This chapter analyses the intersection of migration governance, societal xenophobia and food security for refugees and asylum seekers in urban South Africa. Utilising the ‘assemblage of refugee exclusion’ framework, it examines how state policies and practices, along with public xenophobia, perpetuate the food insecurity of these vulnerable groups. By analysing the legal and institutional mechanisms that contribute to their precarious status, the chapter highlights the compounded effects of legal constraints, xenophobic violence and systemic barriers to employment and social integration on food access and security. Through detailed fieldwork and interviews with displaced individuals, the study uncovers the critical challenges they face in navigating a hostile urban landscape marked by exclusionary practices, physical insecurity and restricted access to resources. The findings underscore the need for a holistic understanding of food insecurity that considers the sociopolitical dynamics affecting forcibly displaced populations, calling for policy interventions that address the root causes of exclusion and precarity in the context of urban migration.