Comparing South African and Latin American experience: Migration and housing mobility in Soweto

Given similar levels of economic development and inequality, it seems stran ge that more effort has not been made by South Africans to learn from the e arlier experience of urbanisation in countries such as Brazil, Chile and Co lombia, The paper shows that there are problems in drawing comparisons abou t migration and residential movement in Latin America and South Africa, but that there are growing signs of similarity. Some of these similarities wer e apparent even before the demise of apartheid, a policy that was never con sistent and changed many times. The paper observes that South African migra nts are becoming more like Latin Americans in demonstrating a growing attac hment to the city. Many Sowetans' lives do not fit the model of the 'circul ar' African migrant; many have lived in Johannesburg for a long time. Semi- permanent residence means that residential movement within the city is incr easingly similar to that typical in many Latin American cities. To judge fr om Latin American experience, the dismantling of formal apartheid is unlike ly to reduce levels of social segregation in Johannesburg, Rather, class di visions will be just as effective as apartheid in guaranteeing residential segregation.