Wits University Press (Johannesburg)
Sally Peberdy
8 October 2009
book review
Johannesburg — Through careful archival study, Peberdy has written a path-breaking account of what it is to be a South African. This is the first analysis and periodisation of South Africa's immigration laws, and without it one cannot claim to understand the vexed issue of South Africa identity -Peter Alexander, Director, Centre for Sociological Research
At a time when (im)migration is at the forefront of international and South African debates, this book critically examines the relationship between changes in South Africa's immigration policies, and shifts in the construction of national identity by the South African state. Relating the history of the immigration policies of the South African State between 1910 and 2005, it explores the synergy between periods of significant change in state discourses and policies of migration, and those historical moments when South Africa was reinvented politically or was in the process of active nation building. It is in these periods that the relationships between immigration, nationalism and national identity is most starkly revealed.
In a readable, well-researched and interdisciplinary work, Peberdy provides the first history of South Africa's immigration legislation. It will be of local and international interest to not only academic readers but also those working on immigration policy or interested in South African history and identity.
Sally Peberdy was appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town in 2008. She was the 2007 winner of the Wits University Research Committee Publication Award, which is made each year to enable outstanding research by a member of the university to be published.
Book details: 978 1 86814 484 6
Soft cover, 235 x 155 mm, 240 pp
March 2009
World Rights
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