Zaheera Jinnah
Visit the field notes page for more from this author
Zaheera Jinnah has a PhD in anthropology and a background in development studies and social work. Her research interests are in labour migration, gender and diaspora studies. She is a research associate at the ACMS where she teaches, supervises graduate students, and engages in policy and academic research. Her recent publication is the co-edited book (Palgrave) ‘Gender and Mobility in Africa: Borders, Bodies and Boundaries'.
Posts by Author
Negotiated Precarity in the Global South: A Case Study of Migration and Domestic Work in South Africa
In this journal article maHp/ACMS associate Zaheera Jinnah explores precarity as a conceptual framework to understand the intersection of migration and low-waged work in the global south.
Read more
OP-ED: South Africa is burning: femicide, xenophobia and protests
Over the past few days South Africa’s major cities have burst into flames. This is not new. Co-ordinated and sporadic acts of violence linked to service delivery protests, xenophobic sentiments and public outrage are part of the DNA of post-apartheid South African politics.
Read more
Miners’ health dominates Swazi migration dialogue
maHp/ ACMS researcher Zaheera Jinnah reports on the National Dialogue on Migration, which was recently held in Swaziland.
Read more
Routes, locations, and social imaginary: a comparative study of the on-going production of geographies in Somali forced migration
Drawing on the thresholds approach, a model that incorporates geography and mobility studies to understand migration from the perspective of migrants, this article examines the importance of location and route(s) in determining the journeys of Somali migrants.
Read more
Work and wellbeing on the urban periphery
The latest maHp research collaboration with Security at the Margins (SeaM) sought to understand the labour and health/wellbeing conditions that informal artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) communities on the periphery of Johannesburg reside in (download the full report here).
Read more
The bodies behind the ban
As we marked the first 100 days of a Trump presidency riddled by fear, fake news and chaos, it is worth reflecting on the bodies affected by some of the more harsh policies and rhetoric that have been unleashed by the new American president.
Read more
A Vibrant Civil Society, a Free Press, and an Independent Judiciary – last remaining bastions of democratic South Africa
The obligation to uphold the constitution and advance the realisation of rights for people living in South Africa has fallen on a combination of three pillars: the press, the courts and NGOs.
Read more “Billions against migration” learn from South Africa
Listen to a podcast of ACMS /maHp researcher Zaheera Jinnah being interviewed by ARD.de on the lessons Germany and the European Union (EU) as a whole could learn from South Africa’s experience with migrants and refugees.
Read more
Xenophobic Violence Reveals a Crisis in Policing and Leadership
The ongoing unrest and violence in South Africa’s urban areas and townships emphasises, once again, the breakdown in the rule of law. As has often been the case in post-apartheid South Africa, protests and community anger have been mobilised against the outsider, the black foreigner who is the target of wrath and fury. But this round of violence goes deeper, revealing fractures and issues of credibility in elected political leadership.
Read more
Trump’s Muslim ban unfair and ineffective
President Trump’s order effectively shuts the door not just on migrants and refugees but on the very principles of justice, writes ACMS / maHp researcher Zaheera Jinnah.
Read more
In the Shadow of a State: Self-Settlement Strategies and Informal Governance Amongst Somalis in Johannesburg
This article explores the role of informal governance and institutions in the self-settlement strategies of Somalis in South Africa.
Read more
Shifting Families
This project examines the intersection of migration and family using multi-sited case studies in Johannesburg (South Africa), Fes (Morocco), and Berlin (Germany). The main aim of this project is to interrogate the notions and dynamics of African migrant families in the context of contemporary and multi-directional migration flows in three urban spaces.
Read more
Zama Zamas: Women of Stone
“Grinding stones is like grinding peanut butter,” one of the women working on an illegal “crushing” site near Johannesburg explained recently, “but on stones you use your whole power.”
Read more
Cultural Causations and Expressions of Distress: a Caste Study of Buufis Amongst Somalis in Johannesburg
Buufis is a well-known concept among Somalis at home and in the diaspora, although its meaning shifts across time and space. Literally meaning ‘to blow, or inflate’ in Somali, buufis initially referred to the dream of resettlement among Somalis in refugee camps in Kenya in the early 1990s…
Read more
Artisanal Small-Scale Mining & Well-Being
In this project we examine one form of informal work, small scale and artisanal mining and explore its connection to the urban economi(es), both formal and informal.
Read more
Between a rock and a hard place: Informal artisanal gold mining in Johannesburg
On the western periphery of Johannesburg, with the famous skyline of the city silhouetted in the early morning sun, Bongani is beginning another day of work.
Read more