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ABSTRACT
Irregular migration to Europe has surged over the past decade, including tahriib (irregular migration) from Somaliland, an internationally unrecognized nation-state in East Africa. As a unrecognized state, Somaliland endeavours to forge its national identity by drawing upon collective memories of historical violence and has gained prominence in the region through its successful forms of communal and indigenous forms of state-building, security and peace against a backdrop of the continued violence in southern Somalia. Consequently, Somalilanders that participate in tahriib are often viewed as unpatriotic for leaving their homeland and risking their lives to venture to foreign lands, exacerbating Somaliland’s precarious statehood. The article argues that the rise of particular language and terminology in Somaliland to disparagingly depict the tahriib movement challenges notions of national solidarity between migrants and their home country. Understanding Somaliland within this context highlights the particularities in which the Somaliland tahriib movement operates in and challenges notions of solidarity between tahriib participants and their country of origin. Primarily based on fieldwork from 2022 to 2023, including interviews with tahriib participants, their family members, community leaders and civil servants, this article presents an analysis of the political, social, and cultural responses towards tahriib participants.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Fieldwork diary, Hargeisa, June 2022.
2 Participant observation, Hargeisa, August 2015.
3 Ciabarri and Simonsen, “Fragments of solidarity.”
4 Simonsen and Tarabi, “Images of Torture.”
5 Anderson, Imagined communities.
6 UNHCR, “Mediterranean death toll soars, 2016 is deadliest year yet,” Press Release, 25 October 2016. http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2016/10/580f3e684/mediterranean-death-toll-soars-
7 Andersson, “Europe's failed ‘fight’ against irregular migration.”
8 UNHCR, “Refugees and migrants face heightened risks trying to reach Europe,” Press Release, 27 February 2017. http://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2017/2/58b458654/refugees-migrants-face-heightened-risks-trying-reach-europe-unhcr-
9 IOM, Key Migration Terms.
10 Ali, “Going on Tahriib.”
11 Hoerder, “Transnational – Transregional – Translocal: Transcultural.”
12 Ali, “Going on Tahriib,” 30–31.
13 Castles, “International Migration at the beginning of the 21st century.”
14 Wonders & Jones, “Doing and undoing borders”; Monsutti, “Mobility as a political act”; Ataç, Rygiel, and Stierl, “The Contentious Politics of Refugee and Migrant Protest and Solidarity Movements.”
15 Monsutti, “Mobility as a political act,” 448.
16 Ataç, Rygiel, and Stierl, “The Contentious Politics of Refugee and Migrant Protest and Solidarity Movements.”
17 Leitner, Sheppard, and Sziarto, “The spatialities of contentious politics,” 157.
18 Ataç, Rygiel, and Stierl, “The Contentious Politics of Refugee and Migrant Protest and Solidarity Movements.”
19 Stierl, “No One Is Illegal!.”
20 Ataç, Rygiel, and Stierl, “The Contentious Politics of Refugee and Migrant Protest and Solidarity Movements,” 530–531.
21 Interview with a young migrant, 14 August 2023, Frankfurt.
22 Interview with a young migrant, 28 July 2023, Frankfurt.
23 Monsutti, “Mobility as a political act.”
24 Wonders and Jones, “Doing and Undoing Borders,” 137.
25 Ibid, 137-138.
26 Drawson, Toombs, and Mushquash, “Indigenous Research Methods.”
27 Hart, “Geography and development.”
28 Sherif, “The Ambiguity of Boundaries in the Fieldwork Experience,” 440–441.
29 From both dissertational fieldwork from 2022-2023, but also from my regular visits to family in Hargeisa since 2012.
30 Such scholars include Cui, “Substantiate the Reflexivity”; Hamdan, “Reflexivity of Discomfort”; and Sheriff, “The Ambiguity of Boundaries.”
31 Smith, “Choosing the margins,” 151-153.
32 Banks, “The Lives and Values of Researchers,” 6-7.
33 Ibid, 5-6.
34 Holmes and Castaneda, “Ethnographic Research in Migration and Health.”
35 Other researchers have alluded to this in their writings as well, including Cui, “Substantiate the Reflexivity”; Hamdan, “Reflexivity of Discomfort”; and Sheriff, “The Ambiguity of Boundaries.”
36 Hamdan, “Reflexivity of Discomfort in Insider-Outsider Educational Research.”
37 Banks, “The Lives and Values of Researchers.”
38 Fagioli-Ndlovu, “Somalis in Europe.”
39 González-Ruibal, et al., “Exploring long distance trade in Somaliland (AD 1000–1900)”.
40 David and Ghedi, “Historical Somali Migration.”
41 MacGregor and Shire, “Diaspora and development.”
42 Ibid.
43 David and Ghedi, “Historical Somali Migration.”
44 Farah. “Diaspora involvement in the development of Somalia.”
45 Bradbury, Becoming Somaliland.
46 Anderson, Imagined communities.
47 Such authors include Ali, “Going on Tahriib”; Magan, “On Being Black, Muslim, and a Refugee”; Ibrahim, Malik, and Wielenga, “Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa”; Simonsen, Tahriib – Journeys into the unknown; Wasuge, “Youth Migration in Somalia.”
48 Participant observations, 4 August 2022.
49 MacGregor and Shire, “Diaspora and development: lessons from Somaliland.”
50 Magan, “On Being Black, Muslim, and a Refugee.”
51 Unicef, No mother wants her child to migrate.
52 Bradbury, Becoming Somaliland.
53 Kaplan, “The Remarkable Story of Somaliland.”
54 King and Kendall, “Why study the state.”
55 Simonsen, Tahriib – Journeys into the Unknown.
56 Informal conversation, young man, Hargaisa, 2019.
57 Online Conversation with family friend, September 2022.
58 Ali, “Going on Tahriib.”
59 Participant observation, Hargaisa, June 2022.
60 Hopkins, “Young Muslim Men in Scotland.”
61 IOM, “Guidelines on Voluntary Migrant Return and Reintegration Adopted in Somalia,” Press Release, 16 November 2021. https://www.migrationjointinitiative.org/news/guidelines-voluntary-migrant-return-and-reintegration-adopted-somalia
62 SLNTV, “Guddoomiyaha Hay,adda Barakacayasha Qaranka,” News Report, 12 January 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwU7QngbwCo
63 Anadolu Agency, “97 Somali migrants repatriated from Libya,” News Report, 12 January 2022. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/97-somali-migrants-repatriated-from-libya/2472350
64 Hiiran News, “Somaliland: Dhalinyaro Liibiya laga soo bad-baadiyay oo sheegay in Xamar si qasab ah looga dajiyay,” News Report, 12 January 2022. https://www.hiiraan.com/news/2022/Jan/wararka_maanta12-179952.htm
65 Anadolu Agency, “97 Somali migrants repatriated from Libya,” News Report, 12 January 2022. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/97-somali-migrants-repatriated-from-libya/2472350
66 Shabelle TV, “Dowlada Soomaaliya oo dalka dib ugusoo celisay dhalinyaro ku xirnaa Xabsiyada Liibiya,” News Report, 12 January 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcVVCmUyzP8
67 Participant observation, Somaliland, June 2022.
68 Hiiran News, “Somaliland: Dhalinyaro Liibiya laga soo bad-baadiyay oo sheegay in Xamar si qasab ah looga dajiyay,” News Report, 12 January 2022. https://www.hiiraan.com/news/2022/Jan/wararka_maanta12-179952.htm
69 Hiiran News, “Somaliland: Dhalinyaro Liibiya laga soo bad-baadiyay oo sheegay in Xamar si qasab ah looga dajiyay,” News Report, 12 January 2022. https://www.hiiraan.com/news/2022/Jan/wararka_maanta12-179952.htm
70 Participant observation, Hargaisa, 2022.
71 Interview with government employee, Hargeisa, 20 July 2022.
72 Participant observation, Toronto, 2020.
73 IOM, “UN Migration Agency Helps Somali Migrants Return Home from Libya,” Press Release, 31 May 2018. https://www.iom.int/news/un-migration-agency-helps-somali-migrants-return-home-libya
74 Shabelle TV, “Dowlada Soomaaliya oo dalka dib ugusoo celisay dhalinyaro ku xirnaa Xabsiyada Liibiya,” News Report, 12 January 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcVVCmUyzP8
75 Ali, “Going on Tahriib.”
76 Issa-Salwe and Olden, “Somali Websites, History and Politics.”
77 Participant observation, Somaliland, 2009.
78 Horst, “Buufis amongst Somalis in Dadaab.”
79 Ibid.
80 Dhunkaal, “Maansada Tariika” BBC Interview. Hargeisa, 25 May 2016.
81 Ibid
82 Awad and Natarajan, “Migration Myths and the Global South.”
83 Ali, “Going on Tahriib.”