Ethiopians In An Age Of Migration

The migration of Ethiopians across international borders is a recent phenomenon because of the limited integration of the country and society to the global economy. Since it was never colonized – aside from the Italian occupation of 1936-1941 – Ethiopia’s economy and society were not directly impacted by the ebb and flow of the global economy, and thus never generated international migration. Beginning in the 1970s, due to factors such as famine, rural poverty, civil war, and political repression, an unprecedented number of Ethiopian migrants began to leave their country in search of better, more secure lives. Today, this diaspora constitutes a distinctive community dispersed across the world, but bound by a common feeling of collectiveness and a shared history of the homeland. The contributors to this volume draw their work from a wide variety of interdisciplinary fields and provide new critical insight on Ethiopian migrants and their diaspora communities. What has emerged from these scholarly works is the recognition that the Ethiopian diaspora – although separated by oceans and nations, by politics, ethnicity, class, gender and age – are carving out a social and material world born out of their particular circumstances both "here" and "there". This book was originally published as a special issue of African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal.

At a time when policies are increasingly against it, international migration has become the subject of great public and academic attention. This book departs from the dominant approach of studying international migration at macro level, and from the perspective of destination countries. The contributors here seek to do more than 'scratch the surface' of the migration process, by foregrounding the voices and views of Ethiopian youth--potential migrants and returnees--and of their sending communities.The volume focuses on the perspective and agency of these young people, both potential migrants and returnees, to better understand migration decision-making, experiences and outcomes. It brings together rarely documented cases of young men and women from several communities across Ethiopia, migrating to the Gulf and South Africa. Explaining the agency of local actors--prospective migrants, brokers and sending families--Youth on the Move illuminates the pervasive, persistent failure of state attempts to regulate migration. Moreover, it examines the financing of migration and the sharing of remittances, within a culturally situated moral economy. While accounts centred on economics and political violence are important, the contributors demonstrate compellingly that these factors alone cannot provide a full understanding of migration's complexity, nor of its social realities.

The major reason of mass exile being mal-governance, this book vividly shows the yawning gap between African people and their leaders. It exposes most African leaders who bear more allegiance to their bank balances than to their country, the constitution, the flag, and their peoples future. Using my experience as a journalist for over 48 years, covering major events in Ethiopia/Africa, I have tried to bring a close-up portrait of the problems in Ethiopia, and more broadly the horn of Africa and the continent as a whole. This book illuminates the root causes of mass exile, the major problems in Ethiopia, and how that links back to the lack of freedom of expression. I have tried to situate current events in a larger historical backdrop by paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting from historians excerpts, using description and analysis, part political travelogue, part contemporary history to bring the region to life, and answer one key question. Why so many Ethiopians are going in mass exile? The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the economic, political, social and environmental causes of human migration out of Ethiopia/Africa. It is an invitation for discourse, to explain, engage and encourage all those concerned in the fate of Africa to wrestle with the challenges facing the continent today, without being burdened by a troubled past or daunted by a challenging future.

'The greatest single impact of climate change could be on human migration', stated the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1990. Since then there has been considerable concern about the large-scale population movements that might take place because of climate change. This book examines emerging patterns of human mobility in relation to climate change, drawing on a multidisciplinary approach including anthropology and geography. It addresses both larger, general questions and concrete local cases, where the link between climate change and human mobility is manifest and demands attention - empirically, analytically and conceptually. Among the cases explored are both historical and contemporary instances of migration in response to climate change, and together they illustrate the necessity of analyzing new patterns of movement, historic cultural images and regulation practices in the wake of new global processes.

This publication is one of the results of a conference organised in Lisbon in 2011 on the theme of African borders and their relationships with migration and mobility. The selected papers are a sample of the diverse perspectives on the general theme presented at the meeting. The African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE) promoted this event, allowing a substantial number of its members to exchange results of ongoing and long-term research. The Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal) funded the research project Borders and Identity in Africa (PTDC/AFR/098339/2008) which prepared this publication.

A comprehensive historical, geographic, and thematic analysis of the multidimensional and dynamic migration experience of Ethiopians within and beyond Africa. Ethiopia is one of the largest African sources of transnational migrants, with an estimated two to three million Ethiopians living outside of the home country. This edited collection provides a critical examination of the temporal, spatial, and thematic dimensions of Ethiopian migration, mapping out its scale, scope, and destinations. The thirteen essays here (plus an introduction and conclusion by the volume's editors) offer a discussion of the state of knowledge and current debates on the diaspora and suggest alternative frameworks for interrogating and understanding the Ethiopian migration and diasporic experiences. Key time periods and literatures are identified to study Ethiopian transnational migration, moving from a survey of patterns in pre-twentieth century Ethiopia and on to changing trajectories in the imperial period and under succeeding postrevolutionary regimes. Geographically, the contour of the Ethiopian diaspora is outlined, identifying key destinations and patterns of return. In particular, the volume seeks to correct the traditional tendency to conflate the Ethiopian diaspora with North America and Europe by including areas that have long been marginalized, such as inter-Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The objective is not to construct a simple cartography of migration but a critical analysis of national and global issues, policies, trends, and processes that shape the roots and routes of the migration dynamic. Thematically, this book aims to challenge the existing boundaries of Ethiopian migration and diaspora studies and raise important concerns about representation, ghettoization, and perpetuation of inequalities. Edited by Shimelis Bonsa Gulema, Hewan Girma, and Mulugeta F. Dinbabo. Contributors: Alpha Abebe; Amsale Alemu; Tekalign Ayalew; Kassaye Berhanu-MacDonald; Elizabeth Chacko; Marina de Re> Mulugeta F. Dinbabo; Peter H. Gebre; Hewan Girma; Mary Goitom; Shimelis Bonsa Gulema; Tesfaye Semela; Nassise Solomon; and Fitsum R. Tedla.

This book tells the stories of the Ethiopian women who migrate to work as domestic workers in the Middle East. Drawing on qualitative research in Ethiopia, Lebanon and Kuwait, the author reveals how women’s aspirations to migrate are constituted within unequal gendered structures of opportunity in Ethiopia and asks us to consider how gender, race, class and nationality intersect in the construction of migrant subjectivities and agency. By analysing the impact of migration on social reproduction both in Ethiopia and the destination countries, the book offers fresh empirical and theoretical insights into the largest stream of women’s autonomous international migration from Africa.

At a time when policies are increasingly against it, international migration has become the subject of great public and academic attention. This book departs from the dominant approach of studying international migration at macro level, and from the perspective of destination countries. The contributors here seek to do more than 'scratch the surface' of the migration process, by foregrounding the voices and views of Ethiopian youth-potential migrants and returnees-and of their sending communities. The volume focuses on the perspective and agency of these young people, both potential migrants and returnees, to better understand migration decision-making, experiences and outcomes. It brings together rarely documented cases of young men and women from several communities across Ethiopia, migrating to the Gulf and South Africa. Explaining the agency of local actors-prospective migrants, brokers and sending families-Youth on the Move illuminates the pervasive, persistent failure of state attempts to regulate migration. Moreover, it examines the financing of migration and the sharing of remittances, within a culturally situated moral economy. While accounts centered on economics and political violence are important, the contributors demonstrate compellingly that these factors alone cannot provide a full understanding of migration's complexity, nor of its social realities.