The Lesotho-South Africa border is regarded as highly porous with many Basotho migrants seizing work and educational opportunities in South Africa, while simultaneously maintaining strong ties to family members, businesses, and land in Lesotho. The fact that Sesotho is spoken on both sides of the border is one of the particular factors that has made it possible for people to move back and forth with relative ease. The border nevertheless remains an important political and socio-cultural barrier in the lives of those crossing it. While some have managed to acquire the permits that enable them to cross the border freely and take up formal work, others occupy a precarious legal status, which limits their housing and employment prospects. Moreover, the lives of all African migrants in South Africa have been affected by growing xenophobic violence in recent years. This has reinforced distinctions between insiders and outsiders, and limited the opportunities migrants have to experience belonging to South African society. Despite these emerging dynamics, the ways in which the border is perceived by migrants — as both a physical barrier between countries and as a social barrier distinguishing peoples — has yet to be explored. Drawing on narrative interviews conducted with Basotho migrants living in Bloemfontein, South Africa in a variety of legal and employment circumstances, this paper aims to highlight the meaning of the border in the migrants’ day-to-day lives.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with nine Basotho labor migrants in Bloemfontein, this article examines their experiences of being a stranger by exploring their accounts of everyday life. Literature on migration studies confirms that migrants face numerous challenges in destination areas, and South Africa is no exception in this regard. The major concerns expressed by the research participants are harassment by the police, hostility from the local citizens, poor living conditions, exploitation by employers, the language barrier, and difficulty in accessing public services. This article argues that these constraints make it difficult for migrants to establish a sense of belonging. Instead, they have a sense of being outsiders and strangers in Bloemfontein.