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.