Living in the shadows: identity concealment, language and everyday xenophobia among Zimbabwean-Venda migrants in South Africa

Introduction Although xenophobia in South Africa has been widely documented, existing scholarship has focused predominantly on violent outbreaks, public hostility, discrimination, and exclusion. Therefore, less attention has been paid to how xenophobia becomes embedded in migrants’ everyday lives and shapes identity management, social interactions, and perceptions of vulnerability beyond moments of overt violence. This gap is evident among Zimbabwean-Venda migrants, whose shared language and cultural similarities with South African Venda communities complicate conventional distinctions between insiders and outsiders. Methods Drawing on qualitative data from 15 participants purposively selected from a larger study of 30 Zimbabwean-Venda migrants residing in Pretoria, South Africa, this paper examines how migrants experience, negotiate, and respond to everyday xenophobia through identity concealment and linguistic practices. Theoretically, this paper draws from Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital and Goffman’s insights on identity management and passing to explore how language functions as a resource for social navigation, concealment, and the negotiation of belonging. Results The findings reveal that xenophobia extends beyond episodic violence and operates as a social condition that shapes migrants’ everyday social condition that shapes migrants’ everyday interactions and expectations of possible exclusion. Participants described experiences and observations of xenophobia, as well as anticipated vulnerability to discrimination and violence, which shaped decisions about when to disclose or conceal their Zimbabwean identities. Participants also used Tshivenda and other South African languages to reduce the immediate visibility of foreignness, navigate social encounters, and seek situational acceptance. Discussion However, linguistic proximity did not necessarily produce unconditional belonging or eliminate the significance of national difference. Rather, it enabled forms of conditional belonging in which acceptance could depend on foreignness remaining undisclosed or less visible. The paper argues that language serves not only as a marker of identity but also as an everyday resource through which migrants manage vulnerability, navigate exclusion, and negotiate conditional belonging. The paper shifts attention from large-scale xenophobic violence to the everyday management of foreignness and the conditions under which migrant belonging becomes possible, negotiated, and constrained.