Abstract:
This article is framed within the global context of immigration and the resultant debates
around citizenship, belonging, inclusion and exclusion. The task of schools as social
institutions is to ‘integrate’ and ‘educate’ immigrant youth and as such they can be seen
as the primary sites where the politics of belonging and struggles over belonging and
citizenship are waged. Drawing on the conceptual framework of ‘youthscapes’ and the
theoretical framework of critical race theory, this article engages with the
contradictions inherent in schools and the manner in which the South African
education system is implicated in constructing different ‘kinds’ of citizens and
reproducing hierarchies of belonging, even in its efforts at inclusivity.
