Portia Stafford, a petite and usually soft-spoken 22-year-old, shouted through the razor wire at the burly men guarding the construction site in Soweto, a sprawling township in South Africa. When a guard threatened to shoot, the group backed off and Ms. Stafford felt her resolve deflate. Ms. Stafford, her sister and two cousins all have high school diplomas — historically a ticket to a decent job in South Africa. “There’s no moving forward,” Ms. Stafford said. She frets that only those with connections succeed, but she said, “I keep trying to get a job, and I go all out.”

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Persons: Portia Stafford, Stafford, “, Ms, ” Locations: Soweto, South Africa