Table Of Content"A Living Death":
Zimbabwean Migrants in the UK Who are Forced
Apart from their Children
By
Roda Madziva
B.Ed (EAPPS), MA
Thesis Submitted to the University of Nottingham for the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
December 2010
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this work to my parents, especially my father, Chief Chi kava
Shumba-Chekai who is so proud of being a father to highly educated children.
Also in memory of my brother Godfrey Chikava (baba Raw) who tragically did not
live long enough to see the completion of this work.
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Acknowledgements
I wish to pay my special thanks to my supervisors, Professors Julia O'Connell
Davidson and Saul Becker for input and support throughout the course of my PhD
studies. Their guidance was not only essential to this thesis, but to my life in
general. I will always aspire to have the commitment to my professional life that they
demonstrated to me every day I entered their offices.
Thanks are also due to my interviewees who agreed to be interviewed and shared
their painful lived experiences with me, without which, this research would not have
been possible.
The International Office and the School of Sociology and Social Policy co-funded my
studies, for which I am extremely grateful.
Thanks to Alistair and Sandy Clemence for supporting me and my family so that we
could be together here in the UK and for giving valuable time and effort in proof
reading my work as well as providing useful suggestions on the improvement of this
study. I am also indebted to Diane Trusson who proof-read my work.
Thanks are also due to my girlfriends: Judy, Cecilia, Margaret Wendy, Batendi,
Constance and Dadirai for encouraging me to persist and for all the emotional and
spiritual support throughout the process of writing up this thesis. Being a phone call
away, knowing when to talk and when to listen made the many pages of this work
come alive. Indeed, this thesis is nothing but the results of your prayers and
support.
Last but not least, special thanks go to my husband Obediar, my daughter
Ropafadzo N. and my son Tawananyasha B. for your unconditional love and support
throughout the course of my studies; you are such a blessing to me. To my
extended family members especially my brothers, sisters and sisters-in-law who
believed in me even when I doubted myself, you are such an inspiration and a
continuous reminder of the many blessings that God has given me.
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Abstract
This thesis is concerned with the lived experience of nineteen Zimbabwean migrants
I interviewed in the UK who were forced apart from their children for a lengthy period
of time by the UK immigration system. It explores the processes through which
these migrants were rendered rightless in their country of birth where their
government directly threatened their physical lives and how they were forced to
migrate to the UK without their children in search of human rights and protection.
However, upon arrival in the UK, these migrants' rightlessness was reinforced as the
UK immigration and asylum law affords only the most minimal of rights to asylum
seekers and other categories of forced migrants.
The thesis attempts to uncover the extent to which the Zimbabwean migrants were
denied full access to human rights, especially the rights to legally remain, work and
to be reunited with their children in the UK. It also seeks to show how, over a period
of time, these migrant parents' selves fell apart; they lost total control of their own
lives in the UK and witnessed the disintegration of the connections they had to their
children, partners, parents, friends and other kin left behind. The thesis argues that
to be afforded partial rights, that is, the right to continue to live and breathe (bare
life) but not the right to legally belong and/or to exercise personal autonomy is to be
condemned to a living death. By exploring the sufferings and dehumanization
processes of the Zimbabwean migrants, the thesis seeks to reveal the gap between
the UK's rhetorical commitments with regards to promoting and protecting human
rights, and the actual practice of its immigration regime.
IV
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction and an Outline of the Thesis' 1
Theoretical Foundation
1.1 Theoretical Framework 5
1. 1. 1 The Stateless 6
1.1.2 The Institutionalized 8
1.1.3 The Enslaved 9
1.1.4 The Concentration Camp Inmates 10
1.2 Structure of the Thesis 1 1
Chapter 2: Research Design and Methods 14
2.1 Choice of Research Topic 14
2.2 My Own Experience of Leaving Children Behind 16
2.3 The Need to Fill in the Gaps in Literature 19
2.4 Qualitative Methods 21
2.5 Characteristics of Migrant Parents 25
2.6 Negotiating Access to Migrant Parents 29
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2.7 Ethical Considerations 35
2.7. 1 Informed Consent 36
2.7.2 Confidentiality and Anonymity 41
2.7.3 Minimizing Harm and the IntelView Process 42
2.7.4 Researcher/Researched Relationship 47
2.7.5 Recording, Translation and Analysis of Data 51
Conclusion 53
Chapter 3: Decisions to Leave Home: Displacement Dynamics 55
in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe
3.1 Setting the Scene: Zimbabwe's Independence, Its
Political and Economic Contexts and their Influence 58
on the Country's Migration Trajectories
3.1.1 From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe: A Very Political Economy 59
3.2 The Second Wave of Migration: Gukurahundi - Mugabe's 62
Reign of Terror
3.3 The Third Phase of Migration: Extended Human Sufferings 68
At the Hands of a Dictator
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3.4 Leaving Home: A Choiceless Choice? 73
3.4. 1 Associations with the White Community: Enemies of 73
The Mugabe Regime
3.4.2 Some of the Factors which Left My Interviewees 79
Unprotected
3.4.3 Teachers as a Target Group of Zimbabwe's 82
Political and Economic Repression
3.4.4 Victims of the Government's Operation Murambatsvina 94
3.4.5 The Gendered Nature of Violence in Zimbabwe 97
3.4.6 The Enemy from Within: Violence Against Supporters 104
of the Mugabe Regime Perceived as Traitors
Conclusion 107
Chapter 4: Arranging to Leave Home: The Practical and Political 108
Problems of Leaving Home
4.1 Circumstances which Forced the Migrant Parents 109
To Leave Children Behind
4. 1. 1 Problems Associated with the UK Visa Conditions 110
and Travelling Documents Acquisition
4. 1.2 Migrant Parents' Financial Constraints 115
4. 1.3 The Role of Family and Friendship Networks in the 117
Decision-Making Process of Leaving Children Behind
4. 1.4 Constraints Imposed by Clandestine Migration 121
Vll
4. 1.5 Individuals' Perceptions of the UK's Asylum and 123
Welfare Systems
4.2 Traditional Practices of Fosterage and Parenting in a 125
Zimbabwean context
4.2.1 Background to Child Fosterage in Zimbabwe 125
4.2.2 Gender Roles and Parenting: The Zimbabwean Context 131
4.3 Practical Situations of Making Childcare Arrangements: 139
Pricing Migrants' Children as 'Meal Tickets'
4.3.1 Negotiating Childcare Arrangements with Relatives and 140
Family Members: Are they still the real Ideal Substitute
Carers?
4.3.2 Leaving Children with Non-relatives: Divergence from 151
The Traditional Norm?
Conclusion 157
Chapter 5: Arrival in the UK: Zimbabwean Migrant Parents' 160
Encounter with a Faceless Immigration and
Asylum System
5.1 Asylum Legislation in the UK from the 1990s 161
5.2 The UK Asylum Application Process 166
5.3 Experiences of Migrant Parents who Claimed Asylum at 170
The Port of Entry
5.4 Migrant Parents' Initial Encounter with the Asylum System 171
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5.5 Experiences of In-country Asylum Claimants 180
5.5. 1 Misconceptions Regarding Asylum Seeking Timing 181
5.5.2 Migrants who Claimed Asylum after Employment and 186
Education Opportunities had failed
5.5.3 Migrants who Delayed Seeking Asylum due to Fear 191
of Officials
5.6 Migrant Parents' Experience of Being in Detention 194
5.7 Asylum Determination: Migrants' Total Loss of Control 197
Over their Lives in the UK
Conclusion 204
Chapter 6: Leading a Life of Legal Limbo: The UK Immigration 207
Regime and Vulnerabilities of Migrant Parents
6.1 The UK Asylum Welfare Context 210
6.2 The UK Government's Policy Regarding Zimbabwean 215
Refused Asylum Seekers in the UK
6.3 Leading the Life of Limbo while Separated from Children: 218
An Invisible Category of Migrants
6.4 Refused Asylum Claims: The Route to Destitution and 221
Illegality
6.5 Factors which Influenced Migrant Parents' Decision as 222
Whether to Appeal against an Asylum Refusal Decision
IX
6.5. 1 Legal Aid and Access to Legal Support: A Right or 234
Privilege for Refused Asylum Seekers?
6.6 Illegal Working: Criminalization of Asylum Seekers who 243
Resist Destitution
Conclusion 258
Chapter 7: Things Fall Apart: Rightless Migrants and the 260
Loss of Personhood
7.1 Loss of Profession, Loss of Community, Loss of Self 261
7.2 Spectators of their Own Crumbling Lives? 271
7.2. 1 Being Granted the Right to Remain yet Denied the 283
Right to Family
7.2.2 The Disintegration of Marriages and Other Aspects 287
Of Identity
Conclusion 291
Chapter 8: Bare Life and Living Death 292
8.1 Loss and Dishonour 293
8.2 Disenfranchised Grief 304
8.3 Choice, Agency and Dishonour 308
Conclusion 309
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Description:their painful lived experiences with me, without which, this research would not
have . 4.2.2 Gender Roles and Parenting: The Zimbabwean Context. 131. 4.3
.. members' communication styles are always hostile as characterized by the
harsh . When I started my PhD in September 2007, I initially intend
