This session explores xenophobia as a central feature of rising authoritarianism, reflecting a broader logic that constructs certain populations as “enemies” to be controlled, excluded, or expelled.

Focusing on South Africa, the session examines the relationship between law, space, and survival within a historical context shaped by apartheid, dispossession, and spatial segregation. While the Constitution guarantees dignity, equality, and transformation, many communities continue to face evictions, exclusion from urban space, and xenophobic enforcement practices. The session highlights the gap between formal rights and lived realities.

Through case studies and practitioner insights, participants will explore how law can function both as a tool of protection and a mechanism of exclusion. The session creates space to reflect on what it means to practice law in contexts where survival—rather than the full realization of rights—shapes daily life.

A transnational lens will connect the South African experience with other contexts, including the United States and Indonesia, where migration has become a key site of authoritarian politics. Participants will examine how anti-migrant policies, border enforcement, detention, labor precarity, and exclusionary narratives are used to redefine belonging, alongside grassroots strategies of resistance, protection, and solidarity.

Learning objectives
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• Understand how xenophobia functions within contemporary authoritarianism

• Analyze the relationship between law, exclusion, and survival in South Africa

• Situate current legal struggles within South Africa’s historical and constitutional context

• Examine how law can both protect and marginalize communities

• Reflect on the role and limits of movement lawyering in contexts of precarity

• Identify practical strategies and challenges from case-based examples

• Draw connections across global contexts and resistance efforts