‘Misery in a Foreign Land’: Zimbabwean Migrant Women Labourers’ Experiences of Gender-Based Violence in South Africa

The study explored the gender-based violence (GBV) experiences of Zimbabwean women migrant labourers in South Africa. Specifically, the study aimed to explore the particular vulnerabilities and manifestations of GBV experienced by this group. The study was purely qualitative and employed document analysis as a data collection tool. Content analysis was employed in reading academic literature, government reports, and civil society publications to gather data on Zimbabwean women migrant labourers lived experiences of GBV in South Africa. The data collection involved a careful perusal of the relevant sources for understanding the intersectional dynamics which shape their susceptibility to various acts of violence and exploitation. The study acknowledged that migrant labour of Zimbabwean women was exposed to a higher risk of GBV due to the intersecting dynamics of xenophobia, patriarchal gender power relations, and economic marginalisation. They are exposed to different forms of GBV, including sexual violence, workplace exploitation, and human trafficking, among others. The data highlighted how the intersection of their status as women migrants and, for most of them, as illegal workers amplified their visibility and limited their access to assistance programs and systems of justice. It advocates for an emergent, urgent necessity for the multi-stakeholder effort that will facilitate consolidation of supporting mechanisms, enhance accountability and reporting and respond to structural imbalance that enables these cycles of gender-based violence to persist among migrant women Zimbabweans in South Africa.