Immigration Act

• Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have flocked to South Africa to escape economic hardship since the 1990s.
• The South African government has, since 2010, granted the migrants a special permit to live and work in the country.

What is the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit?

• It was succeeded by the Zimbabwe Special Permit that was, in turn, replaced by the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit, effective from September 2017 to December 2021.
• The Zimbabwe Exemption Permit, like the one it replaced


Holders could not change the conditions of the permit in South Africa. Similar exemptions were previously granted to people from Lesotho and to Angolan refugees.

How many people have the permit?

• There are 178,412 Zimbabwe Exemption Permit holders, drawn from three waves of Zimbabwean migration to South Africa since the 1990s.
• Some entered between 1994 and 1997, just after apartheid ended.
• There was an influx in 2000 as Zimbabweans fled from an economic and political crisis.

Why is the matter in court and what are the contested issues?

• Permit holders would have to either return to Zimbabwe or apply for visas allowing them to work.
• The Helen Suzman Foundation, a think-tank promoting human rights and constitutional democracy, is challenging the November 2021 announcement on behalf of some of the permit holders.
• Three other entities, the Zimbabwe Immigration Federation, the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association and the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa, have mounted separate court challenges.
• The Helen Suzman Foundation is partly arguing for the court to rule that the Minister of Home Affairs’ decision was unconstitutional.
• It is also arguing for a fair process in respect to the permit holder’s children’s rights to family unity, stability and schooling.

What, in your view, is the correct position?

• More than anything, this debate has exposed the challenges arising from the formulation of temporary policies that operate outside the confines of the Immigration Act.
• Clearly, the permit was designed as a contingency plan in response to the reality of mass migration.
• Instead they are focusing more on issues of constitutional validity or procedure, rationality, and fairness of government action.

How should the issue be resolved?

• This has not yielded much as 97% of the 178,412 permit holders have still not applied for alternative visas.
• That way, the permit holders might finally be able to pursue more durable and alternative solutions and get some closure.

• On March 29, two families of four died while attempting to cross the St. Lawrence River from Canada to the U.S. Their bodies were found in Akwesasne Mohawk territory which straddles the Canada-United States border.
• Media coverage quickly began to frame the fatal incident as an issue of illegal human smuggling.
• But perhaps the most glaring omission in media coverage is any meaningful reflection on what it means for this tragedy to occur on Indigenous territory.

Indigenous communities and the border

• The Akwesasne tragedy must be understood in the context of colonial history and the imposition of the U.S.-Canada border on Indigenous nations.
• The 1794 Jay’s Treaty codified the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples to move freely across the border and to carry out trade and commerce.
• Instead, Indigenous Peoples were made foreigners in their own land with mobility and land rights inferior to those of European settler migrants.
• As Historian Benjamin Hoy writes, “[f]rom the very outset, Canada and the United States believed that building a national border on Indigenous lands required erasing pre-existing territorial boundaries.”

Colonial dispossession

• Canadian immigration law has historically served as a key mechanism of colonial dispossession.
• It did this by actively encouraging white European settlers to come to Canada by granting them protections and rights.

Undermining Indigenous self-determination

• Canada has continued to assert unilateral sovereignty in immigration while simultaneously erasing diverse Indigenous laws and customs.
• Sister Juliana claimed asylum in Canada, saying that she would face persecution if she returned to Nigeria.
• A key part of the truth and reconciliation process is for settlers to acknowledge treaty relationships with Indigenous communities and their treaty rights to be on this land.
• One of the first steps is to acknowledge and respect Indigenous sovereignty, laws and treaty relations when it comes to immigration.

• Senator Alex Padilla's bill , co-authored by Senator Ben Ray Lujn, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, to update the Immigration Registry.
• The groups rallied in Los Angeles at the Edward Roybal Federal Building today to support U.S.
• Senator Padilla's legislation to expand a pathway to permanent residency for millions of long-term U.S. residents, the bill was introduced today.
• An update of the registry will provide immigrants the ability to access permanent residency," said Angelica Salas, CHIRLA Executive Director.

• CHICAGO, Sept. 30, 2020 /PR Newswire/ -- Immigration Revelation, a 13-episode podcast hosted by immigration attorney siblings, Fiona McEntee and Raymond McEntee, and immigration advocate, Carolina Solano, debuts today on all major podcast platforms and on ImmigrationRevelation.co .
• The debut episode features Beln Sisa, immigration activist and former National Latino Press Secretary for Bernie Sanders For President.
• Ray McEnteeco-host of the show tells us that "Immigration Revelation shines a bright light on some amazing immigrants.
• Immigration Revelationis a new, limited series podcast featuring and highlighting the voices and stories of our immigrant community throughout the U.S.