migrant labour, noun phrase

Origin:
EnglishShow more Special use of general English.
1. Often in the phrase migrant labour system. The laws (many of which are no longer in force) and structures under which Black contract labourers from rural areas, the ‘homelands,’ or neighbouring African states, were recruited to work in the cities and in the mines, usually living without their families, often in single-sex hostels; migratory labour sense 1.
1948 [see Report of Native Laws Commission quot. at togt sense 2].
1952 B. Davidson Report on Sn Afr. 95The migrant labour system and starvation wages were fathered by Rhodes and his friends.
1984 E. Mphahlele Afrika my Music 10Field husbandry has diminished considerably owing to the disruptive impact of the migrant-labour system and the lack of good land.
1985 Platzky & Walker Surplus People 107A further and necessary consequence of the policy of restricted African urbanisation was the entrenchment of the migrant labour system after 1948.
1986 Nusas Talks to the ANC (pamphlet) 25A democratic state would have to control the mines if it were to end the migrant labour system, which they saw as one of the worst features of apartheid.
1987 Learn & Teach No.4, 3The bosses must end migrant labour and allow workers and their families to live near their factories.
1990 Sunday Times 8 July 18Migrant labour was not a creation of apartheid. It was started by the mine bosses in Johannesburg in the 1890s to secure cheap labour for the gold mines.
2. The Black labour force working within this system, or in a situation resulting from this system; migratory labour sense 2. Also attributive.
1986 P. Maylam Hist. of Afr. People 145Until recently the Rand mines have been heavily dependent on the supply of migrant labour from South Africa’s political boundaries.
1987 New Nation 5 Mar. 5The campaign against appalling living conditions in the SA Transport services migrant labour hostels continues to gain momentum.
Often in the phrase migrant labour system.The laws (many of which are no longer in force) and structures under which Black contract labourers from rural areas, the ‘homelands,’ or neighbouring African states, were recruited to work in the cities and in the mines, usually living without their families, often in single-sex hostels; migratory labour sense 1.
The Black labour force working within this system, or in a situation resulting from this system; migratory labour sense 2. Also attributive.
Derivatives:
Hence migrant labourer  noun phrase, a Black worker employed within the migrant labour system; migrant; cf. goduka.
1952 P. Abrahams in Drum July 11How much more can the hearts of those who rule ‘us’ be hardened? And what difference can it make to the lot of your migrant labourer, to your farm worker on the ‘Bethals’ of this land?
1964 M. Benson Afr. Patriots 77Migrant labourers usually remained barely educated and within a tribal fold.
1980 C. Hermer Diary of Maria Tholo 4Migrant labourers could work in Cape Town on a yearly contract but had to return to the homeland between each contract.
1984 E. Mphahlele Afrika my Music 176There are no apartment houses for Africans in South Africa. Single male hostels for migrant labourers, yes — dormitory style.
1986 P. Maylam Hist. of Afr. People 145In the twentieth century the flow of migrant labourers to the Rand mines continued to increase dramatically.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19521990

Derivatives

migrant labourer

Browse Related Words

By Category

Mining
Occupations

By Origin

English
migrant, nounn.migratory labour, noun phrasen. phr.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English