Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants in Britain. Refugee Organising, Transnational Connections and Identity, 1950-2009

Campbell, John; Afework, Solomon

Abstract

This paper explores key aspects of the immigrant experience of 50,000-plus Ethiopians and Eritreans who live in the United Kingdom. We seek to understand the extent to which immigrant life in the UK has acted ‘as a kind of pivot’ between integrating in their country of settlement and enduring forms of connection with their country of origin. This question is explored by an examination of immigrant organising in the UK – in Refugee Community Organisations – and through interviews about their life in the UK and evolving ideas about self-identity. We argue for an open-ended approach to
understand immigrants which sidesteps assumptions about forms of collective identity and which asks how the social and policy context has affected immigrant settlement and integration in the UK.

Citation

Campbell, J., & Afework, S. (2015). Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants in Britain. Refugee Organising, Transnational Connections and Identity, 1950-2009. African Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Africa in a Global World, 8(1), 98-119. https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-00801005

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Jul 27, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 12, 2025
• Print ISSN: 1872-5457
• Electronic ISSN: 1872-5465
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 98-119
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-00801005
• Keywords: Ethiopians, Eritreans, immigrant transnationalism, UK