In the absence of citizenship: Congolese refugee struggle and organisation in South Africa

Of the 152 414 applications for asylum have been received by the Department of Home Affairs since 1994, the largest group is Congolese refugees. The document explores Congolese refugee grassroots mobilisation and organisation.

It argues that, despite considerable protest on one hand, and considerable grassroots organisation on the other, the inability to draw on notions of citizenship pushes refugees away from demands on the South African government, despite the fact that the latter has signed up to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, thereby undertaking to meet a variety of basic needs of refugees. The result is a splintered politics which proceeds from the heritage of ethnic identification in the Congo, political affiliation in the Congo, physical displacement to South Africa and a belief that the South African government is not going to be of much help.