Urban Housing for Rural Peasants: Farmworker Housing in South Africa

Farmworkers seldom experience place attachment and frequently suffer from social disruption. In South Africa in 1998 one thousand farmworker families were assisted by their employers, via the government's Housing Subsidy Programme, to access housing in the nearest urban area. We investigated whether their ownership of urban housing did indeed create stability through place attachment, asset building and integration into the community. We discussed this with 32 of these relocated farmworkers in four focus groups and interviewed five key informants. We found little evidence of place attachment or stability and it appeared that discrimination against these farmworkers was reinforcing social disruption.