Assimilation, Emigration, Semigration, and Integration: 'white' peoples' strategies for finding a comfort zone in post-apartheid South Africa1 Richard Ballard Iwaspartofthesystem,Iwashookedintoit. . . [Wecontinued withourprivilegedexistenceknowingthattherewereallthose millions. . . outn hecoldasitwere,knowinghattherehadtobe changesomewheresomehowsortofwantingt,butin hesecret of your heart thinking gosh away goes my nice comfortable feeling. . .  However much you can want a situation to change, you'regivingupyourcomfortzone (nterview,July 1996). Our sense of space and sense ofself are mutually constituive. As muchaswetrytoshapeourworldstofitinwithouridentities,our environments also shape us, challenge us, and constrain us. We attemptto findcomfort zones within whicitis possible for usto 'be ourselves' These are places that do not chalenge our self conceptions.Homeinitsidealformisthebestexample.Itisaplace where we feel safe andcanletour guards down. Somepeople say that their homes are an extension of themselves. We choose to decorateourhomesinawaythatpleasesusandwillimpressvisitors whoseafirmationweseek.Homeis,visuallyandinthethingsdone and ords spokenin itsperimeters, amanifestationofour values. Ifwearelucky,hometranscendstheliteralbuilding we livein and becomesmetaphoricallyextendedto heneighbourhood,city,even country or continent.To freely say that SouthAfrica is my home requires me to be sufiiently comfortable with the values, practices, and words spoken within its boundaries. It must be a sourceofsafetyandsecuritybothphysicallyadmetaphorically. In the following discussion, I wish to consider ways in which 'white' SouthAfricansattempto findcomfort zones. In thepast, comfortzoneswerecreatedthroughformalsegregation.To create livingenvironmentswhichwouldfacilitatetheirmodern,European sense of themselves, the minority government removed those people,values,behaviours,languageswhichwereseentocontradict thisidentity. However, fromthe 1970sformalsegregationbecame increasinglyuntenable.Theminoritygovernmentbegantopromote the idea of assimilation in which a 'black' middle class would be alowedinto the comfrt onesof 'white' people in echangefor thesanctityofprivateproperty andaproperty marketthat would continue to filter out more 'undesirable' people. However, as squatters and street traders have demonstrated, it is possible to usurplandinthecity with littleregardforthepropertymarket.The implication for some is that the living environment no longer functionstoaffirmaWestern,modern,senseofselfandisnolongera sourceofsecurityandsafety.Theextremeresponsetothisdislocation is relocation to anoher country which accords better with the identity to which individuals aspire. 51 in Natasha Distiller and Melissa Steyn (eds) (2004) Under construction: 'Race' and identity in South Africa today. Johnanesburg: Heinemann. pp 51-66.