Hosting States and Unsettled Guests

Countries in the Global South, such as Ethiopia, are celebrated for their hospitality towards refugees, but by 2020, a political overhaul and the outbreak of war in Northern Ethiopia foreclosed these opportunities. Jennifer Riggan and Amanda Poole's book, Hosting States and Unsettled Guests, explores refugee notions of progress, care, hope, and futurity in three camps in northern Ethiopia and Addis Ababa. It makes key empirical and theoretical contributions to forced migration studies, East African studies, anthropology, and international education.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 06 February 2024
Publisher: Indiana University Press

As wealthy countries erect barriers to deter migrants, nations in the Global South are praised for their welcoming attitude toward refugees.

Hosting States and Unsettled Guests examines the issue of whether these policies facilitated refugees' integration into their new country.

Beginning in 2016, Ethiopia implemented policies aimed at promoting local integration, economic opportunities, and access to education for refugees, with the intention of encouraging them to stay long-term rather than migrate to Europe. However, by 2020, a political overhaul and the outbreak of war in Northern Ethiopia resulted in the closure of these opportunities, particularly for Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia.

In light of this discrepancy, how did Eritrean refugees perceive their future? Jennifer Riggan and Amanda Poole, through ethnographic interviews and participant observation with government officials, NGOs, and refugees in three camps in northern Ethiopia and Addis Ababa, explore refugee notions of progress, care, hope, and futurity.

Caught at the intersection of teleological violence and temporal agency, refugees endure the present while persistently creating a sense of the future, even in the face of repeated challenges to their progress.

Hosting States and Unsettled Guests is an essential read, making significant empirical and theoretical contributions to the field of forced migration studies, East African studies, anthropology, and international education. Riggan and Poole deftly shift the focus of refugee studies away from Europe to regions in the Global South, shedding light on the violence of emerging forms of migration deterrence.

Weight: 666g
Dimension: 250 x 150 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780253067982