Belonging in Exile, in Diaspora “at Home”: Findings From Eritrean Migrants in Addis Ababa

Geographical place is key in the production and contestation of migrant belonging. Cities are welcoming or hostile, while migrants practice belonging in relation to place of origin, deepening or contesting their relationship to the real or imagined home-nation. In this article, I focus on migrants residing in a state that previously encompassed their homeland, before the latter became an independent state. Based on interviews with Eritreans in Addis Ababa, I use the lens of lived citizenship in the everyday to investigate belonging as experienced, created and contested. I demonstrate how spatial, intersubjective, and performed dimensions of lived citizenship are underpinned by its affective dimension. Further, I show how this affective dimension is deeply grounded in belonging to Eritrea as an imagined community. I argue that belonging is particularly complex for migrants with an intertwined history to their host-country, where political developments in that near-vicinity have concrete repercussions for everyday lives.