Becoming Black’

Racial Formation of Eritrean Migrants in Israel

Bibliographic Data

ID12955342
AuthorsA I Tewolde (0000-0001-9769-654X, University of Johannesburg, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume13
Issue1-2
Pages183-203
Publication date2021-10-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Diaspora (BOOK_SERIES)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1872-5457 • E-ISSN: 1872-5465
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/18725465-bja10006
OpenAlexW4200565608
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited42

Little is known about racial identity claims of African migrants living in Israel who originate from countries where race is not a dominant identity marker. This article examines how Eritrean migrants, coming from a country where race-based social organisation is not prevalent, strategically adopted ‘Black’ as their identity marker in Israel. Online newspaper reports and conversational interviews with four Eritrean migrants were used as sources of data. During various anti-deportation protests, Eritrean migrants held signs with slogans referring to themselves as Black. Some of the slogans include: ‘Do Black lives matter in Israel?’, ‘Black or White I am human’, ‘Deported to death because I am Black’, and ‘Now I am White, will you deport me?’ I argue that for first generation Eritrean migrants in Israel, Black racial identity was adopted strategically as a political identity of social mobilisation and resistance in the face of a racialised and exclusionary migration policy

Criminology · Deportation · Identity (music · Immigration · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Race (biology · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · White (mutation · African history and culture analysis · Gender Studies · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration