Between 70 000 and 85 000 refugees and asylum-seekers currently live in South Africa, and Johannesburg now hosts one of the largest refugee populations in Africa.
A major phenomenon of the world today is the millions of people who are on the move. This “forced migration mostly derives from gross violations of human rights”, says Wits University’s Professor Rodreck Mupedziswa. “The challenge to states, international organisations and human rights organisations includes developing appropriate policies, mobilising humanitarian assistance and lobbying for the rights of forcibly uprooted people.
“There is also a growing need for research to inform policy and practice and for education to train personnel to fill the need for an increasing number of specialist tasks that arise as a result of dealing with voluntary population movements.”
Mupedziswa coordinates the forced migration studies programme in Wits University’s Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The master’s degree and postgraduate diploma in forced migration studies make up an interdisciplinary and inter-faculty programme based in the graduate school and organised in partnership with a number of other departments, including the faculty of health sciences and the faculty of law.
The multidisciplinary programme “is designed to prepare students aiming to pursue postgraduate research degrees in their own disciplines in the field of forced migration”, says Mupedziswa. It is also designed for people in, or wanting to pursue careers in, the field of humanitarian or development assistance for refugees, he says.
The United Nations defines a refugee as “a person who has a well-founded fear of individual persecution, or as a result of generalised human rights violation or armed conflict is forced to flee their country of origin”. The course introduces students to the legal, political, economic, social and cultural aspects of forced migration.
The bulk of the course looks at the perspectives of affected migrants themselves, and case studies are drawn mainly from Africa. Seminars offered in the programme focus on topics such as global migrations; durable solutions to the refugee problem; smuggling and trafficking in human beings; difficulties in defining ethnicity and citizenship; ethnic “cleansing”; xenophobia; internal wars involving diamonds, oil and arms deals; and international humanitarian aid as an industry; among many others. Issues pertaining to challenges facing internally displaced persons are also explored.
“Employment opportunities exist aplenty for graduates,” says Mupedziswa. “A sizeable number of people in the programme are employed, working on issues of human rights. The programme has relevance and importance to South Africa as people need to know how to relate to refugees and appreciate their circumstances. More importantly however, the programme will help in terms of improvement of the policy environment and practice in this field.”
Fourteen MA and postgraduate diploma students are currently registered for the programme, which is in its third year. A further three candidates are pursuing a PhD in forced migration studies. In February next year an honours degree in forced migration studies will be added to the offerings.
Students currently enrolled on the programme (as well as some graduates of the programme) are employed by organisations such as Jesuit Refugee Services, the Department of Home Affairs and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
Potentially, graduates of the programme can also seek employment with NGOs such as the Human Rights Commission, Roll-Back Xenophobia, the South African Migration Project and the Trauma Centre for Victims of Violence and Torture, as well as UN agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Unicef.
Applications by candidates wishing to enrol for February next year are currently being considered.
“While the postgraduate diploma does not have a research component, it is advisable for students registering for the MA degree to have research skills, given that successful completion of the research report on this programme is dependent on the individual’s ability to competently generate, organise and interpret data. Students who lack these skills can, however, register for a research methods course; and in addition, there are free workshops offered by the university on research,” says Mupedziswa.
Students should have a good honours degree (that is, they should have earned an average mark of at least a 65%) in the social sciences or related disciplines such as law, to be admitted to the MA or postgraduate diploma programme. Students who have been out of university for a long time and have done short courses will also be considered, Mupedziswa says.