Paper short abstract:

An analysis of second and third generation protracted Eritrean refugee settlement in Khartoum and the implications of precarious status in navigating the city, establishing safe space and constructing identities.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the lived experience of second and third generation Eritrean refugee youth residing in Khartoum, primarily exploring issues related to identity, constructions of refugeeness and precarious status. Due to the legal structures in Sudan including the encampment policy, refugee status offers protracted urban refugees a lack of protection and opportunities for formal integration. Many Eritrean refugees in Khartoum are in violation of the Asylum Act (2014) which limits freedom of movement, access to government services such as education and registration in urban centers. Thus, Eritrean refugees in Khartoum sit in the nexus between refugee and irregularity , which has resulted in continued police harassment, exclusion and exploitation. This analysis is starkly missing in current debate on border management and the so-called European Refugee Crisis which disproportionately places a spotlight on Eritrean migration to the Global North and constructs Sudan as a transit country. These categories and discourses have significant political and structural implications that impact the lives of Eritrean communities at a local, national and international level. The current discourses of migration management restrict refugees, potentially criminalizing communities whilst failing to address root structural issues such as precarious status. An analysis of inter-generational settlement in Khartoum offers an opportunity deconstruct these categories through centering the narratives of Eritrean youth who grew up navigating the city under continued policies of exclusion.