Out of the (ethnic) closet: Consumer practices among Eritrean refugee women

Abstract

This article examines the fabric of the emerging relationships between refugee women and consumption. Based on an empirical study of women from Eritrea living in Tel Aviv, Israel, I discuss the ways in which national and ethnic identity is formulated through and in the economic space. In contrast to previous academic literature with its focus on the connection between refugees and the maintenance of national identity via ethnic goods, this study emphasizes the consumerist aspects of being a refugee, which are made possible for the first time in their host society. I describe the connection between identity and the consumption of traditional goods, mainly Eritrean dresses and hair products, and show how, by using shared status symbols, these serve women refugees as a political instrument for mobility within their community. The article asserts that this unintended outcome of forced migration enables women refugees to position themselves as a fresh consumer power in their new urban space and affords them newfound social prestige.