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Trading on a Grant: Integrating Formal and Informal Social Protection in Post-Apartheid Migrant Networks

Author

Listed:
  • Andries du Toit
  • David Neves
Abstract
This paper describes the findings of case studies-based research on how poor and marginalised people in post-apartheid migrant networks seek to ameliorate poverty and manage their vulnerability. It argues that the ways in which people make decisions regarding formal social grants and cash transfers, their utilisation and their indirect impacts need to be understood in the context of the pre-existing and underlying systems and practices of informal social protection (Bracking and Sachikonye, 2006). These informal strategies are shaped by two key phenomena (du Toit and Neves, 2008): complex, spatially extended, de-centred social networks; and deeply sedimented and culturally specific practices of reciprocal exchange. This paper shows how social grants are used in this context, and illustrates how cash transfers allow poor and vulnerable people to make ‘investments’ in human, physical and productive capital. The paper argues that a crucial aspect of the impact of cash transfers lies in the way they allow the leveraging of scarce resources within networks of reciprocal exchange. Social grants thus have an impact far beyond the particular groups targeted in official plans, often providing key resources for those who would otherwise be marginalised. At the same time, they have only limited utility in addressing the core dynamics that drive chronic poverty. Reducing structural poverty in South Africa requires measures that address the underlying problems of structural unemployment.

Suggested Citation

  • Andries du Toit & David Neves, 2009. "Trading on a Grant: Integrating Formal and Informal Social Protection in Post-Apartheid Migrant Networks," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 7509, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    • Handle: RePEc:bwp:bwppap:7509
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Servaas van der Berg & Krige Siebrits, 2010. "Social assistance reform during a period of fiscal stress," Working Papers 17/2010, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Jennifer Waidler & Stephen Devereux, 2019. "Social grants, remittances, and food security: does the source of income matter?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(3), pages 679-702, June.
    3. Zizzamia, Rocco, 2020. "Is employment a panacea for poverty? A mixed-methods investigation of employment decisions in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    4. Rachel Godfrey†Wood & Benjamin C. R. Flower, 2018. "Does Guaranteed employment promote resilience to climate change? The case of India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S1), pages 586-604, March.
    5. Mzukisi Xweso & Catherina Schenck & Derick Blaauw, 2021. "“Will wait for the government pension here†: Structural factors impacting on day labourers’ access to employment in East London, South Africa," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(4), pages 308-324, June.

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