An application of Rosenau's systemic approach to African migration into South Africa from 1994 to May 2008.

Abstract

With the end of Apartheid, the South African regime completely changed. This had implications for African migration into the country. The migration situation became a concern with the appearance of what has been referred to as xenophobia. But except for some particularities, the case of South Africa is not so very singular. Systemic approaches in the field of International Relations have proved to be an interesting analytical tool, and Rosenau’s ideas provide the opportunity to use those approaches at different levels, applying them to different case of studies. The goal of this thesis is first to build a system of analysis for migration issues, explaining the interactions between the different actors of the system. The system thus created should be able to be applied to many case of migration in different regions of the world. The second chapter seeks to apply this system to the case of South Africa, for a clear understanding of the phenomenon of African migration to that country. It explains the interests, roles and modes of interaction of the different actors such as the state, external actors and migrants.