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Title
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"Why don’t you move onwards?" : the influence of transnational ties and kinship obligations on Eritrean refugees’ feeling of being stuck in Italy
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Author
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Abstract
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| This chapter analyzes Eritrean refugees’ secondary mobility from Italy. Although Eritreans have in the last decade been granted asylum in Italy, most of them intend to move onwards. This mobility orientation has mainly been explained as the result of limited integration opportunities. However, the social and cultural factors underpinning this desire have rarely been investigated. Drawing from ethnographic research with Eritrean refugees in Italy and in their home country, this chapter shows that my informants’ migration-related decisions and perception of being “stuck” in Italy stemmed from a transnational flow of images, expectations, and aspirations linking Eritreans abroad and their kin back home. While being in contact with their co-nationals who have reached their final preferred destination, usually a northern European country, Eritrean refugees in Italy are linked to their families back home by a more or less implicit system of expectations. These include not only remittances, but also beliefs concerning the most suitable final destination for migrants. Families, thus, I argue, play, even if from afar, a crucial role in Eritrean refugees’ mobility patterns. |
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Language
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English
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Source (book)
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Postliberation Eritrea / Woldemikael, T.M. [edit.]
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Publication
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Bloomington
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Indiana University Press
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2018
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ISBN
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978-0-253-04605-5
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Volume/pages
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p. 290-317
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