Paper short abstract:

This paper explores everyday place- and home- making practices among Eritrean migrants from humanitarian backgrounds who live in Melbourne. It locates practices amid broader histories and socialities, and contributes to theorising on translocality and relational placemaking.

Paper long abstract:

Fleeing one of the world’s most oppressive regimes, Eritreans have traversed far and wide in search of a better life. In Australia, a distant corner of a growing Eritrean diaspora, they have tried to make places and homes for themselves while navigating new and often challenging environments. In this paper, I explore everyday place- and home- making practices among Eritrean migrants from humanitarian backgrounds who live in Melbourne. Drawing on fieldwork in Melbourne’s western suburbs, I describe my interlocutors' encounters and connections in public and semi-public places and spaces (e.g., streets, a car parking space, small shops and cafes), and the impact of practices such as greeting, recognising others, and various forms of support, on making places more inhabitable and cultivating senses of localness. The paper locates these practices amid broader histories and socialities that go beyond Australia, and contributes to theorising on translocality and relational dimensions of placemaking. Finally, I consider the significant role of my interlocutors in connecting between recent migrants and their novel environments, and in reproducing and extending the localities they inhabit.