Much More Than Just Money: Investigating Remittances Across Time and Place in the Eritrean Context

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Published: 2022-08-25
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26806/modafr.v10i1.415
Keywords:
social remittances, cultural circulation, homeland, diaspora, Eritrea, agents of transformation

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Milena Belloni
University of Antwerp, Belgium
Valentina Fusari
University of Turin, Italy
Aurora Massa
University of Naples "L'Orientale", Italy

Abstract

Remittances have played crucial and shifting roles in Eritrea and its diaspora. They were fundamental to the achievement of national independence and are a resource with which the current government strengthens its power. Households have been reliant on remittances for survival, while for migrants they have been crucial to reinforce their sense of national belonging. Drawing from fieldwork, this article analyses remittances as a powerful tool to assess the ongoing (dis)connection between segments of the Eritrean diaspora and their homeland. The article firstly addresses financial remittances and shows how (in)formal flows play differing functions in relation to the government, communities, and families. Aft er highlighting how social remittances are contributing to current transformations within Eritrean society, it reflects on the potential role remittances may play in the future of the country.

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How to Cite
Belloni, M., Fusari, V., & Massa, A. (2022). Much More Than Just Money: Investigating Remittances Across Time and Place in the Eritrean Context. Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society, 10(1), 89–116. https://doi.org/10.26806/modafr.v10i1.415
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Vol. 10 No. 1 (2022): Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society
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Articles
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Author Biographies

Milena Belloni, University of Antwerp, Belgium

She is a FWO post-doctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and has a decade-long experience of research on migration from the Horn of Africa. Her research concerns refugees’ mobility dynamics, integration pathways, transnational families, and ethnographic methods. Her book, The Big Gamble: The Migration of Eritreans to Europe was published by the University of California Press (2019). She has published in international peer-reviewed journals, such as JRS, JEMS, Global Networks and the IJCS. 

Valentina Fusari, University of Turin, Italy

She is a researcher and lecturer in African History at the University of Turin, Italy. Her research interests concern spatial and social mobility in (post-)colonial societies in the Horn of Africa. Her current projects focus on mixedness, female missionaries’ agency, and womenʼs labour history in a long-term perspective. She authored and co-authored books and articles in international peer-reviewed journals.

Aurora Massa, University of Naples "L'Orientale", Italy

She is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Naples L’Orientale, Italy. A social anthropologist working on mobility within and from the Horn of Africa, she has conducted ethnography in Ethiopia, Italy, Sweden and the UK, studying conditions of im/mobility, youth, transnational families, borders, temporality and home-making process. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Trento (ERC-HOMInG research project) and at the CNR-IRPPS in Italy. She authored and co-authored books and articles in international peer-reviewed journals.