An Endless Journey: Transnational and Peer Pressure in Onward Migration in Europe

Chapter 3 investigates the reasons why many Eritrean refugees try to move northwards from Italy in spite of significant policy obstacles. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork with refugees in Rome, Milan and Genoa as well as with their families in Eritrea, this chapter shows the role of family expectations, peer pressures and individual aspirations in Eritreans’ repeated attempts to seek asylum in Northern European countries. While describing the material world and daily lives of Eritreans living in buildings irregularly occupied in Rome, pre-existing orientations to further mobility are reinforced and kept alive within a context of substantive deprivation and marginality. It is argued that refugees’ decision making has to be studied in a larger transnational frame which includes families back home, as well as relatives and friends in Northern Europe.