Hypermobile and Immobile: Diverse Responses to Protracted Displacement in Ethiopia and Sudan

Based on participant observation in Ethiopian camps, Addis Ababa and Khartoum, chapter 2 illustrates why most Eritrean refugees are determined to move onwards. Eritreans face several challenges in their first safe countries of asylum, ranging from their limited freedom of mobility outside camps, to the lack of opportunities in local labor markets. However, their desire to move onwards does not only emerge from this disadvantaged socio-economic context. Collectively shared and transnationally diffused sets of memories, norms and images also define Ethiopia and Sudan as undesirable destinations. While describing how the desire for migration is continuously reproduced in camps and shared accommodations in cities, the chapter accounts for the matrix of socio-economic and cultural conditions which stratify the possibilities, as well as the aspirations for geographic mobility. Although most refugees were stuck in spite of their will to move onwards, some chose to stay put, while awaiting their eventual return.