| This study explores the ongoing contestations over the character and identity of the post-apartheid South African state through the lens of refugee politics from 1994 to the present. I examine these contestations both within different sectors of the state and between state sectors and interested political actors working outside of it. Throughout this work, I analyse historical/regional legacies, constitutional/democratic commitments, economic/material factors, and the practices of interested political actors outside the state, as the primary aspects which shape the context within which the politics of refugees develop in post-apartheid South Africa.; By starting from the premise that the state is socially constructed partially through the practices that it adopts in relation to refugees, I aim to contribute to the fields of international relations and anthropology, which have largely assumed the existence of states when analysing refugees. I argue that the state's practices exist in a tension between an inclusive post-apartheid character and identity and a more exclusive one, as it seeks to reaffirm its existence by defining a bounded political community. As the state seeks to define itself, I also explore how refugees are produced as political subjects through the multiple practices adopted by different sectors of the state and actors outside the state.; Based on extensive in-depth interviews, an examination of government documents, legislation, legal cases, and archival material, I analyse the contestations over the inclusion of refugees into the South African state over time, from being invisible at the time of the political transition from apartheid, to being officially recognized and coded as 'refugees' in legislation, but nonetheless substantively marginalised, as the state, often aided by UNHCR, adopts practices to prioritise the needs of its citizens amidst resistance from legal NGOs and refugees. This dissertation shows that, on balance, the post-apartheid state has tended to tilt towards reproducing a national and more exclusive character and identity at the expense of more inclusive 'post-apartheid' principles. |
