To the participants maintaining cultural values was vital since it defined who they were and guided them to not deviate from their set values. It was described as hard to adhere to one’s culture in Hillbrow, because of various activities which might be misleading or going against their values. Arnold explained why it was hard to preserve culture in Hillbrow:
Hillbrow is a very tricky place and challenging to follow your culture because of things that happen here. These include the presence of many bars in the area, prostitution and drugs can make people easily get addicted and deviate from their culture (Arnold, 3 July 2016).
Gerald shared similar views with Arnold that preserving one’s cultural values in the neighbourhood was a challenge:
It is hard keeping your culture here, because of mixed nations, they are so many people coming from different countries and they do different things. You end up not doing things you used to do at home and living a lifestyle which does not follow your cultural values. For instance, you cannot burn “umpepho” [herbs used to protect from
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evil spirits] here because there is no privacy, you will be sharing a space divided by a curtain. So we end up not following any of our tradition (Gerald, 3 July 2016).
The participants further stated that no matter how difficult it might be to conserve their culture in the neighbourhood, they still continue to be guided by their cultural values. For example, Siphiwe specified the importance of maintaining one’s culture:
I do not see any reason for changing yourself or the values you grew up following. Myself I got to work there after I take a bath and on weekends I go to church. I do not see how I can be transformed to move away from my culture by living in Hillbrow. I think for other people it is more of peer pressure because everybody is going to clubs and they fall for that trap which in turn makes them disregard their cultural values (Siphiwe, 2 July 2016).
When asked how important it is to maintain one’s culture and tradition in the neighbourhood, Melody had different views from those of the other participants:
It is kind of important and wiser to adapt to the culture of the land that you are currently in; like they say when you are in Rome you have to do like what the Romans do. The culture done here is different, but similar on other things so you have to adapt to what they are doing but making sure you do not lose your roots (Melody, 18 June 2016). The above excerpt from Melody indicated that preserving cultural practice was important though in some instances one had to be flexible and adapt to some of the practices of the host country. Here, the participants meant that one should try to accommodate some of the practices which exist at the destination such as being highly sociable, being able to learn the language that is spoken by locals and accept some of the behaviours which are not accepted back in Zimbabwe such as socialising with the homosexual people. Homosexuality is illegally in Zimbabwe, engaging in such behaviours can lead to the imprisonment of a person. This does not mean that there are no homosexual people in the country, they are there but practice it secretly to avoid being arrested. To those who show signs of being a gay or a lesbian there are rejected due to the nature of the society which is heterosexual. Therefore, migrants such as Melody had to adapt and accept the homosexual people as she would socialise and party with lesbians. For Thembekile, keeping her cultural values such as having self-respect and respect for others was very important as it protected her from engaging in activities like doing drugs, consuming alcohol and
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dancing in night clubs, to her, such things destroyed her life. She added that there are times when they met as family members to discuss issues such as to appease
‘amadlozi’ ancestors and that they would travel to Zimbabwe to perform rituals.
As indicated in the narratives of the participants, keeping culture was important, as it guided and defined who they were. The participants explained that it is difficult to maintain their culture in the neighbourhood since the place had so many people from different countries. The presence of plenty of taverns, night clubs, prostitution and drugs was labelled as tempting to others, such that engaging in the activities might result in forgetting who they were. The participants mentioned that no matter how hard it might be, they continued to preserve their cultural practices. However, some participants suggested that it is important to be flexible and accommodate the cultural practices at the destination without forgetting one’s own culture. This clearly shows that migrants are not assimilating to the neighbourhood but rather integrating as they kept their cultural values.
4.9 Conclusion
The chapter presented the findings of the study highlighting the reasons why the migrants left Zimbabwe, the nature of social networks used by the migrants, and how the networks provided them with information on South Africa and Hillbrow in particular as a choice of destination. The migrants knew of Hillbrow while they were still in Zimbabwe. Decisions of residing in the neighbourhood were influenced by the presence of migrants’ friends and family members who were staying in the area. The migrants stated that they had to continue to reside in the neighbourhood due to the proximity of the area to the city centre and taxi ranks.
The other reason they preferred staying in the neighbourhood was safety from xenophobic tendencies. It was evident from the migrants’ narratives that it is in the townships that migrants were being attacked by South Africans. The migrants described the rentals as expensive in the suburb and this led to the tendency of sharing accommodation in order to be able to deal with the expensive rentals. However, the sharing of apartments is described as disruptive since there is no privacy which in turn affects raising children in the neighbourhood.
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Integrating into Hillbrow was viewed by the migrants to not be problematic since the neighbourhood was full of migrants from different countries so they did not need to hide their identity. The migrants would communicate in their native languages with migrants from the same country of origin without fear of being attacked. The problems were experienced when they faced discrimination in hospitals and sometimes in the streets of the neighbourhood when they would be stopped by police in search of identification documents. The migrants were not satisfied with life in the neighbourhood because of the criminal activities and overcrowding. They further stipulated that the neighbourhood cannot be home to them because they are not safe from crime and stated that if they could obtain better jobs they would relocate to other places. Some of the participants indicated that if the situation improves in Zimbabwe they would return. The participants specified that they are still in touch with the family members, relatives and friend whom they resided with upon arrival in South Africa. These findings are discussed in relation to the literature and the theoretical framework in the following chapter.
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CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Introduction
Social networks have largely been used to explain the migration process and how migrants rely on them. These networks are viewed as vital for migrants through facilitating the journey and integration into host societies. The aim of the study was to explore the social networks of Zimbabwean migrants in residential choice and integration in Hillbrow. This chapter presents the themes based on the findings thereby answering the objectives of the study. The themes are discussed in relation to the literature and the first theme began by describing how South Africa has become a land of opportunities, followed by how social networks contributed to migrants’ decisions to reside in Hillbrow and their adaptation to the neighbourhood. The last theme focuses on the integration of migrants in the area, how the area is viewed as a home for migrants, discrimination, and strategies used to cope in the neighbourhood. The chapter then discusses the social network theory in relation to the findings and finally presents the limitations and recommendations of the study.