Im/mobile subjects: identity, conflict and emotion work among East Timorese Meto diaspora

Abstract

Changes in situations of mobility as a result of violent conflict and displacement pose major challenges to the maintenance, mobilisation and restoration of family ties across national boundaries. Sustaining these relationships through which personal and group identities are embedded and resources for survival are provided can be emotionally and materially taxing while living in exile. This is particularly so when poor relations are perpetuated as a result of unattended and deeply rooted conflict. This paper illustrates the ways legacy of mistrust manifest in diaspora persons’ im/mobility in relation to their moral community ‘back home’. It considers the case of East Timorese Meto diasporic families against the background of widespread impunity that featured the end of the Indonesian state’s occupation of Timor-Leste, which resulted in serious disruptions of cultural and kinship ties. It starts by discussing their mobility context to elucidate the emerging narratives and strategies people employed to negotiate issues of identity and belonging. In particular, the paper reveals the emotion work of translocal mobility through the flows of material, circulating words of good deeds and physical presence, aimed at the repair and strengthening of relationships after dividing conflict.

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