Immigration and the state of exception: Security and sovereignty in East and Southern Africa

Millennium: Journal of International Studies

Volumn 34, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 325-348

  Landau, Loren B ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33645279795     PISSN: 03058298     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/03058298060340021201     Document Type: Article

References (84)

1. See Saskia Sassen, ed., Global Networks, Linked Cities (London: Routledge, 2002);
2. John Agnew, 'Mapping Political Power Beyond State Boundaries: Territory, Identity, and Movement in World Politics', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 28, no. 3 (1999): 499-522.
3. See Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (2nd ed.) (New York: Meridian Books 1958), 279.
4. See Robert Keohane, 'Political Authority after Intervention: Gradations in Sovereignty', in Humanitarian Intervention: Ethical, Legal, and Political Dilemmas, eds. J. L. Holzgrefe and Robert O. Keohane (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 275-98;
5. Brenda Chalfin, 'Working the Border in Ghana: Technologies of Sovereignty and its Others', Occasional Paper Number 16 (Princeton: Institute for Advanced Study, November 2003).
6. Giorgio Agamben, State of Exception (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 1.
7. Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Power and Bare Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998) 15.
8. See Paul Kaiser, 'Structural Adjustment and the Fragile Nation: The Demise of Social Unity in Tanzania', The Journal of Modern African Studies 34 (1996): 227-37;
9. Aili Mari Tripp and Crawford Young, 'The Accommodation of Cultural Diversity in Tanzania', in Ethnopolitical Warfare: Causes, Consequences, and Possible Solutions, eds. Daniel Chirot and Martin E. P. Seligman (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2001), 259-74.
10. See Loren Landau, 'Beyond the Losers: Transforming Governmental Practice in Refugee-Affected Tanzania', Journal of Refugee Studies 16, no. 1 (2003): 19-43.
11. For comparative reference, see Clifford Geertz, Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth Century Bali (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980).
12. Max Weber, 'Politics as a Vocation', in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, eds. H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946), 77-128.
13. See Tim Mitchell, 'The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and their Critics', American Political Science Review 85, no. 1 (1991): 77-96.
14. Giorgio Agamben, State of Exception, 2.
15. Ibid., 7.
16. See Marc-Antoine Perouse de Montclos and Peter Mwangi Kagwanja, 'Refugee Camps or Cities? The Socio-Economic Dynamics of the Dadaab and Kakuma Camps in Northern Kenya', Journal of Refugee Studies 13, no. 2 (2000): 205-22.
17. See Human Rights Watch, Fleeting Refuge: The Triumph of Efficiency over Protection in Dutch Asylum Policy (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2003).
18. Tony Waters, 'Assessing the Impact of the Rwandan Refugee Crisis on Development Planning in Rural Tanzania, 1994-1996', Human Organization 58 (1999): 142-52;
19. Jennifer Hyndman, Managing Displacement: Refugees and the Politics of Humanitarianism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000).
20. Thomas G. Weiss and Jarat Chopra, 'Sovereignty under Siege: From Intervention to Humanitarian Space', in Beyond Westphalia?, eds. Gene Lyons and Michael Mastanduno (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 100.
21. Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism, 284.
22. Daniel Zwerdling 'U.S. Detainee Abuse Cases Fall through the Cracks' (Washington DC: National Public Radio, 2004), [http://www.npr.org/ templates/story/story.php?storyId=4173701] (17 November 2004);
23. Kenneth Roth and Julia Hall, 'Closed-door Immigration Policy is Shameful Vision', European Voice [http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/09/16/ eu9351_txt.htm] (16 September 2004).
24. Agamben, State of Exception, 2.
25. See also, Giorgio Agamben, 'We Refugees', trans. Michael Rocke, (European Graduate School, 1997), [http://www.egs.edu/faculty/agamben/ agamben-we-refugees.html] (12 October 2005).
26. Deutsche Welle, 'Human Rights Group Slams EU Asylum Plans' (Bonn: Deutsche Welle, 2004), [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/ 0,1564,1342901,00.html] (30 September 2004).
27. Agamben, State of Exception, 2.
28. See Patrick Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz, Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument (Oxford: International African Institute in Association with James Currey, 1999);
29. Jean-François Bayart, Stephen Ellis and Béatrice Hibou, 'From Kleptocracy to the Felonious State', in The Criminalization of the State in Africa, eds. J.-F. Bayart, S. Ellis and B. Hibou (Oxford: James Currey, 1999), 1-3.
30. See Bonaventure Rutinwa, 'The Tanzanian Government's Response to the Rwandan Emergency', Journal of Refugee Studies 9, no. 3 (1996): 291-302.
31. See Jonathan Crush and Vincent Williams, 'Making up the Numbers: Measuring "Illegal Immigration" to South Africa', Migration Policy Brief No. 3 (Cape Town: Southern Africa Migration Project, 2001). The numbers are likely to continue climbing due to ongoing crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
32. Ted Leggett, 'Rainbow Tenement: Crime and Policing in Inner Johannesburg', Monograph No. 78 (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2003).
33. Figures provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
34. See Waters, 'Assessing the Impact';
35. Beth Elise Whitaker, 'Refugees in Western Tanzania: The Distribution of Burdens and Benefits among Local Hosts', Journal of Refugee Studies 15, no. 4 (2002): 339-58.
36. The World Food Programme's food distribution programme alone (covering four Western Tanzanian districts) was a million-dollar-a-week operation. This says nothing of the resources brought in or exchanged by other aspects of the relief operation or by refugees and aid workers.
37. For additional details on the 1966 survey, see David Koff and George Von Der Muhll, 'Political Socialization in Kenya and Tanzania: A Comparative Analysis', The Journal of Modern African Studies 5 (1967): 13-51.
38. For more on the 1999-2000 research, see Loren Landau, 'Beyond the Losers'.
39. The survey was conducted in Berea, Bertrams, Bezuidenhout Valley, Fordsburg, Mayfair, Rosettenville, and Yeoville. Of the total sample, 14 per cent were from the Democratic Republic of Congo; 12 per cent from Angola; 9 per cent from Ethiopia; 8 per cent from Somalia; 2 per cent from the Republic of Congo; and 1 per cent from Burundi. The remainder (53 per cent) self-identified as South African. For additional details on the survey and the methods employed, see Karen Jacobsen and Loren Landau, 'The Dual Imperative in Refugee Research: Some Methodological and Ethical Considerations in Social Science Research on Forced Migration', Disasters 27, no. 3 (2003): 95-116.
40. Figures furnished by the Kigoma Regional Police Command. Calculations are based on adjusted 1988 census figures, the most recent available at the time.
41. Ingrid Palmary, Janine Rauch and Graeme Simpson, 'Violent Crime in Johannesburg', in Emerging Johannesburg: Perspectives on the Post-apartheid City, eds. R. Tomlinson, R. A. Beauregard, L. Bremner and X. Mangcu (London: Routledge, 2003), 101-23.
42. Leggett, 'Rainbow Tenement', 17.
43. Interview No. 3 in Kasulu (14 March 2000).
44. Interview No. 1 in Kanazi village, Kasulu District (17 December 1999).
45. Interview No. 1 in Mugombe village (6 March 2000).
46. Rashioi Mgonyani, Interview with the Assistant Superintendent of Police 'Crimes Officer,' Kasulu District. (Kasulu, Tanzania, 13 October 2000).
47. See also Leggett, 'Rainbow Tenement', 52;
48. see also Jonathan Crush and Vincent. Williams, 'Criminal Tendencies: Immigrants and Illegality in South Africa', Migration Policy Brief No. 10 (Cape Town: Southern Africa Migration Project, 2003).
49. Human Rights Watch, 'Prohibited Persons' Abuse of Undocumented Migrants, Asylum-Seekers, and Refugees in South Africa (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1998), 124.
50. Statement made at the South African Cities Network's Strategic Planning meeting of mayors and officials, Johannesburg, 1-3 February 2004.
51. Jo Beal, Owen Crankshaw and Susan Parnell, Uniting a Divided City: Governance and Social Exclusion in Johannesburg (London: Earthscan, 2002), 124.
52. Usia Nkhoma, Interview with Election Monitor, Tanzania Electoral Monitoring Commission. (Kasulu, Tanzania, 6 October 2000).
53. Interview No. 3 in Kanazi village (10 March 2000).
54. Cited in Tebogo Segale, 'Forced Migrants and Social Exclusion in Johannesburg', in Forced Migrants in the New Johannesburg: Towards a Local Government Response, ed. Loren Landau (Johannesburg: Forced Migration Studies Programme, 2004), 50.
55. Such sentiments are not limited to Johannesburg. in 2002, a township outside Cape Town passed a resolution expelling all foreigners and prohibited them from returning. See Victor Southwell, 'Protecting Human Rights: Recent Cases - Du Noon Expulsion of Foreign Nationals,' Online report from South African Human Rights Commission. Report dated 2002; [http://www.sahrc.org.za/protecting_humang̊hts_vol3no1.htm] (accessed 1 October 2004).
56. In Crush and Williams, 'Criminal Tendencies', 3.
57. Interview No. 1 in Kasulu (14 March 2000).
58. Marjon Kamara, 'Security Arrangements in the Refugee Areas', Unpublished letter written to B. Mchomvu, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs (Dar es Salaam, 2002), 2.
59. Effort to create these spaces started taking shape in January 1998 when the UNHCR and the Tanzanian government began implementing a joint security initiative with an annual budget of approximately two million US dollars for police mobilisation allowances, transport and fuel, and construction of a new police post at Makere village (Kasulu district) and a special processing facility north of the district (Mwisa). The Tanzanian government was to contribute almost 100 extra police officers for Kasulu, drawn from other parts of the country and stationed just outside the refugee camps. For a district with a pre-influx delegation of only 20 police (almost all stationed in the district capital), this was an impressive response.
60. Interview with Jeff Crisp, Director, Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, UNHCR (Geneva, 11 April 2000).
61. Jean-François Durieux, 'Preserving the Civilian Character of Refugee Camps: Lessons from the Kigoma Refugee Programme in Tanzania' (Kigoma: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1999).
62. Government of Tanzania/UNHCR, 'Joint Tanzanian Government/UNHCR Assessment of the Security Situation in and Around Refugee Camps in Kagera and Kigoma Regions' (Dar es Salaam: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1997).
63. Statement made during an interview with Col. Kilonzo and Brigadier General Mndolwa, Assistant Military Spokesmen, Ministry of Defence, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (25 October 2000).
64. See Ray Abrahams, 'Sungusungu: Village Vigilante Groups in Tanzania', African Affairs 86 (1987): 179-96.
65. The South African Human Rights Commission (1997) argues that under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which South Africa is a signatory, even undocumented migrants have rights against arbitrary arrest or detention (s5); the right to be treated with humanity and with respect (s9); the right to equality before the courts and tribunals (s10); the right to be recognised everywhere as a person before the law (s14); and the right against arbitrary deportation (s16).
66. Quoted in Palmary et al., 'Violent Crime in Johannesburg', 113.
67. Private Communication (7 May 2004).
68. See the Immigration Act 2002, s3 (Powers of Department). This provision bears remarkable similarities in spirit, if not in substance, to the USA Patriot Act of 26 October 2001 that authorises the Attorney-General to detain aliens suspected of endangering national security and a military order issued by President Bush (13 November 2001) abrogating the seven-day limit on holding aliens without charge or expulsion. South African laws are now being challenged, although change will come slowly.
69. This statement was made during a poverty alleviation workshop organised by the Joburg Development Agency (JDA): 'Poverty and Exclusion in the Inner City', (Johannesburg, 14 May 2003).
70. Non-nationals report that each of Johannesburg's police stations has its own price and can draw out a rate schedule for what one must pay to be released from them.
71. Under South African law, a person can be legally detained within the facility for a maximum of 30 days without an additional court order. In mid 2004, detainees were kept in Lindela for 39 days on average, with many being held for months without an additional court order. See South African Press Association, 'Lindela Doesn't Comply With Immigration Laws'; [http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/general/ 0,2172,91155,00.tml] (2 November 2004).
72. Human Rights Watch, Prohibited Persons, 59.
73. Department of Home Affairs, Annual Report 2004 (Pretoria, Department of Home Affairs, 2004).
74. Also Nicol Degli Innocenti, 'A Magnet for the Rest of the Continent', Financial Times (13 April 2004), A5.
75. Jonathan Crush. 'The Dark Side of Democracy: Migration, Xenophobia and Human Rights in South Africa', International Migration 38 (2000): 103-31, quotation 110.
76. Palmary et al, 'Violent Crime in Johannesburg, 112.
77. See Goran Hyden, Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania: Underdevelopment and an Uncaptured Peasantry (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980);
78. Tripp and Young, 'The Accommodation of Cultural Diversity'.
79. Achille Mbembe, On the Post Colony (Berkeley: University of California Press), 58.
80. Florence Panoussian, 'Marriage SA Style: No Ring, No Veil, No Groom', Sunday TImes Online, (2004); [http://www.suntimes.co.za/zones/ sundaytimesnew/newesst1091180762.aspx] (30 July 2004).
81. See also the Dapartment of Home Affairs website [http://www.dha.gov.za/ status/marital§atus.asp] (30 July 2004) where citizens can check to see if they have been married without their knowledge.
82. Interview with Danie Louw, Director, Hillbrow Police Station (Johannesburg, 18 July 2003).
83. See Gavin Cawthra, Policing South Africa: The SAP and the Transition from Apartheid (Cape Town: David Phillips, 1993).
84. Steffen Jensen, 'The Battlefield and the Prize: ANC's Bid to Reform the South African State', in eds. T.B. Hansen and F. Steputtat (Durham: Duke University Press 2001), 97-122, citation 110.