ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how migration control in South Africa affects undocumented migrants’ sense and use of time. Intensified migration control makes the prospects of arrest and deportation more perceptible among undocumented migrants. I suggest that this not only heightens undocumented migrants’ sense of vulnerability to arrest and deportation but also plunges them into a profound state of ‘temporal irregularity’ wherein they live anxiously anticipating the potential materialisation of arrest and deportation but remain uncertain as to when and how arrest and deportation would actually materialise. I frame this temporal paradox of deportability, in which deportation is experienced as an inevitable prospect, but with no certain timeframe, as an experience of ‘waiting.’ The concept of temporal irregularity is significant in analysing the lived experiences of deportable migrants who are constantly subjected to the threat/possibility of arrest and deportation. It draws our attention to how unpredictability and uncertainty both in terms of future horizon and daily routine can negatively affect migrants’ well-being. The chapter is based on an ethnographic exploration of undocumented Zimbabwean migrants’ experiences and understandings of living in South Africa as deportable people.
