Migration, Remittances and Development in Lesotho

CHANGING PATTERNS OF MIGRATION SINCE 1990

MIGRATION, REMITTANCES AND ‘DEVELOPMENT’ IN LESOTHO 10 kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk domestic service or to illegal informal sector activity including brewing and sex work. The ability of Basotho women (and non-mine male migrants) to seek work in South Africa was curtailed by the South African Aliens Control Act of 1963. Prior to that time, migrants from Lesotho could cross freely and work in South Africa. After 1963, passports, residence and work permits were required. Legal employment in South Africa became very difficult for Basotho women. Only the South African mining companies were exempted from the legislation. The number of female migrants from Lesotho in South Africa fell quickly during the 1960s. CHANGING PATTERNS OF MIGRATION SINCE 1990 Since 1990, there have been major shifts in the nature of migration from Lesotho to South Africa. The most significant changes include: • Greatly increased cross-border movement between Lesotho and South Africa • Declining employment opportunities for Basotho men in the South African gold mines • Increased female migration from Lesotho • Growing internal female migration of young women within Lesotho • Increases in skilled migration from Lesotho • Growth of AIDS-related migration in Lesotho INCREASED CROSS-BORDER MOVEMENT The number of people crossing the border legally through the official border posts between Lesotho and South Africa increased dramatically after 1990, rising from 240,000 in 1991 to over 2 million in 2007. Lesotho is easily the most important source of African entrants into South Africa, sending a quarter or more of the total since the early 1990s (Table 3; Figure 1).21 Not all of those who cross from Lesotho to South Africa are migrants going to work or to engage in income-generating activity. In the late 1990s, SAMP asked a nationally representative sample of adults in Lesotho the reason for their most recent visit to South Africa. By far the majority (34%) had gone to visit family or friends. Another 19% had gone to shop. Only 17% had gone to work, with another 8% to look for work. Other reasons included medical treatment (6%), trading (3%), tourism (2%), business (2%) and study (1%).22 In other words, only a quarter of cross-border movements were employment-related. MIGRATION POLICY SERIES NO. 52 11 kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk Table 3: Legal Migration from Lesotho to South Africa, 1991-2009 Year Africa Lesotho % Lesotho 1991 1,193,743 243,710 20.4 1992 2,327,959 887,811 38.1 1993 2,700,415 1,038,479 38.5 1994 3,125,959 1,184,893 37.9 1995 3,452,164 1,097,351 31.8 1996 3,781,351 1,189,129 31.4 1997 3,665,003 1,190,848 32.5 1998 4,291,547 1,649,511 38.4 1999 4,353,259 1,588,365 36.5 2000 4,298,613 1,559,422 36.3 2001 4,193,732 1,288,160 30.7 2002 4, 513,694 1,162,786 25.8 2003 4,519,616 1,291,242 28.6 2004 4,707,384 1,479,802 31.4 2005 5,446,062 1,668,826 30.6 2006 6,308,636 1,919,889 30.4 2007 6,902,041 2,171,954 31.5 2008 7,395,414 2,165,505 29.3 Source: Statistics South Africa Figure 1: Legal Migration from Lesotho to South Africa, 1991-2009 The hyper-mobility of the population of contemporary Lesotho, and the complex connections between internal and international migration, are captured in the following description: 1991 1992 1993 1994 1996 1995 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2 500 000 – 2 000 000 – 1 500 000 – 1 000 000 – 500 000 – 0 – MIGRATION, REMITTANCES AND ‘DEVELOPMENT’ IN LESOTHO 12 kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk The Basotho are integrated together in a fluid shifting ensemble of people, where members of the same family may have a relative managing sheep and goats in the upper Senqu Valley in Lesotho, while his brother cultivates mountain wheat and keeps a home ready for the herdsman when he comes down for the winter. They have a sister who has married in the lowlands, where she struggles to grow maize on an exhausted piece of eroded land. Her husband is fortunate to work in the South African mines, and comes home monthly. When he was younger he brought cattle back home from the mines, but now as he has grown older he prefers to...