Dramaturgies of Displacement in the Magnet Theatre Migration Project

Abstract

The end of apartheid and the advent of democracy have resulted in the forceful reintegration of South Africa into the global economy. One result of this has been the development of a new migratory sub-system centred on South Africa. Rather than attracting international migration from Europe and Asia to South Africa, as had been the case prior to 1994 and the dawn of democracy, this new system attracts migrants from surrounding states in sub-Saharan Africa. These migrants are attracted by the promise of economic prosperity, a supposed cosmopolitanism arising from the idea of the ‘rainbow nation’ with its championing of diversity, and an apparent commitment to the rule of law enshrined in the country’s much vaunted post-apartheid constitution.