Manufacturing the Criminal Migrant: Securitization, Digital Amplification, and the Discursive Construction of Anti-Migrant Violence in South Africa

  • Thembeka Nkosi 1 * Author
  • Kagiso Sithole 2 Author
  • Chisomo Phiri 3 Author
  • Kondwani Banda 4 Author
  1. Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha Campus, Eastern Cape, South Africa
  2. Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa
  3. Mzuzu University, Mzuzu, Malawi
  4. University of Livingstonia, Livingstonia, Malawi

* Corresponding author: Thembeka Nkosi

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Abstract

This paper examines the discursive production of the "criminal migrant" in post-apartheid South Africa, arguing that anti-migrant violence is not a spontaneous eruption from below but a politically manufactured phenomenon with traceable elite origins. Drawing on securitization theory from the Copenhagen School and Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding framework, the paper traces the pathway through which Black African migrants have been constructed as existential security threats across three registers: elite political speech acts, media and digital amplification ecosystems, and institutional policy. Analyzing primary sources spanning the founding of the #PutSouthAfricansFirst movement in April 2020 through the Ghanaian evacuation crisis of May 2026, the paper applies Balzacq's sociological extension of securitization theory to demonstrate how non-state actors such as Operation Dudula and March and March have reshaped the securitization process beyond its classical state-centric formulation. The argument advances a concept of circular securitization architecture: political elites produce securitizing speech acts; digital ecosystems amplify and distort these acts through affectively charged network dynamics; and the resulting public sentiment is subsequently cited to legitimate restrictive policy, completing a self-reinforcing loop that insulates the process from empirical challenge. The paper makes three contributions: it applies securitization theory systematically to an intra-African migration context where it has been under deployed; it introduces a framework for analyzing how non-state vigilante actors function as securitizing agents; and it provides the first scholarly analysis of the 2025 to 2026 escalation cycle, including the November 2025 Gauteng High Court judgment and the May 2026 Ghanaian evacuation, as evidence of securitization's institutional consolidation.

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Section: Articles
Issue: Vol. 2 No. 1 (2026): Open Journal of Social Sciences and Literary Research
Published: 06/04/2026
Pages: 45-59
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How to Cite

Nkosi, T., Sithole, K., Phiri, C., & Banda, K. (2026). Manufacturing the Criminal Migrant: Securitization, Digital Amplification, and the Discursive Construction of Anti-Migrant Violence in South Africa. Open Journal of Social Sciences and Literary Research, 2(1), 45-59.
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