ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with the socio-historical and political background of the so-called Zimbabwe Crisis in the post-2000 period and the migrations which occurred as a result and discusses links to older histories of migration and authoritarianism in the region. It revisits key moments in the late 1990s and in 2000 which led to the political, economic, and social consequences associated with the crisis, paying particular attention to ZANU-PF’s defeat in a referendum in February 2000 and the subsequently launched Land Reform. A central focus of this chapter are the changes occurring in Zimbabwe’s mobility dynamics as a consequence to these events. By taking a look at older histories of migration, including colonial mobility patterns, this chapter explains that the post-2000 trend of large-scale transnational out-migration represents a major shift in Zimbabwe’s traditional patterns of movement.
