In this article, we used the capability approach as normative grounding to analyse a particular faith-based intervention targeting ‘youth at the margins’ – in this instance, marginalised migrant youths from Zimbabwe living in Johannesburg, South Africa. We used Albert Street School (AS School), run by Johannesburg’s Central Methodist Church, as our case study to show how this faith-based organisation, through its focus on education, created not only spaces for marginalised youths to aspire towards a better life but also practical opportunities to convert their aspirations into action. Drawing on first-hand accounts of 12 Zimbabwean migrant youths who had completed schooling at AS School, as well as of representatives of both the school and the CMC, the article first sketches the Zimbabwe-South Africa migration context post 2000. A discussion then follows of AS School as a faith-based intervention which addresses the constrained capability for education amongst marginalised migrant youths.
There is a growing amount of literature globally considering the interface of religion and development (Alkire
The role of religious schools in human development in particular was highlighted in the
When considering the role of FBOs in young people’s lives, we draw on Amartya Sen’s capability approach which sees development as the process of creating opportunities for all people to be and do what they value (Sen
Particularly useful though is the manner in which the capability approach seeks to take account of both the agency of individuals and structural and/or institutional factors. We draw on the generative idea of social competence as conceptualised by Stewart (
Using the capability approach as our normative grounding, we analyse a particular faith-based intervention targeting ‘youth at the margins’ – in this instance, marginalised migrant youths from Zimbabwe living in Johannesburg, South Africa. As noted by Robeyns (
We used Albert Street School (AS School) run by Johannesburg’s Central Methodist Church (CMC) as our case study of how an FBO, through its focus on education, created not only spaces for marginalised youths to aspire towards a better life but also practical opportunities to convert their aspirations into action.
Whilst there is arguably a common understanding of the concept of ‘youths’ or ‘young people’, it is a concept that is technically defined in multiple ways. In this article we focus particularly on migrant youths aged between 18 and 35 years, based on the
We conducted in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 26 migrant youths (15 men and 11 women aged between 21 and 33 years) from Zimbabwe. The interviews explored the migrants’ everyday experiences, the capabilities they viewed to be important, their well-being and their aspirations for educational continuation. The research was conducted in central Johannesburg and focused on migrant youths who had resided at, or had accessed services at the CMC refugee shelter before it shut down in December 2014. From the participants, only nine of the young migrant men had migrated whilst under the age of 18 (unaccompanied minors). Upon arrival in South Africa, 12 of the 15 young men had continued with, and ultimately completed, their secondary education at AS School. The young women interviewed had neither successfully completed their secondary education in Zimbabwe nor continued at AS School. This is despite the fact that the opportunity to learn at AS School was available to all migrant children and young people living at the CMC. An explanation provided by some of the research participants for this disparity was that young women can easily find employment in domestic work compared with their male peers. As such, most young women went into the workplace to earn much-needed income rather than completing their schooling. We return to this issue later in the article. Owing to the precarious and sometimes illegal status of the participants, no real names or identifying information will be presented.
South Africa’s democratic transition in the early 1990s and the country’s relative wealth compared with its neighbours, together with atrocities such as wars and famine prevailing in Africa, are determinants of increased migration into South Africa (Trimikliniotis, Gordon & Zondo
Although migrants to South Africa come from many different countries, a significant number have been fleeing economic and political instability from neighbouring Zimbabwe. A rise in this number has been witnessed since the start of the millennium when Zimbabwe’s economic crisis resulted in hyperinflation. In mid-November 2008, hyperinflation peaked at 79.6 billion per cent (Hanke & Kwok
Whilst the crisis affected both young and old, youths were the most affected group (Chirisa & Muchini
Backed by the South African Constitution, the
In spite of the responsibility to uphold the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants, the
Whilst non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Save the Children and non-profit organisations such as Section 27 and Legal Resources Centre, were also involved in addressing some of the needs of the young migrants, the high number of unaccompanied migrant children at that time was viewed as a humanitarian crisis (UNICEF
The 2008 xenophobic attacks in South Africa further led to a high number of children of school-going age seeking refuge at the church. Because the CMC had long been providing shelter to disadvantaged individuals from various backgrounds, it was no surprise that during these attacks, it housed approximately 5 000 migrants at a time (Kuljian
The high number of children fleeing to the church – many of whom were unaccompanied minors – became a concern. The major concern was their absence from school, which had them spending their days idling in the streets. The CMC only provided overnight shelter, with residents having to vacate the building during the day for daily church events to take place, resulting in many individuals often having nowhere to go and nothing to do. Consequently, many children were at risk of being recruited for illegal activities by older people for a small fee. Amongst the older migrants, there were many qualified, yet unemployed, professionals, including teachers. Some of the teachers volunteered to teach the children, paving the way for the establishment of AS School.
In the sections that follow, we focus on the social competencies of AS School and what the school was able to be and do. Then we show how what the school was able to be and do was related to the capabilities and expansion of the youths enrolled at the school.
AS School started its operations on 07 July 2008, teaching refugee children from Grades 0 to form six.
The medium of instruction at the school was English, and the school registered with the British Council, which meant that learners were to sit for Cambridge examinations. Because of documentation challenges, children could not enrol in mainstream schools and, as most of them were unaccompanied minors, they had no source of livelihood. Thus, there was a need for basic supplies, such as food and shelter, which is crucial for successful learning, and at this time, CMC assumed that role (Mkwananzi
Since its inception, AS School has steadily experienced a higher enrolment of boys than girls. Several participants ascribed this disproportion to the fact that, upon arrival in South Africa, many of the female migrants often wed or took up employment in domestic work, most of these live-in jobs, which restricted what they could do in their spare time, such as enrolling in extra educational courses.
In due course, the school adopted French as a language of instruction, as there were children from French-speaking nations such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. (These children also had the opportunity to take extra English classes.) Whilst the school’s inception was triggered by a large child migrant community, local citizens could also enrol their children. However, as noted earlier, integrating most of the local languages would have been a challenge, as the school had to operate with limited financial and human resources. Thus, unlike major international NGOs with potentially a larger resource base, the school was, and still is, limited in pioneering larger and wider scale service provision.
Accordingly, whilst the school may have grown over the past 10 years, both in enrolments and in infrastructure (e.g., it now has a library), the challenge of funding other infrastructures such as science laboratories and a technology centre still remain. A significant number of unaccompanied minors rely on assistance to register for the Cambridge examinations. The school has succeeded in staying operative because of support from individuals and organisations such as the World Mission Possible and Solidarity Peace Trust, amongst others (Mkwananzi
The ability of the school to remain operational amid a lack of support from national institutions points not only to the role of FBOs in addressing humanitarian needs in times of crisis but also to the need for collaboration with other organisations, such as non-governmental and civil society organisations, and individuals in pursuing human and community development.
Albert Street School registration in 2008.
Date | School total enrolment | Accompanied learners5 | Unaccompanied learners |
Teaching staff |
---|---|---|---|---|
14 July 2008 | 35 | 8 | 27 | 4 |
12 September 2008 | 140 | 57 | 93 | 9 |
21 October 2008 | 180 | 84 | 96 | 11 |
07 December 2008 | 220 | 120 | 100 | 11 |
Child migrants from outside South Africa who migrated on their own.
Albert Street School registration in 2016 (combined primary and secondary schools).
Date | School total enrolment | Accompanied learners | Unaccompanied learners | Teaching staff |
---|---|---|---|---|
13 May 2016 | 323 | 239 | 84 | 18 |
Although the CMC closed down the refugee shelter facilities on 31 December 2014, AS School remained in operation. There was no overwhelming, direct consequence on the operation of the school as a result of the shelter being shut down. Teachers encouraged students to work hard and take inspiration from previous students who had excelled in their studies and had gone on to pursue diverse academic and professional interests (Mkwananzi
Our research shows that, as a development-oriented intervention strategy, through the CMC, the school, through its social competencies, contributes to human development and capability expansion for marginalised migrant youths in three main ways: (1) meeting basic needs, (2) providing access to education and (3) fostering the capability to aspire for a better life.
The youths who attended AS School highlighted benefits of attending the school other than access to education. These benefits included meeting basic needs such as providing access to food and clothing and fostering the capability to aspire. As Appadurai (
For most of the youths, the initial motivation for attending the school was in order to meet basic needs. The quotations below illustrate:
‘When we went to school everything changed, we no longer slept on the stairs of the building; we were bathing, going to school, food was there; we only had to contribute with our brains.’ (Paridzai, 25, Male, doing piece jobs)
‘When you don’t have food, you think of how you are going to get food, in a good way or in a bad way that is where thinking starts. That is when you decide you are going to go this way or that way. I still remember when I didn’t have food, which is when I heard about the school, Albert Street School. They were saying that they will give us food, somewhere to sleep and somewhere to bath. So to me, when I first came to Joburg I spent maybe two weeks without bathing, just washing my face.’ (Pete, 23, male, Diploma in Electronic Engineering student)
Some of the youths further noted that the decision to attend school was often not prompted by the desire to learn, but by the desire to access food and clothing. Other youths valued the opportunity to be able to take a bath. Thus, the desire to learn came as a result of experiencing the school environment and this influenced their decision to stay in school, just to have access to basic resources for as long as necessary.
The impetus to attend the school because of access to food, clothing and bathing facilities points to the value of meeting elementary human needs, initially for survival, but in the longer term for productive learning. Once the need for threshold-level resources is met, education has the potential to prepare one with means and abilities that broaden opportunities (Wood & Deprez
The above discussion provides an example of what FBOs can be and do, for example, AS School’s social competencies created space for the expansion of other individual capabilities. Through provision of such basic services, AS School promotes wider participation in education by less resourced individuals, in this case migrant youths. The contribution by the school can be viewed as a powerful tool in bringing about positive effects in society, particularly creating awareness of the importance of education (Nishimuko
The O-Level certificate obtained by AS School graduates provided the basis from which they could consider pursuing further education opportunities. The significance of education and of successfully completing the O-Level certificate was highlighted by the youths interviewed who, based on their educational achievements, expressed confidence and feelings of empowerment with regard to realising their aspirations, demonstrating the varied outcomes of their educational opportunities:
‘I realised then that there was no future in working for construction companies or doing gardening, so I decided it is better I go to school. I started school, and I started in form one where I had left in Zimbabwe. I completed my O-Levels in 2011 [
‘At Albert, I had a nickname, they used to call me Professor and that is the title which I wanted to be called by in my life; without that I can call myself a failure. When I was doing my O-Level, I told myself that I want to be a professor because of the inspiration I got from professors. We used to go to the seminars and career guidance at the University of Witwatersrand. I also have participated in a young people’s parliament and we used to meet professors and the way those professors responded [
The migrant youths valued their education received at AS School for different reasons. Amongst the key values of education they mentioned was that it allowed them to earn respect, acknowledgement and appreciation from members of society, particularly in their hometowns. In this way, access to and the potential for educational continuation was seen as a tool for both economic and social mobility. Thus, whilst FBOs such as AS School might initially be seen as ways to mitigate particular social crises and meet basic needs, with a simultaneous focus on education, various other capabilities are fostered in the process, such as the capability for respect and social mobility. The expansion of other capabilities strengthens one’s aspirations, particularly in contexts where aspirational maps may have been narrow, as asserted by Appadurai (
Migrant youths in the study expressed that whilst they all had aspirations in Zimbabwe, they had not thought it was possible to achieve these aspirations because of their social and economic circumstances. Their circumstances constrained the development and promotion of the capability to aspire. According to Hart (
Summary of migrants’ pre-and post-migration educational aspirations.
Pseudonym | Level of schooling completed at Albert Street School | Post-secondary education at time of interview | Pre-migration educational aspirations | Functioning’s at time of interview | Post-migration educational aspirations | Future aspirations |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chido | O-Level | Studying | Accountant or pilot, but his dreams were disrupted by poverty and could not think of anything else. | Studying accounting (diploma) | Complete the diploma | Have an educational qualification financial security be able to take care of family. |
Elias | O-Level | None | Information technician, but father wanted him to study teaching. | Job seeker | Study information technology | Start IT company have dignity and spiritual freedom peace with family members happiness. |
Terry | O-Level | Studying | To study science | Studying law (degree) | Complete the degree | Run a business help others financial freedom. |
Henry | O-Level | Studying | Accountant, but was not aware he was capable because of lack of motivation and support. | Studying business informatics | Complete the diploma | Start IT company be successful give back to community empower young people financial security be happy. |
Pete | O-Level | Studying | Pilot, but thought of joining the army because of the challenges. | Studying engineering (diploma) | Study mechatronics | Have a home and a family financial security open an orphanage successful career provide for family. |
Sipho | O-Level | None | Pilot or a policeman | Job seeker | Study information technology | Get a degree in IT build a house for his grandmother care for family open a children’s home. |
Rusu | O-Level | None | Accountant | Job seeker | Study film | Be educated have shelter be able to provide for family live a better life |
Elton | O-Level | Dropped out of university because of financial challenges | To study medicine | Job seeker | Complete the degree in environmental management and become a professor | Have a family financial independence recognition (for achievements). |
Musa | O-Level | Studying | No educational aspirations and never dreamt of becoming somebody, thought he would become a truck driver or a mechanic. | Studying business management (certificate) | Complete the certificate | Get a degree and be a professional secure employment financial security providing for family. |
Paridzai | O-Level | None | Politician or army officer or teacher | Doing piece jobs | Study IT | Run his own IT company be respected (for his achievements) financial independence give back to community. |
Lindani | O-Level | None | Hoped only to survive. Never believed in the power of education. | Job seeker | Study BA Journalism | Be educated travel the world financial independence job security give back to community start a family. |
Lesley | O-Level | None | Police officer, but his father wanted him to attend Bible School. | Job seeker | Study IT and film | Be a role model have secure employment recognition (for his achievements). |
Together with the extracts provided subsequently,
‘In terms of technology, South Africa is more advanced compared to Zimbabwe. At school you can start using computers, tablets and everything here, but in Zimbabwe it’s very rare. Some students are capable of doing that in some schools but they are expensive, but here we are talking of general schools, you can have access to all these things. (Paridzai, 25, Male, doing piece jobs)
‘I [
‘I didn’t know that I was actually capable of producing more, you know in Zimbabwe they didn’t notice our talents, so when I came here and started studying [
In addition to the above, most of the youths held the Cambridge certification in high regard and noted that the certificate would be useful back in Zimbabwe, whilst emphasising the exposure gained at the school. Thus, whilst attending AS school might have been driven initially by the need for basic capabilities, the exposure the migrant youths obtained through and at the school altered their view on the potential role of education in their lives, and in the process made aspiring possible. For example, Paridzai highlighted that he was surprised to see that schooling in South Africa was so advanced compared with Zimbabwe. Although he had thought of joining the army or becoming a teacher whilst in Zimbabwe, he now stated that the exposure gained at AS School made him realise that he was interested in studying information technology. Similarly, Lindani noted that, whilst in Zimbabwe, he had lost hope to survive; however, when he attended AS School, he started to see that he could survive and achieve more than he thought possible. Furthermore, the opportunity to attend AS School enhanced the migrant youths’ knowledge and critical thinking, which in turn expanded their career choices. For example, Terry changed his aspirations from wanting to become a scientist to becoming a lawyer through exposure and networking with advocates whilst he was at the school. Musa, who received a scholarship to study online after completing his schooling at AS School, believed he had an opportunity to pursue what he wanted to:
‘After completing the higher certificate I will get an internship after that if I want to get further with the degree they will see whether I qualify or not so that I can pursue my degree. If I don’t qualify with the money I will get, I will either go to UNISA or then do something.’ (Musa, 21, Male, Certificate in Business Management Student)
Although the migrant youths may still face some challenges as they navigate their way in the country, as seen in Musa’s extract, institutions such as AS School, through their social competence, combined with individual agency, provide an opportunity for young marginalised migrants to strive towards their desired well-being. For most of the men, AS School provided an environment where it was possible to aspire towards what had seemed unachievable whilst living in Zimbabwe.
Though the opportunity to enrol at AS School was open to all migrant children who lived at CMC, mostly men enrolled. None of the young women who participated in the study had attended AS School. As highlighted earlier, this might be because most of the young women, upon arrival in South Africa, found live-in domestic work. This could also be ascribed to other societal and gendered expectations and the responsibilities attached to such expectations. One of the reasons given by the young women on why they had not attended free-access education at AS School was related to age, as shown below:
‘I thought I was too old to go back to school. I asked myself what I will be doing in school at 21 when there are probably young children of 15 years of age.’ (Neo, 27, Female, job seeker)
When asked about their short-term aspirations, most young women noted that they wanted financial stability so that they could provide for their families back home. This was contrary to men, particularly those who had completed the O-Level at AS School, whose short-term aspirations were related to ‘enrolling for a diploma and/or degree’ or ‘completing my diploma and/or degree’. Although the migrant men interviewed acknowledged the significance of financial returns, most of them believed that the desired income would be obtainable once they become educated. The view held by the migrant men was that education would expand their opportunities for employment and they would then afford the lifestyle they desired (e.g. ability to buy a house and a car). Thus, an institution such as AS School, through access to education, allowed the capability of aspiring for a better life to seem possible for the migrant men. Through education, there is hope for leading desired and valued lives. This shows how AS School, through its social competencies, was key in shaping the aspirations of the migrant men as they navigated their way in a foreign land.
We noted earlier that most young migrant women often took up domestic work upon arrival, and in this specific case did not utilise the social competencies of AS School. This could be attributed to the traditionally gendered roles ascribed to men and women, particularly on what one ought to do or to have achieved either at a certain age or because of one’s gender. This is seen in Nancy’s view when she asserted ‘… when I look at my age, I am now a mum, and everyone is looking up to me, sometimes I think it is unnecessary [
This study was approved by the University of the Free State (UFS-EDU-2014-043).
DenJaeghere (
For most of the migrant men in the study, agency was seen in their decisions to take up the opportunity to study at AS School when they could have continued to search for jobs for survival in South Africa. Given DeJaeghere’s (
Relationship between social competencies and agency in aspirations formation.
Resigned aspirations are placed at the intersection of available social competencies and low levels of agency operating within the aspirations window,
Musa’s extract highlights powerful aspirations, where the intersection of available social competencies converges with high levels of agency operating within the aspirations window. The individual has control over various dimensions of life such as the emotional, physical and mental states of being. These states of being exist in flexible social and structural settings, which may include higher education, migration and/or labour policies, and access to schooling. Such clear aspirations indicate a positive interaction between an individual’s high levels of agency and a positive environment. However, the allusion to social competencies does not propose that the existing positive environment would automatically make it easy for individuals to raise or form their educational aspirations. Instead, it puts forward that, despite one’s circumstances, one might decide to see potential and possibilities in an otherwise challenging context. Hence, understanding the nuanced intersection of agency and social conditions is essential.
As seen in
Most of the young migrants, particularly men who had neither completed their secondary schooling in Zimbabwe nor attended AS School, highlighted frustrated aspirations. This type of aspiration formation lies at the intersection of absent social competencies and low levels of agency operating within the aspirations window. The interaction of these two contexts can lead to a condition where an individual lacks self-confidence in the social and structural conditions present. Similar to resigned aspirations, various factors may lead to low levels of agency, such as a lack of motivation or individual background. Low agency is continually accompanied by a lack of conducive conditions such that the aspiring individual develops a perception that there is a lack of opportunities.
With the different formulations of educational aspirations mentioned earlier, the conception of ‘imagining alternative futures’ forwarded by DeJaeghere (
In this article, we have shown how FBOs can be ‘significant purveyors of education, service delivery and other non-market goods’ (Alkire
The authors declare that they have no competing interests with regard to the writing of this article.
Both authors made a substantial scholarly contribution to the writing of this article based on conceptualisation, analysis and interpretation of research data and critically revised all sections that needed revision.
Form six is the highest grade in high school using the Cambridge education system and is equivalent to Grade 12 in South African standards. AS School follows the Cambridge ‘form’ education system.
For instance, forms threes and fours attending one class.
The formal South African school leaving certificate. The full matriculation certificate requires successful completion of one of the local languages, which neither students nor teachers were fluent in.
Further research is needed to better understand this gender dynamic.
Children who migrated with their parents and who might not have been resident at the church shelter, including children of local citizens.
The process where individuals draw from the lives, achievements or ideals of those who enter their ‘radar screen’ (Ray