"They steal our jobs and they steal our women" - An exploration of women's negotiation of xenophobia and violence in South Africa

In 2008 and again in 2015, mass violence directed at foreign nationals broke out across South Africa, with collectively 70 people reported dead, hundreds injured, dozens raped and hundreds of thousands displaced (Hiropoulos, 2015; Misago et al, 2015). Since then, violence termed 'xenophobic' has claimed additional lives in the country every year (Misago et al, 2015). In the UK, following the economic crisis of 2008, and during the divisive campaigns over the EU referendum in 2016, public discourses and behaviours towards foreign nationals has turned increasingly hostile. The number of 'hate crimes' recorded by the police rose by 29% between 2015 and 2016, while offences described as 'racially aggravated' by the Home Office and linked to reports of xenophobia increased by 41% (O'Neill, 2017; Rzepnikowska, 2018).

Political and mainstream media narratives and academic literature often focus on the violence associated with xenophobia, placing men in the foreground of these debates, whilst women's perspectives, roles and experiences are neglected (see Morrice 2016; Sigsworth et al, 2008 for exceptions). In media reports and in academia, women are mostly positioned as silent victims or vulnerable bystanders, mothers or relatives or passive targets of spectacular xenophobic violence (Maluleke, 2015; Akinola, 2017). In environments known for high and under-reported levels of gender-based and domestic violence , this positioning only serves to silence women and render them as victims.

As women constitute approximately 48% of migrants in South Africa, 52% in the UK, and more than 50% of the populations in both countries (Hiralal, 2017; Rienzo & Vargas-Silva, 2017), the lack of attention to a diversity of women's experiences restricts an accurate understanding of xenophobia.
Contextualised by 'thick' ethnographic description (Mills et al, 2010) and grounded in South African and British historical and feminist literature, my PhD research examines how xenophobia manifests in the quotidian lives and spaces of different women living in two multicultural cities; Johannesburg in South Africa and London in Britain.

The study interrogates the relationship between gender and xenophobia, exploring how women in two socio-economically diverse spaces within these cities navigate discrimination based on nationality, broadening the scope beyond violence to understand the impacts on women's daily lives, communities and livelihoods. This study uses the conceptual framework of intersectionality to examine how interconnecting identities and social locations can multiply to discriminate against women (Bouilly et al, 2016; Gouws, 2017: 20). By examining how these experiences shape women's relationships - with other women, with men, and with social structures and institutions, the study will produce a nuanced socio-anthropological understanding of modern xenophobia for a broad audience.

Using a mixed methodology of in-depth interviews, participant observations and arts-based methods, the aim is to create a safe space for participant women to process their experiences of quotidian xenophobia, providing meaning about complex social realities and 'everyday', embodied and emotional experiences (Bagnoli, 2009; Fraser and al-Sayah, 2011 in Stavropolou, 2018). Informed by conflict resolution literature, and my training in mediation (Thomas, 2016; Behfar et al, 2008; O'Brien, 2005) the aim is to address conflict in an emotionally literate and sensitive way (Orbach, 2016). Through supportively sharing and unpacking their experiences together, participants develop new interpretations or enhance feelings of empathy with each other, as well as provide insights into contemporary xenophobia. In two environments marked by fraught, national debates about migration and rights, this research will go beyond homogenous narratives, recognising the complexity and diversity of the migrant and black, female experience.