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- Convenors:
-
Tanja Müller
(University of Manchester)
Milena Belloni (University of Antwerp)
Send message to Convenors
- Stream:
- Politics and International Relations
- Location:
- Appleton Tower, Seminar Room 2.11
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 12 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Recent scholarship on African diasporas emphasizes the emergence of new forms of political belonging. The proposed panel takes these dynamcis as a starting and seeks to better understand notions of transnational lived citizenship and how these shape political engagement in urban settings.
Long Abstract:
Abstract: Recent scholarship on African diasporas emphasizes the emergence of new forms of political belonging and transnational lived citizenship in particular among urban populations. The proposed panel takes these dynamcis as a starting and seeks to better understand notions of transnational lived citizenship and how these shape political belonging and engagement. The work of the panel conveners and some of the envisaged papers have a strong focus on the Horn of Africa in particular, but we are also interested in African urban contexts more widely.
We are soliciting papers that engage with these dynamics and ask questions such as:
a)How can acts of political belonging be better understood and analyzed?
b)How can political belonging be better harnessed to impact on political developments in host and home cities?
c)How is political belonging connected to the wider transnational social field?
d)How can the concept of 'transnational lived citizenship' help us understand allegiance to home countries through everyday acts of citizenship in host-countries or transit spaces?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 12 June, 2019, -Milena Belloni (University of Antwerp)
Paper short abstract:
To what extent can diaspora housing be used as a crucial site to explore transnational citizenship? This paper will attempt to answer this question by investigating the Eritrean case.
Paper long abstract:
To what extent can diaspora houses be used as a crucial site to explore transnational citizenship? This paper attempts to answer this question by investigating the Eritrean case. Based on recent ethnographic fieldwork on housing, home and migration in Eritrea and Europe (ERC HOMinG), this paper investigates, on the one hand, the shifting housing policies of the Eritrean government in the last thirty years. On the other hand, it describes migrants' aspirations to have a house back home and maps their different attitudes towards the government. Drawing from interviews with public officers in Eritrea, ethnographic fieldwork in diaspora neighbourhoods and informal conversation with migrants and their families back home, it will be argued that housing has been a key ingredient for the government to maintain a strong bond with its diaspora members, as well as for migrants to remain "Eritreans". However, given the complex political situation of the country in the last twenty years, the possibility to carry out housing projects has been limited by authorities. These limitations have had different implications on migrants and their families. In particular, the paper describes how housing policies have had different impact on the homeland connections of those who fled the country before 2000s and those who left afterwards, usually through irregular ways. By exploring the issue of housing, diaspora and state projects in the Eritrean case, this paper shows the importance of looking at diaspora housing as a key aspect of the contemporary articulation of transnational citizenship.
Nicole Hirt (GIGA Hamburg ) Abdulkader Saleh Mohammed (University of Oslo/GIGA)
Paper short abstract:
We present research about coping strategies of Eritrean diaspora and refugee communities in Europe struggling with conflicting attitudes towards their homeland and control attempts by the Eritrean regime. They retreat to sub-national communities to counter government-imposed hyper-nationalism.
Paper long abstract:
Our paper presents findings from fieldwork in Norway, Sweden, Germany and the UK among Eritrean diaspora communities in urban and semi-urban locations. In our previous work, we identified mechanisms of the Eritrean government to control diaspora communities through transnational institutions. In a second step, we have now explored reactions of diaspora communities from various ethnic, regional and religious backgrounds to attempts of the PFDJ's transnational organisations to spread Eritrean hyper-nationalism among the diaspora. We found that both long-exiled Eritreans and refugees who arrived in Europe recently are retreating to sub-national spaces such as religious communities, ethnic- or region-based networks as a silent protest against the government's vilification of sub-national sentiments. We observed conflicting feelings among our respondents, most of whom have strong feelings about Eritrea as a nation in trouble, but also find comfort among peer-groups organized along sub-national traits. We also found that the government is applying alternative mechanisms to reach out for refugees that refuse to get in touch with PFDJ-controlled transnational institutions such as Eritrean community centres (mahbere.coms). Most significantly, it is exerting strong influence over Orthodox Church communities that serve as meeting points for substantial parts of young Christian refugees by engaging a government-controlled clergy. We conclude that mutual mistrust, the persistence of ambivalence and conflicting identities characterise the diasporic space that the Eritrean nation has now become. This has resulted in a retreat into closed-minded communities, which hampers the development of a roadmap for Eritrea's future.
Mikal Woldu (SOAS, University of London)
Paper short abstract:
Through a comparative analysis, the proposed paper seeks to explore the ways in which the context of immigration and the changing migration policies in the country of settlement shape the ways in which migrants construed a specific understanding of political citizenship.
Paper long abstract:
Migrants' engagement in transnational activities poses important questions about their ability to foster a sense of national belonging and loyalty towards two or more nations. State control over transnational migrants by their country of origin competes with, and may come into conflict with, the policies and politics of living in a new host country. Indeed, the multiple entanglements with which migrants engage, affect the way that a community is organized, its access to education and work, and the development of new forms of identity through positive forms of identification and/or through the experience of discrimination. Through a comparative analysis of the experiences of Eritreans living in London and Milan, the proposed paper seeks to explore the ways in which the context of immigration and the changing migration policies in the country of settlement shape the ways in which migrants construed a specific understanding of political citizenship. How are migrants of different time of arrival situated similarly or differently in relation to the country of origin and the country of settlement? Where are second and further generations placed when discussions over transnational engagement occur?
Tanja Müller (University of Manchester) Biyan Ghebreyesus Okubaghergis (University of Cagliari)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will present findings from an ongoing research project on the aspirations of the youth in higher education in Eritrea, and how those are shaped by multiple connections with the Eritrean diaspora.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will present findings from an ongoing research project on the aspirations of the youth in higher education in Eritrea, and how those are shaped by multiple connections with the Eritrean diaspora.