Abstract
This paper attempts to offer a critical survey of the work done in the context of on forced migrants’ situations in South Africa. The extant work is broad and important in revealing how South Africa is grappling with an increasing influx of migrants from war-torn African countries and forced migrants’ livelihood and coping strategies. On contrary, the paper reveals that the work is also myopic, and shortsighted in not including and responding to the questions on how forced migrants in South Africa make-meaning, negotiate and construct their socio-political identities. This paper contends that recognizing the voice of migrants on how they make-meaning, negotiate and construct their socio-political identities allows one to see that there are levels of subaltern agency as a response to being forcibly uprooted, including having legitimate opinion/ s on what is happening in South Africa and back home. As a result, there is dearth of both non-empirical and empirical studies that explore the construction of identities by both forced migrants in South Africa. The paper suggests for new empirical studies on how forced migrants make-meaning, negotiate and (de)construct their socio-political identities and for scholars to cast a more ‘grounded gaze’ on the motivations propelling migrants’ integration and disintegration in South Africa.