In Nairobi, migrants weigh the label “mzungu” for belonging and privilege

A study based on five months of fieldwork finds that people’s reactions to the word track ideas about whiteness, status, and foreignness shaped by colonial history.

Editorial illustration — not from the study.

A paper in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies examines how privileged migrants in Nairobi responded to the term “mzungu,” and how Kenyan interlocutors understood and used it. “Mzungu” is described as a loaded label shaped by a colonial and neocolonial history.

The authors say that both cautious or negative reactions and more playful or semi-ironic uses are informative. The work also argues for more attention to migration categories in Global South host settings, to avoid a Western-centric focus in migration studies.

How “mzungu” is received

The paper is based on five months of ethnographic research in 2016 and argues that “mzungu” blends connotations of whiteness, socio-economic privilege, and foreignness. Many migrant interlocutors reported first encountering the term on arrival in East Africa and felt uncomfortable with or outright rejected it, while others mobilised the term themselves, often with semi-ironic distance. The authors contend that these different emotional responses help show how privilege operates in migration, and that the “politics” of word choice are part of migrants’ lived experience.

Why the word matters

The study highlights how a single everyday label can connect to long-running histories and shape how people experience belonging and privilege during migration. It also points to the need for research on migration-related categories in host contexts outside the West, as a way to address Western-centric bias in migration research.

Ethnography, meaning, and limits

The evidence comes from ethnographic fieldwork—people’s accounts and observed interactions—conducted over five months in 2016. The abstract does not provide details on the number or backgrounds of participants, so the findings’ scope and generalizability to other cities or migrant groups are not established here. The paper’s claims are interpretive, focusing on meanings and reactions to language rather than testing a cause-and-effect relationship.

// Source

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies · 2026 · DOI: 10.1080/1369183x.2026.2702666

View paper (DOI)Open access versionPublished 2026-08-03

Authors: Sarah Kunz

Institutions: University of Essex

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