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Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I illustrate how the government can influence its diaspora across boarders regarding 'belonging' and how this shapes the sense of identification of the diaspora with its home country. This is shown on the case of Eritrea.

Paper long abstract:

Eritrea constitutes a special case of how governmental bodies act transnationally and affect their diaspora due to particularly strong state-diaspora relations - different scholars even call it 'enforced transnationalism'. This example shows that 'the state' must not be neglected in transnationalism research. First, this paper demonstrates the important role of the state within the transnationalism debate based on the Eritrean example. By adding the state dimension, I aim to illustrate the diaspora and the state as interdepend players in a transnational space. The way these interactions take place is a focus of this study. Second, this paper contains deliberations on transnational citizenship.

Bringing the two subjects together will show how the state shapes sense of identity and belonging as well as the debate on citizenship abroad. The overarching goal of this paper is to show how the Eritrean state affects exile Eritreans' identity and the identification with - respectively the notion of - their home country.