Could this ever be home? exploring home, homemaking and belonging for forced migrants in the North East of England

Abstract

The thesis explores experiences of refugees as they find housing and make their homes as part of their post-asylum experience in the North East of England. It uses data gathered from ethnographic fieldwork conducted over a period of eight months, which included observations made from long-term voluntary work, home visits to a key informant as well as semi-structured interviews with forced migrants and other stakeholders from the local authority and third sector organisations. Using participatory methods with refugees and asylum seekers, including photo elicitation and solicited diaries, the research highlights the subjective, lived experiences of forced migrants during this homemaking, from finding housing to venturing out into their communities. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with support service staff from local authorities and third sector organisations, this study provides new insight into the contexts of refugee homemaking and the different structures that shape forced migrants' experiences. The empirical research is situated within literature on migration, home and belonging and takes a materialist approach which is distinctive in analysing the minutiae of refugee homemaking after experiences of asylum and refuge in the UK. This thesis explores how forced migrants show agency through various forms of homemaking and developing strategies for belonging while operating in limiting structures and hostile environments, thus distancing it from dominant ideas about refugees’ experiences of “integration” which do not capture subjective experiences and nuanced feelings of belonging. Through placing subjectivity centre-stage in exploring homemaking, home and belonging, this study emphasises how micro-practices of homemaking are essential in understanding the agency of forced migrants. The research considers how forced migrants' experiences of housing and homemaking are impacted by past and present experiences, future aspirations and transnational connections and how these can be complexly intertwined.