Abstract
This thesis examines the digital-mediated pathways of African migrant women in South Africa.
In doing so, it focuses on the ways they mitigate risks in transit and sustain social relationships
across distance, with or without mobile phones. A mixed method research design was adopted
using a two-phase approach. In phase one, a total of 253 African migrants (both men and
women) across four provinces in South Africa responded to an online survey questionnaire.
These respondents had origins in 21 diverse countries across Africa, of which Zimbabweans,
Malawians, and Mozambicans dominated the sample. This method was qualified in phase two
with sixteen telephone semi-structured interviews and eighteen WhatsApp focus group
discussions with African migrant women living in Johannesburg. To substitute traditional ‘field
data’ missing in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, prolonged online observations in a
WhatsApp group chat were employed with African migrant women. These four techniques
were connected during the interpretation stage and analysed thematically using an
intersectional feminist technology framework. The results show how African migrant women
overcome patriarchal systems and male-dominated spaces by taking ownership of their
trajectories to South Africa, despite the risks and vulnerabilities associated with their precarious
pathways. The findings further illuminate how these women utilise mobile phones as a
preparatory tool before migration, a precautionary tool during migration, and a companion in
the post-migration context. Migrant women in this study utilise various tools available on their
mobile phones to stay in touch with distant relatives and social networks and empower
themselves through self-education, digital travelling, digital activism, online visibility, digital
citizenship, and digital comradeship. A study on digital migration in South Africa is
particularly timely in the aftermath of recent findings that suggest that the field of digital
migration remains unsystematic, inadequately researched, and male dominated. The study thus
contributes to the limited pool of literature in the field of digital migration, specifically in the
Southern African context and highlights various forms of transformative agency exercised by
women from the migration decision-making process to making life in a new context. These
findings suggest several avenues for intervention and further research.
Keywords: digital-mediated migration, African women, vulnerabilities, transformative
agency, mobile phones, social relationships.