Sewing friendship: Increasing inclusivity through creating shared social spaces for migrant and local populations in Durban

Abstract

Most women in South Africa are heavily burdened by unemployment, poverty, and inequality. However, African immigrant women in South Africa are faced with additional challenges such as xenophobic discrimination, economic and social exclusion ,and poor integration of migrants in workspaces  occupied  by  locals.  This  study  took  advantage  of  the  growing  demand  for higher education to embrace engaged scholarship to embark on an engagement process that facilitated transformational  learning  by  enabling  experience sharing  among a diverse group  of local  and foreign  women  from Thusa  Batho Sewing  for  Africa,  a  community  sewing  project  located  in Durban.  Results for this study, which was designed as a participatory action research, reveal the university’s agency in nurturing associational  enterprises  that  facilitate  social  change.  Further, results show that inclusive shared social  spaces  can  be  used  as  resources  to  facilitate  both individual  and  group  change through  initiating  shared  problem  identification  and  solving processes that can have a long-term impact on the community.