Hear no housing, see no housing: Immigration and homelessness in the new South Africa

The housing crisis in South Africa has received an enormous amount of attention from governments, NGOs and academics. One issue that has been virtually ignored, however, is housing for non-citizens – particularly poor, undocumented migrants from other parts of Africa who are arriving in the country in search of work and accommodation. This paper explores official government policy on the issue as well as ground-level attitudes of citizens and non-citizens. Although little has been done to address this potentially explosive issue, there are grounds for optimism for progressive policy development.