Jonathan Klaaren has written an important study of the historic formation of South African citizenship against the backdrop of its admirable 1996 Constitution and Bill of Rights, its embrace of dignity and equality as founding principles, and especially the commitment in the Preamble: We, the people of South Africa … believe that South Africa belongs to all who live within it, united in our diversity. Klaaren refers to the inherent contradictions of this constitutional promise in contemporary South African public discourse and judicial decision making, notably the dichotomy between citizens and residents and citizen residents and citizen nonresidents. He locates the origins of these contradictions in the period leading up to as well as after the establishment of the Union of South Africa, many decades before the advent of constitutional democracy.
Although not the primary focus of his study, the questions related to nation and citizenship in a constitutional democracy are notable in light of South Africa's history of racial exclusion, and as societies across the globe similarly grapple with questions of sovereignty, citizenship, identity, immigration, and belonging. Klaaren's book is a timely and thoughtful exploration of these issues through the “making” (2) of citizens who were once prohibited immigrants in South Africa.
Klaaren seeks out to investigate and analyze when South Africa's varied population became something more than individuals occupying the same geographical space. Klaaren therefore explores the fundamental question of when South Africa's preconstitutional citizenship was established and how it came about.
Like all societies, South Africa's history since the onset of European colonialism in the 17th century has been one of settlement, migration, population displacement, control of resources, and conflict, with dominant epochs and events that have preoccupied historians, social scientists, and other scholars. Klaaren has chosen to concentrate his analysis on the regulation of mobility in South Africa, from 1897 to 1937, of three population groups, namely, Africans, Asians, and Europeans, and the differing and discriminatory levels of control over each group.
Klaaren argues that this historic focus provides a useful lens through which to understand successive colonial and apartheid governments' regulation of the population, especially the non-White population, as well as the contemporary notions of citizenship in South Africa and their contested meanings. The bookends are the first immigration laws of the provinces that eventually became the Union of South Africa, culminating in various immigration laws passed by the South African Parliament. The first example of such laws was the Immigrants Restriction Act passed in 1897 in the province of Natal, followed by others, and embodied in the South African Aliens Act of 1937.
Utilizing the interdisciplinary methodology of law and society scholarship, Klaaren's study traverses legal, sociological, historical, political, postcolonial and migration and mobility studies. The book is divided into 10 chapters, commencing with an introductory chapter that sets out the structure of the book, and locating the question of South African citizenship in its historical and disciplinary (migration and mobility studies) context, as well as the development of South Africa's legal culture.
The book then moves on to the early policies and practices of regulating the mobility of Indians, Chinese, and Africans in the four provinces that became the Union of South Africa, listing the laws regulating such mobility and the development of comprehensive immigration laws. Included in these laws are the early incarnations of the infamous pass laws that controlled the movement of Africans for the centuries preceding South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, and was such an odious and defining feature of apartheid South Africa.
Klaaren examines the convergence of two parallel national developments, namely, the evolution of laws and policies regulating the movement of populations with the emergence of the new national polity, the Union of South Africa. One of the earliest pieces of legislation passed by the Union government was the 1913 Immigration Regulation Act, which was pivotal in the unification process. Klaaren examines its centrality in laying the foundations for the ensuing tensions between the “paternalistic non-racial” (87) approach of the colonial authorities in London and the “racist intent” (87) of the local colonial administration.
Klaaren examines the growth of immigration control bureaucracies, starting in the provinces but ultimately located in the new national legislative and policy framework. He points out how it was the processes of laws, particularly immigration laws, that underwrote the unified state's notion of nationality and citizenship—one predicated on distinctions among the various populations. Klaaren's salient point throughout the book is that the control and regulation of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent provided the basis for the consequent unitary state, the Union of South Africa (and later the Republic), which was embedded in distinctions and inequality until the advent of constitutional democracy.
In his concluding chapter, Klaaren considers some innovative ways for South Africa to embrace a unique and inclusive global cosmopolitan approach to nationality, sovereignty, and citizenship. He pays particular attention to an Afropolitan approach in recognition of South Africa's role and location on the African continent.
Klaaren writes in a clear and accessible manner. His empirical methodology and conscription of a wide range of theoretical and policy perspectives, as illustrated by his impressive bibliography, make for a sophisticated and textured sociolegal analysis. He therefore has succeeded in making a noteworthy contribution to the literature on the subject.
Although located in South African historical, social, political, and legal developments, this study has reverberations globally. Indeed, some scholars and commentators have referred to the current global politics of immigration as “apartheid without apartheid” (228). Klaaren's book has the potential to inspire and encourage other scholars to initiate and build on research of their own histories and contemporary controversies regarding nationality, citizenship, immigration, and identity. The book's appeal is to a wide multidisciplinary audience and its contribution to the field of migration and mobility studies is particularly pertinent and valuable. Klaaren's contribution to sociolegal studies is considerable – and particularly exciting for law and society scholars who are engaged in research on the global movement of people. His books will also be useful to law and society scholars examining the possibilities and limitations of law and legal processes.
