Foreign-born migrants – a group rarely compared with both internal
migrants and long-term residents – are often positioned as the most
disadvantaged South African urban population. We use data from a
2008 cross-sectional household survey conducted in Johannesburg to
compare a contextually relevant measure of social capital and livelihood
advantages between foreign-born migrants, internal migrants,
and long-term South African residents. Our findings are counterintuitive
and emphasize the need to explore the heterogeneity of urban
migrant populations, and the mechanisms in which they better their
lives, by showing that (1) foreign-born migrants have better urban
livelihood outcomes, and (2) indicators of social capital are not necessarily
associated with improved livelihood outcomes.