Introduction: Citizenship, Belonging and Intergenerational Relations in African Migration

Abstract

While migration is by no means a new phenomenon, globalisation has led to an intensification of the movement of people around the world. Migration in this new era (Urry, 2000; Vertovec, 2009) is profoundly shaped by the globalised economic, socio-political and cultural relations which impact on the everyday lives of migrants and their receiving communities. Subsequently, the emerging focus on the integration of migrants into cohesive communities is an issue that is of great concern to governments, practitioners and researchers alike. This preoccupation has arguably intensified in recent years because of enhanced ‘migration securitisation’ in a post 9–11 world (and, specifically in the South African case, the May 2008 xenophobic violence). We are witnessing a conceptual interrogation of the very meaning of integration in different realms (social, political, economic), together with attempts to discern what facilitates the process of integration and the emergence of cohesive communities in the diverse contexts in which migrants often settle. It is within this context that this book examines the settlement experiences of African migrants who share similar cultural roots, but are now living in different socio-political contexts in Britain, France and South Africa.