Towards closer convivialities: everyday intercultural connections among Eritrean migrants in Melbourne

Questions about human capacities to live together amid cultural differences remain pertinent worldwide. While scholars have debated the transformative potential of everyday convivialities–especially ‘fleeting’ or ‘minimal’ interactions–the ability of convivial ties to develop into closer connections remains underexplored empirically. To address this gap, this paper examines everyday intercultural contact among Eritrean humanitarian migrants in Melbourne, focusing on workplaces and neighbourhoods. Although participants reported intercultural contact to be widespread and largely positive, such contact was also limited in fundamental ways, which contrasted with participants’ wishes for closer connections. First, work-based ties were largely superficial, rarely extended beyond their original contexts, and often consisted of friendly encounters that worked to regulate contact rather than transform socialities. Second, intercultural ties were ethnically segmented, and closer connections were overwhelmingly formed with non-white migrants and rarely with white Australians. Third, everyday contact in neighbourhoods was largely characterised by distance, lack of interest and alienation, phenomena that have seen minimal discussion to date. The paper concludes by calling for three reorientations to scholarship on conviviality: expanding research on closer connections and friendships; considering private spaces and migrant settlement organisation; and adopting complementary methodological approaches to allow closer engagement with participants’ intercultural connections.