Abstract
By deploying two contrasting perspectives (exclusion and exit) on urban informality as
analytical lenses, this paper explores the interconnectedness and complexities associated with
the entry by African immigrant into informal trading within Johannesburg (South Africa) inner
city. Using experiences of the African immigrants, the paper brings to the fore new insights
into the complexities of joining and growing informal businesses, thus providing a re-reading
to the dichotomous presentations of the exclusion (harassment by regulatory authorities and
lack of the necessary trading licences) and exit (attractions to opportunities within the informal
sector) theses. The paper demonstrates that in the majority of cases, African immigrants’
experience the two at the same time, thus revealing that they are two sides of the same coin –
that can be very complex to disaggregate hence the simplicity approach to factors that influence
entry and growth of the informal businesses is questionable in the case of African immigrants.).
Using a qualitative study of 40 African immigrant traders, this study suggests as simplistic the
explanation that African immigrant traders continue to set up businesses and trade in the
Johannesburg inner city, because they were only escaping from among others, poverty and
exploitation. Insights from this study seem to suggest that they also engage in street trading
because of the lure of less or no stringent controls and the possibility of earning higher incomes.
Such insights seem to complicate the perception by African immigrant traders that they
engaged in street trading simply because of discrimination, xenophobia and the devaluing of
their qualifications. Instead there is a coterie of pathways that lift immigrants out poverty and
set them on a journey towards wealth creation. This raises implications regarding the
complexity of reasons why African immigrants in a setting like the Johannesburg inner city
engage in street trading.