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Life As an Eritrean Refugee: an Ethnographic Study of Eritrean Refugees in Mekelle

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Life As an Eritrean Refugee: an Ethnographic Study of Eritrean Refugees in Mekelle Running on Hope - Life as an Eritrean Refugee: An Ethnographic Study of Eritrean Refugees in Mekelle Gunn Berit Obrestad Master thesis submitted to Department of Social Anthropology University of Oslo May 2017 i © Gunn Berit Obrestad 2017 Running on Hope – Life as an Eritrean Refugee: An Ethnographic Study of Eritrean Refugees in Mekelle Gunn Berit Obrestad http://www.duo.uio.no/ University of Oslo: Reprosentralen ii Running on Hope - Life as an Eritrean Refugee: An Ethnographic Study of Eritrean Refugees in Mekelle iii I dedicate this thesis to a hope – a hope, in which we may all engage, that we transcend our fears and share this world. “Why don’t the boats that are saving the people in the water pick them up in Libya instead; instead of waiting until they are in the water. They know they are planning to go on the boats”- An Eritrean refugee. iv Abstract This thesis gives an account of some Eritrean refugees’ lives in Mekelle and their engagement with the future. My informants belonged to the Tigrinya-speaking group that straddle the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia. They were temporarily stuck in Ethiopia but most envisioned migrating further, to a place where they could picture a future. As a result, this thesis is both local and global in scope. I investigate how Eritrean refugees navigate the complex two-sided ambivalence in the relationship between themselves and the locals in Mekelle, through theoretical frameworks of borders, boundaries, reconciliation and social networks. I argue that the way my informants navigate the ambiguous relationship between themselves and the locals is best explained within a “dividual” and processual understanding of identity and the self. I interpret the contradictions as resulting from the contextual nature of identity and self. I also put the Eritrean refugees’ search for a more fulfilling relationship with the world into a global context through an investigation of the politics of hope, migratory aspirations, and faith in God. I argue that the conflation of “culture”, “people” and “place”, on which the international migration policies are based, is highly problematic. It influences the politics of hope and excludes individuals, who hope and aspire for a meaningful future and relationship to the world, from being part of “the wider world”. Keywords: Borders, Boundaries, Migration, Social networks, Reconciliation, Hope, Resistance, Future v Trevor Nickolls: Warmun Mandala (c) Trevor Nickolls/BONO The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n. [295843]. vi Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................... xi Glossary and Abbreviations: .............................................................................................................. xiii Prologue: Eritrean refugees’ pursuit for a more fulfilling relationship with the world........ 1 Why this fieldwork? ............................................................................................................................. 1 Eritrean Refugees in Mekelle1 and in the World ................................................................................. 1 Eritreans and Ethiopians.................................................................................................................. 2 Forced migration, refugees and migrants in academia and policies................................................... 2 Chapter outline .................................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 1: Entering the field ................................................................................................. 6 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Why I did not go to the refugee camps ............................................................................................... 7 Not all “snow-balls” resulted in informants ........................................................................................ 7 Eritrean refugees at University............................................................................................................ 9 Methodological choices..................................................................................................................... 10 Language challenges.......................................................................................................................... 11 The changing/lying person ................................................................................................................ 11 Contextualizing Ethiopia and Eritrea in relation to each other ......................................................... 12 Ethiopia .......................................................................................................................................... 12 Eritrea ............................................................................................................................................ 14 Independent Eritrea and the making of Eritreans ......................................................................... 16 The 1998-2000 war ........................................................................................................................ 17 Forced migration ........................................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2: Borders, Boundaries and Citizenship .............................................................. 19 Citizenship, deportations and ambiguous identities ......................................................................... 21 Legal categories today ....................................................................................................................... 22 A confusing boundary ........................................................................................................................ 23 Amiche ........................................................................................................................................... 23 Ethiopians born in Eritrea .............................................................................................................. 25 Identity gendered .......................................................................................................................... 26 Law, policies and practice ................................................................................................................. 27 ARRA Offices .................................................................................................................................. 27 Mobility and the Out-of-Camp Policy 3.......................................................................................... 28 Employment .................................................................................................................................. 30 vii Concluding remarks ........................................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 3: “Eritrean culture” and how it differs from “Ethiopian (Tigrayan) culture” .... 34 Contextualizing Eritrean identity ....................................................................................................... 35 Exaggerating and downplaying differences and similarities ............................................................. 36 Safe, Beautiful and Clean .................................................................................................................. 37 Difference and competition .............................................................................................................. 39 “Modernized and developed” ........................................................................................................... 42 Religious affiliations beyond national identities ............................................................................... 43 Concluding remarks ........................................................................................................................... 44 Chapter 4: Ties and Social networks .................................................................................. 46 Networking in Mekelle ...................................................................................................................... 46 Family ties .......................................................................................................................................... 48 Ties across the national boundary .................................................................................................... 49 Ethiopian spouses .............................................................................................................................. 52 Making family .................................................................................................................................... 53 Concluding remarks ........................................................................................................................... 54 Chapter 5: Sharing dormitories - navigating student life and enemy images .................... 56 Border clash ......................................................................................................................................
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