
Contents
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Introduction Introduction
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Migration in the southwest Indian Ocean to 1897 Migration in the southwest Indian Ocean to 1897
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Permits, permit markets, and reform, 1897–1906 Permits, permit markets, and reform, 1897–1906
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Disintegration, agents and clerks, 1906–1915 Disintegration, agents and clerks, 1906–1915
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Migrant associations, attempted murder and forgers Migrant associations, attempted murder and forgers
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Conclusions Conclusions
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References References
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9 The Identity Thieves of the Indian Ocean: Forgery, Fraud and the Origins of South African Immigration Control, 1890s–1920s
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Published:October 2012
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Abstract
This chapter is about the fate of a registration system designed for the exclusion of ‘undesirable’ Indian migrants to South Africa in the first decades of the twentieth century. It traces the bureaucracy's deployment of residence permits, but shows how these were transacted along the networks established by long-established Indian Ocean merchant houses. This illicit economy provoked important reforms in record-keeping. Yet South Africa's immigration offices remained in disarray for another 15–20 years. The gaps were filled by shrewd criminal touting syndicates within the bureaucracy. More stringent record-keeping was finally in place by the mid-1920s due to help from migrant associations, although this hardly meant that insider subversion had been completely smothered. The chapter argues that South African border controls were not successfully coercive, and suggests that performative histories are important in the study of repressive registration regimes.
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