment, rather than undermine, their mechanisms of integration. Port-of-entry neighbourhoods, as documented in cities such as New York and Johannesburg, are neighbourhoods in which such mechanisms manifest, deeming them strategic areas for newcomers to the city. The aims of this dissertation are firstly to construct a fine-grained case study of migrants' spatial and livelihood patterns within Cape Town, and in so doing test the port-of-entry conceptualisation within the Cape Town context. Increasingly apparent in Cape Town's case study is the emerging spatial pattern of migrant rich neighbourhoods. This pattern is emerging in a bilinear fashion in the old, often degrading, middle class neighbourhoods that straddle the northern and southern rail lines. Secondly, this dissertation aims to test and analyse Cape Town's spatial policy for its cognisance towards these spatial and livelihood strategies. Evident within Cape Town's spatial policy is the pursuit of spatial justice and rectification of the city's spatial marginalisation, yet there is no cognisance of the diverse migrant strategies within the city. Lastly, this paper suggests an alternative planning approach for Cape Town's migrant rich neighbourhoods, particularly Maitland, Parow and Bellville, which strongly exhibit the characteristics normally found in port-of-entry neighbourhoods. A number of non-spatial migrant policy suggestions are also promulgated in order to rectify the on-going marginalisation of migrants within South African society.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/7512
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:56.154Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics
publisherStr School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/7512 Crash landing in Cape Town : testing the port-of-entry conceptualisation and examining Cape Town's spatial policy for cognisance of migrant's diverse spatial and livelihood strategies East, Christopher Mark Winkler, Tanja Since the fall of Apartheid, and the subsequent dawn of democracy, South Africa has increasingly become a destination space for asylum seekers and refugees from throughout Africa. It is apparent that many of these asylum seekers and refugees (collectively defined as migrants within this dissertation) although granted comprehensive rights by the South African Constitution, are unable to access or 'realise' these rights. Migrants throughout the country have been encouraged to integrate into South African society and become active agents of their own integration. This has resulted in the Department of Home Affairs granting all individuals in possession of an asylum seeker permit the right to work, negating the need for work permits within migrant communities. This has resulted in most migrant communities living within the urban fabrics of South Africa's cities. As Cape Town has become a primary destination space for migrants, its spatial policy requires cognisance of their diverse spatial and livelihood strategies in order to augment, rather than undermine, their mechanisms of integration. Port-of-entry neighbourhoods, as documented in cities such as New York and Johannesburg, are neighbourhoods in which such mechanisms manifest, deeming them strategic areas for newcomers to the city. The aims of this dissertation are firstly to construct a fine-grained case study of migrants' spatial and livelihood patterns within Cape Town, and in so doing test the port-of-entry conceptualisation within the Cape Town context. Increasingly apparent in Cape Town's case study is the emerging spatial pattern of migrant rich neighbourhoods. This pattern is emerging in a bilinear fashion in the old, often degrading, middle class neighbourhoods that straddle the northern and southern rail lines. Secondly, this dissertation aims to test and analyse Cape Town's spatial policy for its cognisance towards these spatial and livelihood strategies. Evident within Cape Town's spatial policy is the pursuit of spatial justice and rectification of the city's spatial marginalisation, yet there is no cognisance of the diverse migrant strategies within the city. Lastly, this paper suggests an alternative planning approach for Cape Town's migrant rich neighbourhoods, particularly Maitland, Parow and Bellville, which strongly exhibit the characteristics normally found in port-of-entry neighbourhoods. A number of non-spatial migrant policy suggestions are also promulgated in order to rectify the on-going marginalisation of migrants within South African society. 2014-09-17T12:15:43Z 2014-09-17T12:15:43Z 2013 Master Thesis Masters MCRP http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7512 eng application/pdf School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle East, Christopher Mark
Crash landing in Cape Town : testing the port-of-entry conceptualisation and examining Cape Town's spatial policy for cognisance of migrant's diverse spatial and livelihood strategies
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Crash landing in Cape Town : testing the port-of-entry conceptualisation and examining Cape Town's spatial policy for cognisance of migrant's diverse spatial and livelihood strategies
title_full Crash landing in Cape Town : testing the port-of-entry conceptualisation and examining Cape Town's spatial policy for cognisance of migrant's diverse spatial and livelihood strategies
title_fullStr Crash landing in Cape Town : testing the port-of-entry conceptualisation and examining Cape Town's spatial policy for cognisance of migrant's diverse spatial and livelihood strategies
title_full_unstemmed Crash landing in Cape Town : testing the port-of-entry conceptualisation and examining Cape Town's spatial policy for cognisance of migrant's diverse spatial and livelihood strategies
title_short Crash landing in Cape Town : testing the port-of-entry conceptualisation and examining Cape Town's spatial policy for cognisance of migrant's diverse spatial and livelihood strategies
title_sort crash landing in cape town testing the port of entry conceptualisation and examining cape town s spatial policy for cognisance of migrant s diverse spatial and livelihood strategies
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7512
work_keys_str_mv AT eastchristophermark crashlandingincapetowntestingtheportofentryconceptualisationandexaminingcapetownsspatialpolicyforcognisanceofmigrantsdiversespatialandlivelihoodstrategies