Dissertation
THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF HADIYA EMIGRANTS TO SOUTH AFRICA AND THE GULF STATES: CULTURAL MODELS, SOCIAL LEARNING, AND TRANSNATIONALISM
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2020
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/112436
Abstract
Abstract
by Mulye Girma Tadesse, Ph.D.
Washington State University
May 2020
Chair: Barry S. Hewlett
The dissertation investigates how the Hadiya of central Ethiopia, think, feel, and experience international migration to South Africa and the Gulf States. The dissertation focuses on four general questions. What are the lived experiences of Hadiya community members that emigrated to South Africa and the Gulf States? What are the Hadiya cultural domains of success, and how do Hadiya think, feel, and evaluate the good life? How do local Hadiya learn about migration (from whom do they learn about it and how do they learn it)? How does international migration and transnationalism impact what the Hadiya view as the “good life” (horrem dennammo)? Data were collected in 2017 and 2018 in Hossana, Ethiopia. Methods included participant observation and informal interviews in the community, case study interviews with 46 returned migrants, freelisting exercises about perceptions of the “good life” with 66 informants, a pile sorting activity with 22 informants, and a random sample survey of 374 households in Hossana. The study shows that several common themes emerge from the lived experiences of international migrants (e.g., material benefits influence migration, emigration facilitated by knowing Hadiya in the destination country, Hadiya value international migration ) and that the Hadiya have a cultural model about international migration which includes local terms, where to go, why to migrate, when to return, etc. Hadiya cultural values associated with the “good life” (e.g., min anna or owning a house, ula or having land, minissama and minisakaheima or living within marriage and marrying in future, and continuing education or losana lossima) motivated people to migrate in order to move closer to the Hadiya “good life” and minimize experiences of structural violence (e.g., lack of access to health and education resources). Results suggest that trusted cultural knowledge about international migration is usually acquired from friends and brothers and sisters rather than parents, i.e., horizontal transmission is common and vertical transmission is limited.
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Details
- Title
- THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF HADIYA EMIGRANTS TO SOUTH AFRICA AND THE GULF STATES: CULTURAL MODELS, SOCIAL LEARNING, AND TRANSNATIONALISM
- Creators
- Mulye Tadesse
- Contributors
- Barry S Hewlett (Advisor)Andrew I Duff (Committee Member)Marsha B Quinlan (Committee Member)Kassahun H Kebede (Committee Member)Mark A Caudell (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 281
- Identifiers
- 99900581812101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation