Olivia Laing in her book The Lonely City explores loneliness and the innate human journey of belonging. She notes: ‘You can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavour to the loneliness that comes from living in a city,
surrounded by millions of people.’
For people who have migrated from their geographical home, particularly for those who migrate alone, without family or community, this feeling of loneliness and the search for belonging can feel particularly isolating and disorientating.
Our sense of belonging is in part our identity but is also made by the laws and regulations which enable belonging. This rupture of belonging is becoming particularly apparent for Zimbabwean migrants who have for many years made South Africa their home and face having to return. The Department of Home Affairs announced in November 2021 that they would not be
renewing the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) which approximately 180 000 people use to regularise their residence and ability work in South Africa.
Janet has lived in South Africa for thirteen years using a ZEP and working as an administrator. In many ways, South Africa is her home, having maintained limited contact with her family in Zimbabwe and built a family and melange of social networks here. Janet’s children will too face this rupture of belonging, as South Africa is the only place they
know and their mother’s documentation status will require her to return Zimbabwe.
The scrapping of the ZEP will most worryingly result in the separation of families. In Janet’s case, her children who were born in South Africa and are enrolled in schools, will be struck by the loss of the primary caregiver as she has to return home or live in fear of being deported.
Can you imagine the loneliness of being told you no longer belong here, despite it being the place you call home, and having to return to a place you no longer know?
Are there people in your community, neighbourhood or church that may face similar precarity as their immigration status becomes uncertain? Or perhaps they face the loneliness of finding where they
belong?
How may you welcome these people into your community as they navigate belonging where the law may not allow for this?
