‘Social cohesion’ is not the answer to violence against immigrants in SA
SOME well-meaning people hope we can end violence against immigrants by working to ensure that we are all the same. In reality, we can do it only if we respect the fact that we are different.A common response to the violence is to lament a lack of "social cohesion". While those who suggest this mean well, their remedy would almost certainly make immigrants’ lives here even more difficult."Social cohesion" — a phrase much loved by South Africans, including the government, which held a conference to encourage it — started popping up in the writing of academics and policy people when immigrants began settling in the cities of Western Europe and North America. Not only were many a different colour from most locals — they brought with them cultures and religions (such as Islam) with which those societies were not familiar. Locals became anxious that their fond image of their country as one inhabited only by people who looked and thought like them was under threat."Social cohesion" was su...
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