A Mixed Reception: Mozambican and Congolese Refugees in South Africa

This executive summary of a monograph by Jonny Steinberg reviews literature on two distinct waves of forced migration to South Africa: Mozambicans fleeing civil war in the 1980s and people from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) arriving from the early 1990s onwards.

• Between 250,000 and 350,000 Mozambicans fled to South Africa during their country's civil war in the 1980s. They occupied an ambivalent legal position: while the Shangaan-speaking homeland administration of Gazankulu provided them with land and assistance, the apartheid government did not grant them refugee status, making their presence de jure illegal until the mid-1990s. This forced many into the lowest ranks of the illegal labour market, including domestic work and farming in the northeastern lowveld and industry in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging region.
• Although most Mozambican refugees achieved permanent residence status by mid-2000 and gained access to state social grants by the end of 2004, a gap persists between their legal status and social reality. State officials often refuse to recognize their identity documents, local governments fail to provide infrastructure to their villages, and they remain in the same labour market positions they held when undocumented.
• Forced migration from the DRC to South Africa, beginning in the early 1990s, consists primarily of young, urban, middle-class males, with nearly 50% possessing tertiary education and fewer than 5% being unemployed in the DRC. However, upon arriving in South Africa, their economic status is reversed: unemployment rises to 29%, 50% work in unskilled roles such as car guarding and street vending, and only 4% are in skilled work. Their mean monthly income is R618, with a median of R500.
• Congolese refugees in South Africa experience frail social integration, often relying on tight-knit, defensive ethnic networks and associations to survive and preserve their cultural identity. These refugees are generally not well-represented among successful cross-border traders and instead predominate in marginal informal economy roles, specifically as street-side haircutters and car guards.

APA

Steinberg, J. (2005). A Mixed Reception: Mozambican and Congolese Refugees in South Africa. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.org/01-jun-2005-monograph-no-117-a-mixed-reception-mozambican-and-congolese-refugees-in-south-africa-jonny-steinberg/executive-summary

Chicago

Steinberg, Jonny. A Mixed Reception: Mozambican and Congolese Refugees in South Africa. Institute for Security Studies, 2005. https://issafrica.org/01-jun-2005-monograph-no-117-a-mixed-reception-mozambican-and-congolese-refugees-in-south-africa-jonny-steinberg/executive-summary.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Steinberg |first1=Jonny |title=A Mixed Reception: Mozambican and Congolese Refugees in South Africa |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=1 June 2005 |url=https://issafrica.org/01-jun-2005-monograph-no-117-a-mixed-reception-mozambican-and-congolese-refugees-in-south-africa-jonny-steinberg/executive-summary |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{steinberg2005mixed, author = {Steinberg, Jonny}, title = {{A Mixed Reception: Mozambican and Congolese Refugees in South Africa}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2005}, month = jun, url = {https://issafrica.org/01-jun-2005-monograph-no-117-a-mixed-reception-mozambican-and-congolese-refugees-in-south-africa-jonny-steinberg/executive-summary}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }