Interviews with Ethiopian and Eritrean Migrants in Nairobi and Khartoum, Interviews with Eritrean Migrants in Addis Ababa, 2020-2021

Müller, Tanja R. (2024). Interviews with Ethiopian and Eritrean Migrants in Nairobi and Khartoum, Interviews with Eritrean Migrants in Addis Ababa, 2020-2021. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857255

It is increasingly acknowledged that the world is characterised by a high degree of mobility. Subsequently, social, political and economic processes and outcomes within nation states are significantly impacted by migration, making it untenable to understand political processes solely by looking at actors within states. In this context, many homeland states have developed diaspora engagement strategies. In parallel, in the context of transnational movements, concepts of citizenship have expanded beyond the nation state, and citizenship is in various ways conceived of as a relational practice. In such an understanding, citizenship moves beyond legal status, but focuses on concrete, often everyday acts. Focusing on such acts of citizenship makes it possible to analyse citizenship as a practice related to homelands, hostlands or the wider transnational social field in often interconnected and overlapping ways. In this project we bring a critical analysis of these strands of literature together, and in proposing a re-defined concept of transnational lived citizenship investigate how practices of citizenship among emerging diasporas constitute political belonging - to the homeland but also the hostland and the transnational social field. In a further step, we investigate what forms of political engagement may emerge from such practices. In order to address the above theoretical and empirical gaps in the literature, we have chosen the Horn of Africa as a case study region, as the Horn is a prototypical example of an origin-area of out-migration. Focusing in concrete detail on emerging diasporas from Ethiopia and Eritrea who reside in key cities of the wider region will allow us to understand how migration shapes citizenship practices, political belonging and engagement, and this in turn will speak to the wider debates on patterns of migration and transnationalism. Through mapping, life history interviews, semi-structures interviews, focus groups, and participant observation we will examine citizenship practices as expressions of political belonging and how they translate into political engagement by those who have emigrated from Ethiopa and Eritrea to the cities Khartoum, Addis Ababa and Nairobi, all three important transit as well as more permanent residence spaces. Our analysis of citizenship practices as a politics of belonging will allow us to develop a typology which ranges from the institutional to the quotidian, and from the visible to the furtive. In addition, our data gathered during the fieldwork component of the research will allow us to empirically map when, where, why, how and by whom various forms of transnational engagements are made. An additional fieldwork component in the Eritrean capital Asmara will in addition trace such engagement back to a home country setting. In fulfilling the project-objectives, we will be able to make original contributions to both academic and non-academic debates. Firstly, we will re-theorise transnational citizenship practices as a specific form of political belonging going beyond the nation-state but at the same time intimately linked to it. Secondly, we will provide comparative empirical data on concrete citizenship practices and the forms of political belonging these generate, thus the contribution to theory is intimately linked with an empirical investigation. Thirdly, we will focus on emerging diasporas in key urban settings in the Global South, cities being important sites for a reconfiguration of citizenship practices. Fourthly, through providing a thorough understanding of how emerging diasporas exercise transnational lived citizenship, we will provide a detailed understanding of the ambivalent loyalties that often characterise migrant lives. And lastly, through collaborating with local researchers and research institutions, and emerging diaspora communities we will engage in co-production and dissemination of knowledge, locally and with key political actors.

Data description (abstract)

Motivation for the study: The motivation for the study started from the fact that the world is characterised by a high degree of mobility. Subsequently, social, political and economic processes and outcomes within nation states are significantly impacted by migration, making it untenable to understand political processes solely by looking at actors within states. In parallel, in the context of transnational movements, concepts of citizenship have expanded beyond the nation state, and citizenship is in various ways conceived of as a relational practice. In such an understanding, citizenship moves away from legal status, but focuses on concrete, often everyday acts. Focusing on such acts of citizenship makes it possible to analyse citizenship as a practice related to homelands, hostlands, or the wider transnational social field in often interconnected and overlapping ways. The study brought a critical analysis of these strands of literature together and investigated how practices of citizenship among emerging diaspora constitute (political) belonging and unbelonging - to the homeland but also the hostland and the transnational social field. In a further step, it also investigated what forms of political engagement or non-engagement may emerge from such practices. In order to say something meaningful about these theoretical and empirical questions, three cities in the wider Horn of Africa were chosen as case study locations, as the Horn is a prototypical example of an origin-area of out-migration and a region where many migrants stay in neighbouring countries, near their homeland. Focusing on how migrants become emerging diasporas, the project looked at migrants from Ethiopia and Eritrea who reside in key cities of the region, namely Addis Ababa; Khartoum; and Nairobi. Such a detailed focus allowed to understand how migration shapes lived citizenship practices, political belonging and engagement, and this in turn speaks to the wider debates on patterns of migration, belonging and transnationalism, but also the potential and pitfalls of conceptions of lived citizenship. Aims and Topics covered: The overall aim of the project has been to improve our understanding of the ways in which diaspora populations embrace, subvert and refine ideas, narratives and practices of citizenship and establish different forms of (political) belonging and unbelonging to their homeland, their place of residence and the wider transnational social field. The project was conceived as having an extensive qualitative component that would have included (in addition to in-depths interviews) participant observation; knowledge production by participants (based on methods like photo-voice); and co-production of knowledge through dissemination activities. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the only possible means of data collection became in-depth virtual interviews (for a discussion of these changes in data collection methods and the potential and pitfalls, please refer to the sections on methods). These interviews still allowed to achieve the key objectives of the project: a detailed analysis of how emerging Eritrean and Ethiopian diaspora perform and practice citizenship, and through these performances assert political belonging in relation to Eritrea and Ethiopia, their host-cities in neighbouring countries (Addis Ababa; Khartoum; Nairobi) and the wider Eritrean and Ethiopian diaspora spread across the world. Following a lose interview guide, the project data provided key insights into how political belonging is produced, performed, and contested by emerging Eritrean and Ethiopian diaspora through acts of citizenship. This then contributed to an interrogation of the concept of transnational lived citizenship as a useful theoretical framing for understanding political belonging in relation to homelands, hostlands and the transnational social field of emerging diaspora. It built on previous work on diaspora that has examined everyday practices as expressions of belonging and identification and brought this together with work on diaspora politics and contested connections to and beyond the nation state. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an additional lens to interrogate lived citizenship practices and changing patterns of belonging, and how those may be transformed by intersecting crises, as did the outbreak of internal armed conflict in Ethiopia during the interview phase that also involved Eritrea. Key findings: The project contributed first to the call to re-theorise transnational citizenship practices as a specific form of political belonging going beyond the nation-state but at the same time intimately linked to it. Second, it provided comparative empirical data on concrete citizenship practices and the forms of political belonging these generate. This makes the contribution to theory intimately linked with an empirical investigation. Third, it focused on emerging diaspora in key urban settings in the Global South, cities more generally being seen as important sites for a reconfiguration of citizenship practices. Fourth, through having provided a thorough understanding of how emerging diaspora exercise transnational lived citizenship, a detailed understanding of the ambivalent loyalties that often characterise migrant lives has become visible, as a response to crises but also more generally. This has also been linked to the literature in liminal legality in cities of residence, and to how such liminality determines everyday practices of lived citizenship and belonging. Ultimately, the key findings enforce a focus that also underpins the lived-citizenship literature: It is vital to understand and analyse the tensions that characterise migrant struggles in cities all over the world, and from there think creatively about localised solutions within a transnational social field where migrant rights are increasingly threatened.

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