Tourism and the Eritrean Diaspora

Abstract

Eritrean Diasporictourism is a striking example of how Diasporas are not only victims of the nation state, but also play a great role in wider transnational cultural and economic dynamics of change. The present economic and political situation in Eritrea and the stability reached in Milan has diminished the probability that Eritreans in the Diaspora will return to Eritrea to live. Nevertheless, many people in this Diaspora community return to Eritrea for holidays at least every two years. The Eritrean summer returnees invest in Eritrea by becoming its tourists. This paper explores the narratives of Eritreans in Milan around going to Eritrea on holiday and returning from their vacation, and questions the impact of their imaginary of Eritrea as a place for leisure and tourism. The returnee is much more than a simple tourist as she/he also performs a wider Diasporic identity, which acts as a separate but influential collective category.Eritrea is the one of newest nation states in Africa and has been the subject of much scholarly attention, especially by those seeking to understand its unique political development. Its liberation struggle, first against the imperialist regime of Haile Selassie and then the military one of Mengistu, has been widely perceived as an unprecedented show of the people's power to overcome and eradicate imperialism from society as a whole, by implementing elements of civic behaviour and individuals' social, active participation. Many scholars working on Eritrea in the past were drawn into this historical paradigm, but scholars working on Eritrea today are now anxious to emphasise the state's strong, authoritarian hold over the lives of both those at home and those abroad (Koser 2003;Hepner 2009aHepner , 2009b. In doing research on Eritreans in Milan, I investigated performances of the self and the ways in which Eritreans in the city (from 2003 to 2005) related to the past, specifically, how people used narratives and commemorations to describe themselves (Arnone 2008).In this paper, I aim to demonstrate that there are ways through which we can possibly go beyond the 'false' agency hidden underneath Giddens' (1984) grand social theory which plays with concepts of choice and individualism, so that the strength of the all-encompassing structure seems less annihilating. My anthropological approach not only focuses on the force and influence of the two elements: structure and agency; but also explores the 'politics of little things', through which people live their life as agents of change. Campbell (2009) analysed the Eritrean Government's strong hold over the diaspora and clearly explained how the forms *

Developing a Multidimensional Measurement Scale for Diaspora Tourists’ Motivation

“…The dimension labeled “escaping” generally reported the least mean score on the DTMS (grand mean = 3.80). Although an in-depth exploration of this motivation within the literature remains to be undertaken, Arnone (2011) submits that some diaspora tourists want to break off from routines in their society. This motivation, on the one hand, is more connected to leisure than diaspora tourism.…”

Return and Retreat in a Transnational World: Insights from Eritrea

“…Having naturalized in their country of asylum, and having fled a very different set of circumstances in pre-1991 Eritrea (i.e., the liberation conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia as opposed to repression by the country's current ruling party), return does not threaten their residency or citizenship rights in their country of asylum. As such, these earlier generations of refugees and migrants visit Eritrea periodically, often to coincide with the country's patriotic holidays, to check in on businesses, or during their children's school holidays (Arnone, 2011). Among residents conscripted into the country's indefinite national service program, who are generally granted extremely limited personal liberties in all spheres of life, external citizens come to be seen as privileged citizens, a view that is only reinforced by national propaganda that praises them for their economic and political support to the nation Riggan (2013b).…”

Migrants on Home Visits: Memory, Identity and a Shifting Sense of Self

“…Many migrants, especially economic migrants and refugees, cannot or do not desire to travel back home; others return permanently one day (Long & Oxfeld, ). Yet others embark on temporary visits, essentially touristic journeys, for the purpose of visiting family and friends, but also a host of other reasons, including religion, education, health, recreation or economic activities (Feng & Page, ; Duval, ; Lew & Wong, ; Nguyen & King, ; Asiedu, ; Arnone, ). Overt pragmatic reasons may be underpinned by deeper psychological needs, such as emotional attachments to people and places; longings and cravings; the psychogoical power of nostalgic memories and remembered personal links; as well as issues of personhood and belonging associated with the ‘in‐betweenness’ of migrant identity.…”

“…However, as much as the encounter of the former home fosters fond memories and nostalgia, it may simultaneously reinforce a sense of belonging to the host country and even result in estrangement from one's roots, as migrants discover how much life in their old country has changed, or how much they themselves have changed (Tie, Holden, & yu Park, 2015). Arnone's () investigation of Eritrean migrants in Italy, one of the few examples of scholarship focussed on the African context, revealed that members of this diasporic population travel to their homeland specifically to perform touristic identities. They prefer to stay in hotels, rather than with family and engage in visiting heritage sites and tourist attractions to emphasize the contrast with their former lives and identities.…”

“…As the case of the Eritrean migrants (Arnone, ) illustrates, transnationalism and migration foster cultural hybridity and complex, sometimes contradictory identities, as people negotiate diverse geographical spaces and cultural contexts (Long & Oxfeld, ). In addition, the experience of travelling and engagement in tourism, associated with individualism, modernity and social differentiation, constitute investments in forming and opportunities for performing particular identities (Urry, ; Desforges, ; Holden, ).…”