AAMR Fellows

Mulu Getachew Abebe is a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Her areas of interest include the broad field of migration and refugee studies, covering the various aspects of social, cultural and political life that affect refugees’ experiences. She has conducted research around trans-border migration of Eritrean refugees across the Ethiopian-Eritrean border. Mulu’s interest in Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia dates back to 2011 when she visited Eritrean refugees in the Mai Aini refugee camp to research their experiences inside the camp. During the fieldwork and the following years, she met many refugees. The meeting exposed her to the precariousness and uncertainty that refugees face at different stages of their flight, both inside and outside of refugee camps. Mulu became curious to understand the uncertainty that these refugees experience and how they cope. Over the course of her research, she regularly visits field sites in Shemelba, Mai Ayni, Adi Harush and Hitsats and has established bonds to longstanding camp inhabitants. Before her admission to the PhD Program, she was a social worker in a nongovernmental organization involved with raising awareness on risks of human trafficking and creating socio-economic opportunities for women at risk together with community representatives - using community-based approaches in the inner city of Addis Ababa. Currently, as part of the research team of TRAFIG in Ethiopia, Mulu is doing further research among Eritrean refugees in the camps and cities, i.e. Tigray, Afar and Addis Ababa. Her work on this project has identified how current policies do not adequately address the challenge of forced displacement and fail to offer long-term perspectives for those who are stuck in ‘limbo’.

My work in particular focuses on trans-border migration of Eritrean refugees across the Ethiopian-Eritrean border, flight, camp life, uncertainty, protractedness, trans-local and transnational connectivity and irregular migration. However, I am interested in the broad field of migration and refugee studies, covering the various aspects of social, cultural and political life that affect refugees’ experiences.

Publications and Blog Post

Abebe, Mulu G. (23/03/2018) Moving in the face of uncertainty: the life of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.umifre.fr/c/71608

Abebe, Mulu G., (2019), Moving in the face of uncertainty: Eritrean Refugees’ En-Route Flight Experiences across the Ethio-Eritrean Border. In Manger, Leif, Fekadu Adugna, Assal Munzoule & Onyango EriaOlowo (Eds.) Borderland Dynamics in East Africa. (OSSREA), 83-99.

Treiber M., & Abebe M.G. (2021) Who Calls the Tune? Submission, Evasion, and Contesting Authorities in Ethiopian Refugee Camps. In: Steinforth A.S., Klocke-Daffa S. (eds) Challenging Authorities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76924-6_15

Tufa, F.A. et al. (2021). Figurations of Displacement in and beyond Ethiopia: Empirical findings and reflections on protracted displacement and translocal connections of Eritreans in Ethiopia (TRAFIG working paper 5). Bonn: BICC. https://trafig.eu/output/working-papers/trafig-working-paper-no-5

Tufa, F.A. et al. (2021). Supporting self-reliance for local integration: Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia. https://trafig.eu/output/practice-notes/trafig-practice-note-no-5

Tufa, F.A. et al. A matter of time and contacts: trans-local networks and long-term mobility of Eritrean refugees. In Etzold, Benjamin, & Fechter, Anne-Meike, (Eds.) Unsettling Protracted Displacement: Connectivity and Mobility beyond ‘Limbo’ (Forthcoming)