4. MIGRATION AND STATELESSNESS Statelessness in Zimbabwe is largely driven by colonial history, migration, displacement and contrived political agendas. 4.1 PRE-INDEPENDENCE MIGRATION Colonial settlement in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) was largely dependent on cheap African labour, both native and migrant, in agriculture, mining and other industries. To force native Africans to seek wage employment, the colonial government imposed rents and taxes that were to be paid in cash. 19 Despite this, labour remained scarce and the introduction of migrant labour from neighbouring territories was mooted as early as 1892. Large-scale migration from 1903 was organized through the Rhodesian Native Labour Bureau, a British colonial government-sponsored labour organization designed to coerce migrant labour to work in the mines and later in white settler-owned farms. This was later replaced by the Rhodesian Native Labour Supply Commission in 1946. Nyasaland (Malawi) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) were regarded as labour reservoirs for farm work and mining respectively. Just before World War I, Mozambique became a third source of labour after supplies diminished from northern territories (present-day Zambia and Malawi). Bechuanaland (Botswana) provided substantive labour.20 World War II brought shortages in imported goods and provided the impetus for industrialization in Southern Rhodesia to substitute imports. Industrialization provided more opportunities for migrants to move to urban areas. To harness investment and economic dividends, the Central African Federation (1953-1963) was formed, comprising Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi). Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) dominated the Central Africa federation economically and militarily and it had the largest population of the white settler community.21 From that period, there was an increase in foreign contract labour and a decrease in indigenous labour supplies. By 1954, Southern Rhodesia employed around half a million Africans, of whom half were native and half were migrants from neighbouring territories, mainly Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland and Mozambique.22 The migrant labourers were issued with Rhodesian identity cards or registration certificates and classified as “native aliens” or non-indigenous natives.23 That alien identity, a 19 G. Arrighi, Labour Supplies in Historical Perspective: A Study of the Proletarianization of the African Peasantry in Rhodesia. Journal of Development Studies, 6, 3, 1970 20 Peter Scott, Migrant Labor in Southern Rhodesia, Geographical Review, Jan. 1954, Vol. 44, No. 1, Taylor and Francis, (Jan. 1954), pp. 29-48 21 Southern Rhodesia Constitution (Order in Council), 1961 22 Peter Scott, Migrant Labor in Southern Rhodesia, Geographical Review, Jan. 1954, Vol. 44, No. 1, Taylor and Francis, (Jan 1954), pp. 29-48 23 Peter Scott, Migrant Labor in Southern Rhodesia, Geographical Review , Jan., 1954, Vol. 44, No. 1, Taylor and Francis, (Jan., 1954), pp. 29-48; Anusa Daimon ‘Mabhurandaya’: The Malawian Diaspora in Zimbabwe: 1895 to 2008, Doctoral thesis in the faculty of humanities at the for Central African Studies at the University of Free State. WE ARE LIKE “STRAY ANIMALS” THOUSANDS LIVING ON THE MARGINS DUE TO STATELESSNESS IN ZIMBABWE Amnesty International 12