ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by revisiting the issues surrounding the somewhat contested category of ‘the British in South Africa’ and the problematics of conducting research with this group. It introduces the concepts of interracial partnership/marriage and ‘racial projects’. The chapter reveals that some of the benefits which accrue to whiteness continue to inflect the ‘transgressive’ British migrants’ racial beliefs and practices, albeit in less overt ways. It introduces the concept of ‘transnational normativity’ to conceptualise the ways in which, historically, white British migration to South Africa has been primarily fuelled by desires for, and promises of, upward social and economic mobility. Researching the British in South Africa directly engages with a broader social politics about whiteness, privilege, nation building and the historiography and contemporary politics of South Africa. White British migrants in South Africa live in spaces powerfully shaped by the apartheid past and the legacy of discourses of whiteness continue to sustain the contemporary context.
