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

2008年和2015年，南非爆发了针对外国人的大规模暴力事件，据报道共有70人死亡，数百人受伤，数十人被强奸，数十万人流离失所（Hiropoulos, 2015; Misago et al, 2015）。从那时起，被称为“仇外”的暴力每年都在该国夺去更多的生命（Misago et al, 2015）。在英国，继2008年经济危机之后，以及2016年围绕欧盟公投的分裂运动期间，公众对外国人的言论和行为变得越来越充满敌意。警方记录的“仇恨犯罪”数量在2015年至2016年期间上升了29%，而内政部描述的“种族加剧”犯罪和仇外心理报告增加了41% （O' neill, 2017; Rzepnikowska, 2018）。政治和主流媒体叙事以及学术文献往往关注与仇外心理相关的暴力，将男性置于这些辩论的前台，而忽略了女性的观点、角色和经历（参见Morrice 2016； Sigsworth et al ., 2008）。在媒体报道和学术界，女性大多被定位为沉默的受害者或弱势的旁观者、母亲或亲属，或大规模仇外暴力的被动目标（Maluleke, 2015; Akinola, 2017）。在性别暴力和家庭暴力的高报告和低报告水平的环境中，这种定位只会使妇女沉默，使她们成为受害者。由于女性在南非移民中约占48%，在英国占52%，在这两个国家的人口中占50%以上（Hiralal, 2017; Rienzo & Vargas-Silva, 2017），缺乏对女性经历多样性的关注限制了对仇外心理的准确理解。通过“厚”民族志描述（Mills等人，2010）的背景，并以南非和英国的历史和女权主义文学为基础，我的博士研究考察了仇外心理如何在生活在两个多元文化城市的不同女性的日常生活和空间中表现出来；南非的约翰内斯堡和英国的伦敦。该研究探讨了性别与仇外心理之间的关系，探讨了这些城市中两个社会经济多样化空间中的女性如何应对基于国籍的歧视，拓宽了暴力之外的范围，以了解对女性日常生活、社区和生计的影响。本研究使用交叉性的概念框架来研究相互关联的身份和社会位置如何增加对女性的歧视（Bouilly等，2016;Gouws, 2017: 20）。通过研究这些经历如何塑造女性与其他女性、男性以及与社会结构和机构的关系，该研究将为广大读者提供对现代仇外心理的细致入微的社会人类学理解。采用深度访谈、参与者观察和基于艺术的方法相结合的混合方法，目的是为参与者女性创造一个安全的空间，让她们处理日常仇外心理的经历，为复杂的社会现实和“日常”、具体化和情感体验提供意义（Bagnoli， 2009年；Fraser和al-Sayah， 2011年；斯塔夫罗波卢，2018年）。根据冲突解决文献，以及我在调解方面的培训（Thomas, 2016； Behfar等人，2008；O'Brien, 2005），目的是以情感素养和敏感的方式解决冲突（Orbach, 2016）。通过相互支持地分享和分享他们的经历，参与者可以形成新的解释或增强彼此的同理心，并提供对当代仇外心理的见解。在两种环境中，关于移民和权利的争论令人担忧，这一研究将超越同质化的叙述，认识到移民和黑人女性经历的复杂性和多样性。

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.