Paper short abstract:

I analyse what forms of (un-)belonging are created in a situation of permanent liminal legality. The focus are Eritrean and Ethiopian diasporas in Khartoum. I argue that in certain aspects of everyday life, liminal legality does not hinder a social existence, but important aspirations are curtailed.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I analyse what forms of belonging and un-belonging are created in a situation of permanent liminal legality. The concept of liminal legality zooms in on spaces of social existence in everyday lives in a context of legal quasi-non-existence. The focus of the paper are Eritrean and Ethiopian diaspora communities who reside in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, often for decades or were even born there, but without any hope for full legal status or citizenship. While some see Khartoum as a transit destination, most have embraced the fact that it will be their place of residence for the long term.

Based on fifteen in-depth interviews with Eritrean and Ethiopian migrants each, so thirty interviews in total, the paper analyses the complex and ambiguous forms of belonging and un-belonging this liminal legality produces, and how aspirations are created and shaped by it.

The paper argues that in certain aspects of everyday life, liminal legality does not hinder a social existence as a quasi-citizen of Khartoum, and may even allow certain freedoms of action that Sudanese citizens do not possess. At the same time, important aspirations are being curtailed by liminal legality, and create forms of un-belonging that undermine this social existence.

Paper short abstract:

The Amiche, Eritreans who were born or brought up in Ethiopia before Eritrean independence, have repeatedly been going through periods of protracted displacement situations. Their enduring liminality has, at the same time, stabilised their status as a distinct social group.

Paper long abstract:

The paper suggests to extend the model of liminal zones (Elwert 1989) that focuses on the stabilisation of subsystems through institutionalisation of isolated zones for testing and introducing adaptation. Zones of inclusion and exclusion – characterized as tidal movement – establish a band in between subsystems. Our case, the Amiche, in analogy, are a geographically stable groups moved by shifting boundaries.

The Amiche (nicknamed after an old Italian company that used to assemble vehicles in Addis Ababa), were Eritreans born or brought up in Ethiopia before Eritrean independence. Their families had been displaced and migrated from Eritrea during the thirty years Eritrean war of independence (1960 to 1991). Many Eritreans had sought asylum in different neighbouring countries during this war, and many of them migrated to different parts of Ethiopia, by then internally. There they lived waiting for the day they could return to Eritrea.

This moment finally came in 1991. Yet the division between both countries became increasingly rigid and when the 1998-2000 Ethiopia-Eritrean war broke out, many Amiche were deported to Eritrea. . In the latest phase, a number of them have become (Eritrean) refugees in the country (Ethiopia) they had left a few years back voluntarily or as deportees.

The Amiche symbolize prototypically the longstanding and vicious circle of displacement, deportation and living in limbo. Picking up and extending the tidal movement idea, we argue that this enduring liminality had the effect of stabilising them as a group of its own.

Paper short abstract:

Kakuma refugee camp is the biggest town in Turkana County. Although the mobility of refugees in the camp is restricted, they have many encounters with the Kenyan state. Using the case of a South Sudanese family, I will reflect on how refugees in the camp negotiate their belonging and citizenship:

Paper long abstract:

Kakuma refugee camp is the biggest town in Turkana County. App 200.000 people mainly from South Sudan and Somalia live in the camp, which is governed by the Kenyan Department of Refugee Affairs in conjunction with UNHCR. While there has been recently a new influx of South Sudanese, who came to the camp because of conflicts and the economic crises in South Sudan, most of the refugees living in the camp live in protracted refugee situations. They are categorized by the refugee regime as people whose future is imagined along the three durable solutions and their stay in the camp is perceived as a situation of limbo. Although local integration is not on the agenda of the Kenyan state, people in the camp have many encounters with the Kenyan nation state. The schools in the camp follow the Kenyan syllabus; children from the camp visit private school near the camp or go to Kenyan boarding schools and refugee passport and identity cards are issued be the Kenyan government. As opportunity for resettlement are limited and repatriation is not a feasible solution for most of the refugees, many refuges try to develop alternatives futures such as, getting education outside the camp, or moving to cities in Kenya. Using the case of a South Sudanese family, which I have been visiting since 2009, I will reflect on how refugees experienced their encounters with the state, how they negotiate their belonging and citizenship how they imagine their future in Kenya.

Paper short abstract:

Focusing on Eritreans and Ethiopians living as migrants and refugees in Nairobi, Khartoum and Addis, I examine the different orientations of their transnational relationships to explore the extent to which they are establishing a diasporic future in these neighbouring countries.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will critically examine the value of diaspora as a concept that can encapsulate a distinctive configuration of social, political and economic relationships that emerges among Eritrean and Ethiopian populations living in the Horn of Africa outside their respective countries. Drawing on interviews with Ethiopians and Eritreans in Nairobi and Khartoum and Eritreans in Addis Ababa, the paper will look at both their daily lives and interactions within these cities and beyond and also the structural environment (legal frameworks, policies, political and economic conditions) in which these take place. It will particularly explore the transnational relationships oriented towards, on the one hand, the wider Ethiopian and Eritrean networks in the region, and, on the other, towards the homeland. By comparing the different settings, it will show how the structural environment may shape these relationships. It will analyse how far they may prefigure the emergence of diasporic populations in these neighbouring countries, or perhaps a step towards further dispersal, return, or a shift in identifications towards ‘belonging’. The paper will therefore help us better understand the process of diaspora formation and the different forms that may result.

Paper short abstract:

I argue that Somali peace processes in the early 2000s anchored diasporas' legitimacy, expanded formulations as to what a Somali political community looked like - thus reinforcing Somali citizenship as de-territorial in discourse and in practice

Paper long abstract:

The Somali civil war in the 1990s led to massive displacement within Somalia and outside its borders. This displacement was so significant in shaping how Somalis see themselves as political actors, that when peace negotiations finally made progress on reconstituting the country’s institutions, addressing the “diaspora”-question became indispensable. As I argue, the peace processes at Arta and Mbagathi anchored their legitimacy in part in expanded formulations as to what a Somali political community looked like -extending it explicitly to transnational belonging and participation-, thus reinforcing Somali citizenship as de-territorial in discourse and in practice.

Importantly, the debates at Arta and Mbagathi therefore not only underscored the resilience of Somali political consciousness, but because these peace conference took place within the Horn of Africa, they also highlighted the roles of so-called “quasi-citizens” who seized on the opportunity to rearticulate their understanding of citizenship, both in their places of residence and vis-à-vis the Somali “homeland”. Indeed, I foreground the creative use of new identities -by ordinary people and by seasoned diplomats with a link to Somalia (but formally citizens of other states)- to analyze how these were operationalized in the realm of peace-building amidst crowded fields of claim-making and contrasting political visions. Especially salient was the appropriation of communal clan logics. However, the same arrangements that created space for diaspora Somalis to stake claims to political participation simultaneously limited the extent to which they could express a full range of demands, leaving them (and many Somalis back ‘home’) frustrated.