Blocking the SADC

The policy-makers of the world’s most developed countries within their regions use a range of justifications to limit the labour migration of citizens from less developed neighbouring countries. In South Africa politicians have enforced strict labour migration policies and have also refused to ratify a regional labour migration labour policy with the SADC to prevent migration from poorer states such as Zimbabwe Malawi the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. These justifications were researched using thematic content analysis. The research aimed to identify the range of economic and xenophobic justifications used by South African policy-makers to halt a regional labour migration policy with the SADC. It was found that policy-makers use five central justifications to halt this policy. The first justification is that policy-makers are not trying to halt this policy because they are pro-immigration and not xenophobic. The second finding is that South Africa prefers skilled labour migration but fears that migration will lead to unemployment. The third justification is that the policy has many issues and will take a long period to implement. The fourth finding is that South A