Selecting immigrants

At time when (im)migration is at the forefront of international and South African debates, this title critically examines the relationship between changes in South Africa's immigration policies, and shifts in the construction of national identity by the South African state. Relating the history of the immigration policies of the South African State between 1910 and 2005, it explores the synergy between periods of significant change in state discourses and policies of migration, and those historical moments when South Africa was reinvented politically or in the process of active nation building. It is in these periods that the relationships between immigration, nationalism and national identity is most starkly revealed. In an interdisciplinary work, Peberdy provides the first history of South Africa's immigration legislation. It will be of local and international interest to not only academic readers but also those working on immigration policy, interested in South African history and identity, and activists.