South Africa: Citizenship, violence and xenophobia

More than 50 people died and tens of thousands of people were displaced as a result of ‘xenophobic’ violence in South Africa during 2008. A number of urgent questions resulted from these attacks: Why are foreign African migrants the targets of violence in informal settlements? What is the explanation for the timing, location and scale of the outbreaks? Was this sudden and unexpected or was it predictable? And, what are the main drivers behind this violence?