Family project or individual choice? Exploring agency in young Eritreans' migration

Bibliographic Data

ID3607385
AuthorsM Belloni (0000-0002-1261-4988, University of Trento, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume46
Issue2
Pages336-353
Publication date2020-01-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2019.1584698
OpenAlexW2922737383
LanguageEN
Citations received42
References cited46

Since the beginning of 2010s, the movement of unaccompanied minors from Eritrea has significantly increased and has become the object of international concern. This migration is often explained by media and humanitarian actors as the mechanical reaction to recent conscription campaigns by the Eritrean government. However, these explanations fail to consider that young people's mobilities emerge from a context of protracted crisis. Building on the literature on chronicity and crisis in the African context, this article examines what it means to be young in Eritrea and how it relates to the motivations for and the dynamics of youth migration from the country. Drawing from a multi-sited ethnography in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan, the article points to the active role of young migrants – even minors – escaping from contexts of protracted crisis. While analysing the structural constraints faced by Eritrean girls and boys, I first show how migration in this context is often seen as a crucial step to reaching adulthood that has significant gender differences. Then, I explore the interactions between family expectations and individual agency by analysing my informants’ mobility patterns outside Eritrea and in secondary movements towards Europe. While most available literature tends to portray young migrants’ trajectories as the result of structural circumstances or family projects, I illustrate how many of my informants often undertook their journeys without family consensus to pursue personal aspirations as well as communal values regarding moral worthiness and family well-being

Criminology · Ethnography · Geography · Mobilities · Political economy · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Structure and agency · African history and culture analysis · African Studies and Geopolitics · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Gender Studies

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