Social, cultural and political responses to Somaliland’s tahriib movement

Irregular migration to Europe has surged over the past decade, including tahriib (irregular migration) from Somaliland, an internationally unrecognized nation-state in East Africa. As a unrecognized state, Somaliland endeavours to forge its national identity by drawing upon collective memories of historical violence and has gained prominence in the region through its successful forms of communal and indigenous forms of state-building, security and peace against a backdrop of the continued violence in southern Somalia. Consequently, Somalilanders that participate in tahriib are often viewed as unpatriotic for leaving their homeland and risking their lives to venture to foreign lands, exacerbating Somaliland’s precarious statehood. The article argues that the rise of particular language and terminology in Somaliland to disparagingly depict the tahriib movement challenges notions of national solidarity between migrants and their home country. Understanding Somaliland within this context highlights the particularities in which the Somaliland tahriib movement operates in and challenges notions of solidarity between tahriib participants and their country of origin. Primarily based on fieldwork from 2022 to 2023, including interviews with tahriib participants, their family members, community leaders and civil servants, this article presents an analysis of the political, social, and cultural responses towards tahriib participants.