Silindile Nanzile Mlilo is Project Manager and Doctoral Researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. Silindile has over 8 years of experience in extensive research and project management in both academia and the NGO sector. In her role as Project Manager at ACMS, Silindile is responsible for the management and monitoring of the Xenowatch project. This role entails monitoring and conducting research on xenophobic violence in South Africa; building partnerships and stakeholder engagement with community based organisations, migrant groups, government and civil society organisations to strengthen efforts that address xenophobic violence; communications and dissemination of project outputs to the public; and conducting workshops and trainings with various stakeholders to share research findings that aim to inform evidence based practice and policy development.

Silindile has earned a Bachelor of Social Work, and an MA in Human Rights from the University of Fort Hare in South Africa, respectively. She followed this by completing a two-year mobility Erasmus Mundus MA in Advanced Development in Social Work, from the University of Lincoln, Aalborg University, Instituto Superior de Ciencias Sociais e Politicas-Universidade De Lisboa and Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense. Her MA thesis was a qualitative study focusing on the welfare support for migrant youth in Paris suburbs, particularly how their needs and views are ignored in ‘culture-blind’ policies in France. Her current research project “Political subjectivities in post-colonial communities: Identity and belonging among Botswana’s non–Tswana migrant descendants” focuses on themes such as citizenship, belonging and identity for migrant descendants in Africa. The research aims to contribute to scholarly debates on citizenship, identity and belonging for post-colonial migrant communities in Africa.