Time Making and Place Making: A Journey of Immigration from Ethiopia to Israel

ABSTRACT

Anthropological studies of immigration usually focus on the immigrants’ country of origin or their destination. The present ethnographic study is a claim that the immigration experience must be examined as part of a journey and movement. The study was designed to show how the immigration process of Zera Beita Israel (Feres Mura) from Ethiopia to Israel is constructed on a process of journey and dialogue among the various stations. The two main aspects of the journey are place making – constructing a place in the unique context of immigration, and time making – creating being-time and meta-time, both unique to immigration. Each of the places affects the immigration process and is affected by this dynamic, nonlinear process. The combined concepts of place making and immigration time help explain the complexity of immigration.

KEYWORDS:

• Mobility
• journey
• place making
• perceptions of time
• Ethiopia

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Prof. Moshe Shokeid and Prof. Adriana Kemp for their ongoing support of the research. I am grateful to Prof. Don Seeman who read the draft and gave me helpful comments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Interviews were held in Hebrew (H) and Amharic (A).

2 The Hebrew word for immigration is hagira. Aliyah (literally, ascension) is a word used specifically for Jewish immigration to Israel. In this study, the word immigration will be used throughout, except when the immigrants themselves use the specific aliyah or when the distinction is pertinent.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Research fund from the Research and Education Fund Association; Ben-Zvi Institute and the Ministry of Education; Yad Tabenkin, the Research and Documentation Center of the Kibbutz Movement; Simon Rajsfus Doctoral Fellowship Fund; Joseph Sagol Fellowship Program in the Humanities and Social Sciences; Faculty of Social Sciences, Tel Aviv University.