Intergroup Relations, Group Maintenance, and Ethnic Commitment

Eritreans in Canada identify themselves as a distinct ethnic group, different from Ethiopians. Although their primary social relationships take place within their own group, they also interact with other people from the Horn of Africa – Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia – with whom they share geopolitical, historical, and cultural ties. Interaction with Africans from countries beyond the Horn of Africa tends to be minimal because of geographical and historical differences.

On the whole, Eritrean Canadians find interaction with mainstream Canadians difficult because many Canadians have little or no knowledge of Eritrea or the trauma Eritreans had to face before they arrived in Canada. Canadians often do not recognize that Eritreans are a distinct group, and they may refer to them as Ethiopians, Africans, or simply blacks. Although the misidentification is the result simply of lack of knowledge, this kind of cultural categorization often creates racial stereotypes and negative connotations based on colour. Eritreans were not accustomed to race being used as a label for ethnic or national identification in their homeland, and they prefer to be known as Eritreans because they think that keeping their Eritrean identity is extremely important.

The dream of Eritrea as an independent state helped to strengthen the identity of Eritreans as a community in exile with the possibility of returning to Eritrea as its long-term goal. Now that Eritrea is independent, the dilemma of whether or not to return has created some uncertainties among many Eritreans, particularly those who have educational or career plans in Canada. Many Eritreans have returned home to visit but few have remained there. The long war of independence destroyed Eritrea’s infrastructure, and its rehabilitation and reconstruction will require tremendous sacrifices from within the country as well as from Eritreans around the world. In the long run, most Eritreans aspire to return to their homeland and take part in rebuilding their country.

Eritrean immigrants who held different political views from the government now in power in the homeland or those who were supporters of political groups other than the pro-Marxist Eritrean People’s Liberation Front may be apprehensive about returning home. However, the promise of the provisional government of Eritrea that there will be a national election and that a multiparty system will be allowed may lessen the fear of returning. Also, since some leaders of groups that were not part of the Liberation Front have returned and participated in the referendum, Eritrean immigrants in Canada and elsewhere around the world are coming to believe that, despite their past differences, all Eritreans may be able to work side by side in order to rebuild their shattered homeland. Thus, the Eritrean community in Canada can be expected to establish even stronger ties with other Eritreans, both in the homeland and internationally.