Jo Vearey
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Jo Vearey is an Associate Professor and the Director of the African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand. She holds an Honorary Fellowship with the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, and a Senior Fellowship at the Centre for Peace, Development and Democracy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. In 2015, Jo was awarded a Humanities and Social Science Wellcome Trust Investigator Award. Jo holds a MSc in the Control of Infectious Diseases (LSHTM, 2003), a PhD in Public Health (Wits, 2010), and has been rated by the National Research Foundation as a Young Researcher. In 2014 and 2015, Jo received a Friedel Sellschop Award from the University of the Witwatersrand for outstanding young researchers. She was a Marie Curie Research Fellow in 2013, at the UNESCO Chair on Social and Spatial Inclusion of Migrants, University of Venice (SSIM-IUAV), Venice, Italy.
With a commitment to social justice and the development of pro-poor policy responses, Jo’s research explores international, regional, national and local responses to migration, health, and urban vulnerabilities. Her research interests focus on urban health, public health, migration and health, the social determinants of health, HIV, informal settlements and sex work. Jo is particularly interested in knowledge production, dissemination and utilisation including the use of visual and arts-based methodologies.
Jo has a range of international collaborations, including an ESRC-NRF funded project with the University of Edinburgh, a WOTRO funded project with the VU University, Amsterdam on migration and sex work, and partnerships with the University of Massachusetts Boston and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine‘s Faculty of Public Health and Policy and Gender, Violence and Health Unit.
Posts by Author
VIDEO: Building capacity for research on migration and health
maHp/ACMS director, Professor Jo Vearey recently presented at the 6th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research panel session on ‘Building capacity for research on migration and health: A call to action’. Watch her presentation here.
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Refugees and migrants are vulnerable to ‘vaccine nationalism’ as host nations put their own citizens first
African Center for Migration and Society (ACMS) director, Professor Jo Vearey was recently quoted in this Thomson Reuters Foundation New’s article expressing her concern over possible “formal or de facto discrimination against undocumented migrants when it comes to vaccine access”.
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OP-ED: Vaccine nationalism and migration: Implications for the (mis)management of Covid-19 in South Africa
As countries begin to roll out Covid-19 vaccination programmes, maHp/ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey argues there is no place for ‘vaccine nationalism’; that the principle of equity in global health access must be at the fore.
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VIDEO: How the governments can deal with immigration during the Covid-19 pandemic?
maHp/ACMS Associate Professor Jo Vearey recently appeared on Newzroom Afrika urging African governments to deal with immigration during the Covid-19 pandemic collaboratively.
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PODCAST: Bietbridge humanitarian crisis
On the Beitbridge border posts hundreds of Zimbabweans have been captured waiting for days in the line to escape the thirty day hard lockdown that was recently implemented. maHp/ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey spoke to Channel Africa about this humanitarian crises.
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OP-ED: Drones, dinghies and an army helicopter – why the state’s new toys won’t help South Africa’s response to Covid-19
According to CMS/maHp director Jo Vearey, Sally Gandar, Rebecca Walker and Francois Venter, the government’s decision to focus on tracking, detaining and deporting migrants as they cross into South Africa is at the expense of the many systemic challenges faced in accessing documentation – including Covid certificates.
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Statement on Covid-19 and Migration Governance in Africa
Associate Professor Jo Vearey recently presented at the 67th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). Watch and read the full submission here.
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PODCAST: Why are migrants being excluded from SA’s response to Covid-19?
ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey chats to Radio 702’s Eusebius McKaiser.
Read more PODCAST: African Dialogue, Effects of Covid-19 on Migration
ACMS director, Associate Professor Jo Vearey discusses the effects of Covid-19 on migration, on Channel Africa.
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VIDEO: Coronavirus amid a vulnerable populace
Last night (14 April 2020) ACMS Professor Jo Vearey was interviewed by Godfred Akoto Boafo of Citi TV’s current affairs show ‘Face to Face’, about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on migrants.
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OP-ED: Why xenophobia is bad for the health of all in South Africa
South Africa mustn’t forget the public — and that includes migrants and refugees — in its public health response to COVID-19, writes ACMS director, Associate Professor Jo Vearey.
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OP-ED: Border walls don’t stop viruses. But this might
Both the United States and South Africa have punted increased border security as a way to curb the coronavirus outbreak. Here’s why South Africa should be thinking less about walls and more about amnesty as cases mount.
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OP-ED: Foreign migrants must be included in Covid-19 response
International solidarity, travel restrictions and the right to remain: why South Africa needs to actively engage all foreign migrants in its response to Covid-19.
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PODCAST: Winter is coming
ACMS director, Associate Professor Jo Vearey discusses South Africa’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic on the ‘Monday Morning Meetings on Migration’ show.
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OP-ED: Hypocrisy in the time of Covid-19
ACMS director, Associate Professor Jo Vearey explains how the sanctimony of moving from blaming foreign migrants to now rendering them invisible in a critical public health moment will have implications for our response to Covid-19.
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VIDEO: Unfiltered: Coronavirus
ACMS Associate Professor Jo Vearey was recently part of an interview panel on the SABC News Unfiltered talk show that discussed migration and Covid-19 in South Africa.
Read more PODCAST: Migration in Africa
ACMS director Associate Professor Jo Vearey discusses migration in Africa on Channel Africa’s ‘African Dialogue’ show.
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Just Research? (Un)Seeing Politics in a Complex World
The third post of ‘The Disorder of Things’ blog symposium on Sophie Harman’s ‘Seeing Politics’ is by maHp/ACMS director Jo Vearey.
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Building alliances for the global governance of migration and health
Health governance has an important role in dealing with global migration, argue maHp/ ACMS director Jo Vearey and colleagues.
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Urban health in Africa: A critical global public health priority
This paper argues that a focus on urban health in Africa is urgently required in order to support progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other global and regional public health targets, including Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the new Urban Agenda, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
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Urban Health in Johannesburg: Migration, Exclusion and Inequality
In this issue, insights into how migration and mobility are mediating health within an African urban context are brought together.
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PODCAST: Vearey responds to Motsoaledi’s comment about ‘foreign nationals’ overcrowding SA’s health system
BBC World Service asks Associate Professor Jo Vearey to respond to Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s comment about ‘foreign nationals’ overcrowding SA’s public health system.
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PODCAST: Are foreigners affecting our healthcare?
Associate Professor Jo Vearey of the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS, Wits University) discusses whether foreigners are really affecting South Africa’s public healthcare system on 702’s ‘The Best of Afternoon Drive with Joanne Joseph’. Listen to their interview below:
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Multisectoral (in)action: towards effective mainstreaming of HIV in public sector departments in South Africa
The authors of this paper reflect on progress made in mainstreaming HIV in non-health sector departments, exploring factors that have enabled and hindered the process.
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Securing Borders: The danger of blurring global migration governance and health security agendas in Southern Africa
This paper explores the potential risks associated with the blurring of global migration governance and health security agendas in Southern Africa, a region associated with high levels of population mobility, communicable, and – increasingly – non-communicable diseases.
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Migration and health: a global public health research priority
Drawing on discussions with policy makers, research scholars, civil society, and United Nations agencies that attended the 2nd Global Consultation on Migration and Health – held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in February 2017 – the authors emphasize the urgent need for quality research on international and domestic (in-country) migration and health to support efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Connecting the Dots: Cultivating a Sustainable Interdisciplinary Discourse Around Migration, Urbanisation, and Health in Southern Africa
This chapter describes the authors’ experiences in connecting a group of emerging Southern African scholars around the inherently interdisciplinary field of migration, urbanisation and health.
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Psychosocial effects of forced migration
PODCAST: maHp/ ACMS Associate Professor Jo Vearey examines the effects of forced migration on people’s health and emotional well-being.
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Towards a migration-aware health system in South Africa: a strategic opportunity to address health inequity
This article provides an overview of the associations between migration and health in South Africa, and calls for the urgent development of ‘migration-aware’ health systems.
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Giving Birth in a Foreign Land: Exploring the Maternal Healthcare Experiences of Zimbabwean Migrant Women Living in Johannesburg, South Africa
In order to inform future research, an exploratory study investigating the maternal healthcare and help-seeking experiences of migrant women living in inner-city Johannesburg was undertaken.
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Urban Health in Johannesburg: Migration, Exclusion and Inequality
Cities of the global south—including Johannesburg—are associated with unplanned and unmanaged urban growth; poor urban governance (which is predominantly reactive rather than proactive); migration and mobility; and the resultant pressure on access to adequate services, including water, sanitation, housing, and healthcare.
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HIV, mobility and migration
In this research project, the role of contemporary population mobility in mediating the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan African (SSA) is explored and recommendations for action to assist in strengthening responses to HIV – including the call for migration-aware programming – in the region will be made.
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Sex work is work
Sex work – the consensual sale of sex between adults – is an important livelihood activity for some migrants in South Africa. In this research area, we explore intersections between sex work, migration, health and well-being.
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Exploring The Migration Profiles of Primary Healthcare Users in South Africa
South Africa’s public healthcare system responses seldom engage with migration. This exploratory study investigates migration profiles and experiences of primary healthcare (PHC) users.
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Migration and sex work in South Africa: key concerns for gender and health
Richter, M. and Vearey, J. (2016) Migration and sex work in South Africa: key concerns for gender and health. In: Gideon, J. (ed) Gender and Health Handbook. Edward Elgar Publishing: UK
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Mobility, migration and generalised HIV epidemics: a focus on sub-Saharan Africa
Vearey, J. (2016) Mobility, migration and generalised HIV epidemics: a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. In: Thomas, F. (ed) Handbook of Migration and Health. Edward Elgar Publishing: UK
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Understanding healthcare and population mobility in southern Africa: The case of South Africa
Migration provides opportunities for health and economic benefits, and has the potential to positively and negatively affect health systems. This paper outlines the authors’ current research and existing responses to migration and health in southern Africa.
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Research ethics in practice: lessons from studies exploring interpersonal violence in different contexts
Studies researching interpersonal violence (IPV) are associated with a range of ethical challenges. In this article, lessons are drawn from three case studies exploring the experiences of different groups of survivors and perpetrators…
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Sex work and South Africa’s health system: Addressing the needs of the underserved
Sex work remains illegal and highly stigmatised in South Africa, resulting in sex workers – the majority of whom are internal or cross-border migrants – experiencing ongoing human rights violations and a high HIV burden.
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Son of the Soil… Daughters of the Land
South Africa’s Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Freedom Charter are globally ground-breaking for providing provisions of non-discrimination, and, of particular note, on the basis of sexual orientation.
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