Journey narratives of Eritrean refugees living in The Netherlands: Becoming and being a refugee.

This paper wishes to analyse the journey narratives of Eritrean refugees in The Netherlands in their becoming and being refugees. It consists of the different constructions of the participants’ journeys through its beginning or ending; as an (un)imagined destination; as narratives of uncer-tainties and as influenced by the mode of travel in the stages of their physical journeys. The study illustrates that focusing on refugees’ own meaning and narratives of their journeys can help in understanding the temporalities and permanence of temporariness in becoming and being a refu-gee. I argue that the participants’ notions of time and place were altered while becoming and being a refugee as demonstrated by their narratives of waiting, enforced idleness and being made to wait especially before and after granted a refugee status and that important places where refugee status have been granted can be both a place of ‘opportunity’ and ‘constraints’. I hope that this paper will give voice to the refugees whose narratives are part of the global narratives of refugees but are most often misrepresented or not heard.