Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes collective dynamics and individual strategies unfolding amongst Eritrean migrants residing in Switzerland that nurture or overcome anxieties related to the power and the reach of the Eritrean transnational authoritarianism.

Paper long abstract:

Anxiety is pervasive in migration and exile: uncertain journeys and insecure settlements generate significant unease and fears but disquiet may also relate to homeland powers. In some cases, migrants figure out that they have fled only apparently a boundless authoritarian regime.

Since years, Eritreans in exile have reasonable concerns about surveillance, control and threats exerted by Eritrean state agents dispatched abroad. Eritrean migrants fear about the consequences their disloyalty toward the demanding regime may have at home for their families. They fear about denunciation and feel obliged to comply with state requirements (taxation, attendance to meeting, etc.). Many anticipate future risks or they worry about arbitrary state measures taking place at home or in the diaspora. At the same time, however, active political opposition have recently gained impetus in most European countries: increasingly, dissents dare to challenge the current Eritrean state and to oppose their fellow citizens loyal to the regime. In Switzerland, this overt opposition has recently been engaging Eritreans to reflect on their fears about the regime.

We argue that fears related to the current Eritrean state are central to understand how homeland politics unfolds transnationally. We analyze how Eritreans living in Switzerland, who condemn the current regime, imagine state power, how they avoid troubles with state agents and how and why they commit (or not) in homeland politics. Thus, in examining emotional and representational repertoires as well as political activities, this paper seeks to highlight the various collective dynamics and individual strategies that nurture or overcome anxieties related to transnational Eritrean political powers.