Investigating the socio-economic development impact of African migrant informal enterprises in Mandeni municipality, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
This study investigates the socio-economic development impact of African migrant informal enterprises in Mandeni Local Municipality. Its objectives are to (a) analyse the factors influencing the growth of African migrant informal enterprises in Mandeni Local Municipality, (b) examine the nature and operations of African migrant informal enterprises in Mandeni Local Municipality, (c) evaluate the socio-economic development impacts, in terms of employment creation, poverty reduction, supply of goods and revenue generation of African migrants’ informal enterprises in the study area, and (d) explore South African citizens’ perception of African migrant informal enterprises in the Mandeni Local Municipality. To achieve this, the study utilised a qualitative approach in terms of the use of semi-structured interviews to collect data from research participants who included African migrant informal enterprise owners, the local community members, municipality officials, and community leaders. The study discovered that the majority of the African migrant informal enterprises have settled in this sector as a means of survival. The African migrants opted to start their informal enterprises as a result of a lack of employment. This study showed that African migrant informal enterprises contribute to the socio-economic development in Mandeni. However, the contribution they make is not widely recognised. They may not have a large-scale impact like formal businesses, but the jobs that they create in the local town help alleviate poverty, and such a contribution should not be underestimated. Another finding of the study is that African migrants outperform their local competitors. Therefore, the study recommends that it would be beneficial to establish a relationship between African migrants and local informal entrepreneurs so that they can share knowledge on how to sustain their businesses. In addition, African migrant informal entrepreneurs and local informal entrepreneurs could collaborate through the African migrants mentoring of local informal entrepreneurs. This would help to strengthen the bond between the African migrants and local informal entrepreneurs. Finally, the Mandeni municipality can organize business seminars and invite both the African migrant informal entrepreneurs and local informal entrepreneurs and this would create a positive interaction between African migrants and local informal entrepreneurs. In the long run, this interaction will contribute to the reduction of xenophobia by promoting tolerance toward African migrants, while at the same time assisting attempts to make African migrants a part of the municipality and not to be regarded or seen as a threat. This study contributes to the discipline of Geography by illuminating the socio-economic development impact of the African migrant informal enterprises in a small town like Mandeni municipality. Thus, the novelty, therefore, is that this study helps to show that migration is not always occurring in big urban cities, but that smaller towns like Mandeni are also destinations of choice. While this did not disprove, that cities like Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg are the major attractions, it adds that smaller towns also have an influence and thus deserve appropriate attention in migration studies in the context of Human Geography.
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