Polly Chiddicks Dissertation

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A FEELING OF HOME FOR THE DISPLACED: A SEARCH FOR FAMILIARITY P O L LY A N N C H I D D I C K S 1 7 0 0 8 7 4 5 6

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P O L LY A N N C H I D D I C K S 170087456 A FEELING OF HOME FOR THE DISPLACED: A SEARCH FOR FAMILIARITY PRUE CHILES Dissertation word count: 9259 words (1146 footnotes) 2020/2021

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my tutor, Prue Chiles, for the continued help and support throughout.

Without her encouragement to continue with this topic, I am sure I would have given up.

I would also like to thank my family and friends who, whilst having to ‘stay home’ for the majority of this year, have also had to put up with me constantly talking about the real meaning of being at home.

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FOREWORD

F i g u r e 1 . Yinka Shonibare, ‘The British Library’

This image has been taken from Yinka Shonibare’s ‘The British Library’, an exhibition I viewed in August 2020 at the Tate Modern, London. Each of the 6,000 books is either printed with the name of first or second generation immigrants to Britain, left blank or printed with names of those who have opposed immigration. The exhibition, as a celebration of cultural diversity and immigration within Britain, was central to my inspiration to explore the relationship between the displaced and their meaning of home within a host country.

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CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

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I N T R O D U C T I O N : A Conflict Between House and Home The search for home goes beyond the search for shelter

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C H A P T E R 1 : Material Culture and Familiar Objects Home as a musuem - the relationship between home-making

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and memory history

C H A P T E R 2 : Familiar Behaviours in Unfamiliar Space Habitus and performativity - everyday behaviours within the home

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C H A P T E R 3 : A Social Home Security of self-identity and comfort of social interaction

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C O N C L U S I O N : In Search for Familiarity

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LIST OF FIGURES

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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ABSTRACT

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This dissertation, through an exploration into the meaning of home, will question the ways in which a sense of home and a feeling of belonging is introduced into the houses of individuals who have been forcefully displaced from their former homes. I will be concentrating on individuals of diaspora who have resettled within a host country following a journey of exile.

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I N T R O D U C T I O N : A Conflict Between House and Home The search for home goes beyond the search for shelter

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F i g u r e 2 . where you find the house, is not necessarily where you find the home.

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I N T R O D U C T I O N : A Conflict Between House and Home

“Home is more than housing” 1 The word ‘home’ has the ability to induce and provoke complex and distinct feelings among each individual. There is often a confliction between house and home, with the word home stereotypically inciting an image of a building, with four walls, a place to eat and a place to sleep. Blunt and Dowling argue “a house is not necessarily nor automatically a home”2. The search for a home goes beyond the fundamental need for adequate shelter. Although ‘a home’ may be defined as a space in which you reside - a physical dwelling, ‘a sense of home’ could be considered a mindset – a multifaceted concept relying on both material and immaterial influences. Boym claims that “to feel at home is to know that things are in their place and so are you; it is a state of mind that doesn’t depend on an actual location”3.The general consensus of the meaning of home often centres around feelings of belonging, comfort, memory and familiarity as well as physical dwellings and fixed locations. Materiality, including structure, space and physical objects are undoubtably essential in the creation of a home, however, the interaction between the materiality and immateriality is the prominent factor in the creation of a feeling of home.

It is possible to consider that a sense of home is perhaps most complex among the displaced; people who have been forcibly removed from the homes that they know and are required to settle in an entirely unknown environment. This can result in an abrupt merging of two cultures. Helen Taylor states “when the decision to relocate has been made out of necessity rather than desire, the meaning of home will be marked by complexity and contradiction”4. When exploring the theoretical background behind the meaning of home among migrants, it is important not to underestimate the scale, the complexity and the diversity of the refugee crisis. The wider ethnographic issues that surround each individual experience must be taken into account. Whether a person has left their home and potentially their country of origin voluntarily or involuntarily, the experiences they have been subject to will no doubt have an impact on their later associations and feelings of home. This may result in an ambivalent and multidimensional perception of home.

By the end of 2019, there were at least 79.5 million displaced people in the world. Each of these individuals have lost a home and are on the search for a new place to settle, a

Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, The Right To Home: Exploring How Space, Culture And Identity Intersect With Disparities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). p. 1.

2 Alison Blunt and Robyn M Dowling, Home (New York NY: Routledge, 2006). p. 3.

3 S Boym, The Future of Nostalgia (New York: Basic Books, Perseus Books Group, 2016). p. 251.

4 Helen Taylor, Refugees and the Meaning of Home: Cypriot Narratives of Loss, Longing and Daily Life in London (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). p. 4.

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new sense of belonging. Of this 79.5 million, there are 29.6 million refugees, 45.7 million internally displaced people and 4.2 million asylum-seekers.5 According to the UN Refugee Agency, just 107,800 of these are resettled in host countries.6 The insecurity faced by refugees in their country of origin may be diluted by the search for a new home and sense of belonging within the host country.

F i g u r e 3 . In the last 30 years, the number of individuals’ who have been forced to leave their homes has doubled. 79.5 million people in the world currently are facing displacement and the loss of home.

It is important to consider the temporal implications when discussing individuals’ meanings of home, personal narratives of home may incorporate fragments of an entire life span.

This results in a concept of home that is far from static, “involving the acts of imagining, creating and unmaking, changing and losing and moving homes”.7 The temporally dependent concept of home allows for the renegotiations of one’s sense of home throughout time. The search for a new sense of home following displacement can result in having renegotiate and then in a form of mediation with an individual’s cultural identity, can be externalized through processes such as homemaking, nostalgic reminiscence and social interactions.

‘UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency’ <https://www.unhcr.org/uk/figures-at-a-glance.html>. ibid.

7 N. Al-Ali and K. Koser, New Approaches to Migration? Transnational Communities and the Transformation of Home (London: Routledge, 2002), in Taylor, Refugees and the Meaning of Home: Cypriot Narratives of Loss, Longing and Daily Life in London. p. 3.

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This dissertation will discuss and investigate the techniques and practices used by refugees in order to create a sense of home within their host country.

Chapter 1, material culture and familiar objects, explores material practices such as homemaking and the use of objects, artefacts and cultural relics within a home.

Homemaking and displaying familiar native objects is a common process used by migrants in order to resettle and construct a feeling of home in the host country. To quote Boym, the creation of a “personal memory museum”8 evokes feelings of nostalgic reminiscence through associations with past memories and the lost home. By suggesting that material culture and objects are in fact personified imaginaries of a feeling of home and belonging, we challenge the idea that homemaking practices are simply a method of replicating a previous dwelling and homely environment. They hold a meaning that aids in the transformation from a house into a home.

F i g u r e s 4 , 5 a n d 6 . Mohamad Hafez, ‘UNPACKED - refugee baggage’. The scale models of homes left behind by refugees within a suitcase symbolise the relationship between the emotional and the physical concepts of home - the interaction between the material and the immaterial.

Chapter 2, familiar behaviours in unfamiliar spaces, investigates how everyday behaviours and habits performed within the home can lead to the creation of a feeling of home for the displaced. Through theoretical evaluations of the background of a ‘home’, it is possible to consider the prominence of internalised dispositions in the creation of a feeling of home.

Bourdieu’s theory of habitus 9 used in conjunction with Boccagni’s 10 conceptual

Boym. p. 133.

Pier Bourdieu, ‘Habitus’, in Habitus: A Sense of Place (Routledge, 2005), pp. 43–53.

10 Paulo Boccagni, Migration and the Search for Home: Mapping Domestic Space in Migrants’ Everyday Lives (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

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model of migration allows us to understand the relationship between home experiences in a previous home, current home experiences and the feelings created in response. The consideration of the home experience as a “sensory totality” 11 introduces the multitude of ways in which the everyday environment can trigger embodied emotions associated with feelings of home and belonging within a migrant.

Chapter 3, a social home, explores the relationship between social interaction within the home and a feeling of home for the displaced through the idea of self idenitity. By focusing on traditional, familiar social behaviours and the spatiality of the homes in which they are recreated it is possible to analyse the effects this relationship has on a feeling of home and sense of belonging. This includes how a space accommodates for or obstructs social interactions, incorporating both large scale traditional gatherings and everyday practices such as eating on the floor with family, discussing cultural familiarities and memories.

Referencing Arjun Appudarai, Boym argues that the perception of “locale” can no longer be defined as an exact location, but due to “globalisation” and “mass immigration” it is instead a “social context” constructed through diaspora. 12 13

Elia Petridou, ‘Mobile Homes: The Taste of Home’, in Home Possessions: Material Culture behind Closed Doors (Daniel Miller) (Oxford: Berg Press, 2001), (pp. 87–107.) p. 89 12 Boym.

13 Arjun Appudarai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996). in Boym, ‘The Future of Nostalgia’, p. 256.

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C H A P T E R 1 : Material Culture and Familiar Objects Home as a musuem - the relationship between home-making and memory history

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F i g u r e 7 . Mohamad Hafez, ‘UNPACKED - refugee baggage’

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C H A P T E R 1 : Material Culture and Familiar Objects

It has been suggested that individuals of diaspora may endeavour to recreate their ‘lost’ homes through material culture and the use of familiar objects in order to search for a forgotten sense of home. As argued by Blunt and Dowling, it is essential to consider the “dynamic” and multidimensional background to diasporic homemaking rather than as a rigid imitation of a previous native home. 14 Material cultures provoke, as described

by Hecht, “sensory journeys”15, evoking the idea that relics and objects have the ability to take us back in time. Hecht claims that ‘things’, material culture and objects, are what enables the transition from “our house into our home”16. She states, “they bind our past with our present and our possible futures, thereby framing and reflecting our sense of self”.17 Whilst Hecht’s views can be applied to most individuals, this interaction between past, present and future may be particularly pertinent in provoking a sense of home for displaced individuals.

The process of homemaking, although linked to immaterial responses, introduces the significance of material and spatial qualities in the search for a feeling of home. Tasoula Hadjiyanni’s book ‘A Right to Home: Exploring how Space, Culture and Identity Intersect with Disparities’ investigates homemaking and how this is influenced by culture. Focusing on five different cultural groups who have experienced displacement from their native countries now living in America, she examines their distinctive sentiments on the meaning of home and how individuals create meaning within their home. This study focuses on domestic spatiality, taking into account both object centred and relational responses to the creation of a meaningful home. Discussing an interview with 54 year old African American male veteran Kofi, Hadjiyanni states that with each object he used to fill his one bed public housing apartment he has “reclaimed his rights to a place and a home, retracing his people’s history and crafting a dwelling that redefined his own and his peoples position within society”.18 This statement perfectly encapsulates how Kofi has used his native culture to portray his entitlement to a home and create a connection to the home he had lost. Kofi lived in rented housing meaning he was unable to paint the walls or complete any physical structural work in order to adapt and adjust the space to his preference. The use of material culture in the form of objects and artefacts is a way to combat this whilst imprinting himself on the physical space. Kofi has covered the walls in posters, expressing that he believes a meaningful home is a space that you can own, this can be seen in figure 8. His posters showcasing “African lineages through the years”18 combined with artefacts and photographs sent from his mother from his time in Vietnam transform the apartment from an institutional, meaningless space to a space that connects him back to his past.

The reclamation of space enabled Kofi to feel a sense of belonging. This physical use of

Blunt and Dowling. p. 215.

Anat Hecht, ‘Estate Agency: Home Sweet Home: Tangible Memories of an Uprooted Childhood’, in Home Possessions: Material Culture behind Closed Doors (Daniel Miller) (Oxford: Berg Press, 2001), p. 129 16 ibid. p. 123.

17 ibid. p. 123.

18 Hadjiyanni. p. 232 14 15

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F i g u r e 8 . Photograph of Kofi’s living room. Kofi uses an abundance of material culture and personal objects to reclaim a space in which he feels a sense of home.

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objects to create meaning within his home affirms the fundamentality of homemaking for the displaced. Werbner’s theories reinforce this, stating that refugees often recreate their original homes with “cultural products such as rituals, events, food and goods.” 19 20 Webber’s 2018 study into the homemaking practices of Migrant, Refugee and AsylumSeeking Women in Glasgow investigates the interlink between objects, people and place in the creation of a home. 21 “Home is often understood as memory”22, this statement made by Blunt and Dowling suggests a strong connection between the subsequent sense of home for the displaced and the memory triggering practice of homemaking.

Webber’s studies suggest that the use of material culture and familiar objects in the decoration of a home trigger memories among the individual, in turn provoking a sense of belonging by connecting the current space with a previous familiar and meaningful home. Quoting Tolia-Kelly, Webber writes that “through these means of reconnecting, individuals make a collage of safety and, above all, an affirmation of identity”.23 This amalgamation of emotive responses to the memories triggered by material culture, in the form of decorative objects, affirms Amos Rappoport’s early theories relating to the formation of a home not simply being “the result of physical forces or any single causal factors, but the consequence of a whole range of sociocultural factors seen in their broadest terms”24. Webber argues that the ethnic imagery associated with material culture is that which creates a “symbolic value” resulting in the consequent identification with home and place. Webber then goes on to consider the ways in which material culture can “act as a highly effective vehicle through which memories can be channelled and other places refracted”.25 She claims that objects that are associated with a past life and were used in a previous home are infused with a new sense of meaning when they are displayed win a new setting, they hold an emotional connection with the lost home and become a means for gaining a sense of comfort and belonging.26 By connecting these theories, we can suggest the importance of a search for nostalgic feelings of comfort, this can be achieved through the use of familiar objects in order to feel a sense of home within a new and unknown environment.

To illustrate this, Webber discusses an interview with Justice, a Turkish refugee living in Glasgow. Due to her age at the time and the urgent, unavoidable nature of her migration,

Pnina Werbner, ‘Migration and the Sacralisation of New Homes’, HOMInG Working Paper, 4, (2018.)

Kyohee Kim and Peer Smets, ‘Home Experiences and Homemaking Practices of Single Syrian Refugees in an Innovative Housing Project in Amsterdam’, Current Sociology, 68.5 (2020), p. 609 21 Ruth Webber, ‘Picturing Home: Exploring the Everyday Home-Making Practices of Migrant, Refugee and AsylumSeeking Women in Glasgow’ (School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, 2018).

22 Blunt and Dowling. p. 212.

23 Divya. P Tolia-Kelly, ‘Chapter.2 Part III. A Journey through the Material Geographies of Diaspora Cultures: Four Modes of Environmental Memory’, in Histories and Memories: Migrants and Their History in Britain (London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2006), pp. 149–71. in Webber, ‘Picturing Home: Exploring the Everyday Home-Making Practices of Migrant, Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Women in Glasgow’, p. 131.

24 Amos Rapoport, House, Form and Culture (Englewood Cliffs, N.j.,: Prentice-Hall, 1969). p.47.

25 Webber p.132. ; Tolia-Kelly.

26 ibid.

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she was originally unable to bring any objects or artefacts that filled her home. Justice explains that upon returning to her childhood home, she found some belongings and brought them back to Glasgow with her, including a pencil and a pen. Although she does not use the pencil (to keep it as it is) and the pen does not work, these items act as remnants of her previous home, allowing her to connect and identify with a former sense of home and belonging. Her “memory-history”27, triggered by her juvenile objects, allows an association between her previous home and her current home to be formed. She is prompted to reminisce about a place and a time where her “sense of home was perhaps almost taken-for-granted”.28 This again suggests the multifaceted background to a feeling of home and belonging for refugees, here relying on objects and memory to connect one to a previous sense of home.

Lydia, a refugee from Johannesburg living in Glasgow, displays a painting originally from her parents’ living room above her television, as seen in figure 9. “it’s my window home… not home but my window back…” 29 – here Lydia indicates the affiliation between the painting of a fishing village in the Cape and a sense of home. By displaying the painting above her television, whether this was deliberate or not, each time Lydia glances at it she is reminded of the associations she holds with the painting. This includes both material and emotive connotations; the physical place, the spatiality of her home, her memories of living there and the important relationships associated with her home there. Lydia moves

F i g u r e 9 . “its my window home... not home but my window back...”. The placement of her parents painting allows Lydia to transport back the familiarity she remembers from her childhood home, thus feeling a sense of home.

Webber. p. 134. ibid. p.134.

29 ibid. p. 136.

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F i g u r e 1 0 . ”they feel really African”, Lydia exhibits an emotional connection to her lost home through the furniture - a physical narrative of a feeling of home.

C H A P T E R 1 : Material Culture and Familiar Objects

on to explain that a considerable amount of the furniture in her Glaswegian home is in fact her parent’s furniture from Africa, as seen in figure 10. When asked why these objects that establish a relationship between her ‘two homes’ are so significant to her, she states that “they feel really African” 30, clearly emphasising the physicality of the connection. She also believes their presence allows her to feel an emotional connection to her parents. The personal and relational sense of home felt by Lydia through her parent’s furniture introduces another dimension of belonging. The thoughts provoked by the furniture triggers Lydia’s memory-history to feel the comfort of a familiar relationship she had in a previous home, this supports Marcoux’s argument that “things embody relations and memory”.31

According to Buitelaar and Stocks, the creation of a sense of home for displaced individuals is a constant and evolving process, one that through the vehicle of material culture can develop and change over time32. This introduces a temporal dimension to the negotiation between home and belonging, potentially by integrating numerous sites of belonging. To use Boccagni’s temporal model of migration, this allows a mediation between “home_hereand-now and home_there-and-then”.33 This model will be discussed in greater detail in chapter 2. Buitelaar and Stock express that this process is particularly prominent when the native culture is not represented or found in the society of the host country, this can lead to an abrupt clash between two sites of ‘home’ for the individual. 34 Thus, resulting in a need to negotiate between two different identities and therefore establish a representation of two different cultures within the home. This is exemplified in Buitelaar and Stocks account of an interview with Yasin, a Moroccan refugee living in the Netherlands. Yasin describes both Morocco and the Netherlands as his home, stating that they are “about different things”35. He uses two rooms in his house to exhibit his differing identities with himself and the two sites of home. In his office he displays objects that narrate his current lifestyle

Webber. p. 136.

Jean-Sébastien Marcoux, ‘Mobile Homes: The Refurbishment of Memory’, in Home Possessions: Material Culture behind Closed Doors (Daniel Miller) (Oxford: Berg Press, 2001), (pp. 69–87). p. 83.

32 Marjo Buitelaar and Femke Stock, ‘Making Homes in Turbulent Times: Moroccan-Dutch Muslims Contesting Dominant Discourses of Belonging’, in Muslim Diaspora in the West: Negotiating Gender, Home and Belonging (New York NY: Routledge, 2016), pp. 163 – 180.

33 Boccagni, Migration and the Search for Home: Mapping Domestic Space in Migrants’ Everyday Lives’, pp. 319 - 320.

34 Buitelaar and Stock. pp. 163 - 180.

35 ibid. p. 166.

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in the Netherlands; his hobbies, his job, his love for reading. In his living room he displays artefacts from Morocco and presents from his family. Yasin emphasised who each object was gifted from, possibly indicating “that he appreciates these souvenirs as much for their references to family bonds as for their Moroccanness”36. Again, indicating the importance of relational familiarity in terms of material culture as a prompt for the creation of a sense of home among diasporic individuals. Yasin’s homemaking, combining aspects from his two identities, suggests he is able to maintain a connection and sense of belonging with the two places. Whilst he has developed a sense of home within the Netherlands and his Dutch apartment, he also clings to his sense of belonging attached to his previous home.

Yasin’s plural identification supports Blunt and Dowling’s view towards the “hybridity” of diasporic homes and “their dynamic multiplicity in relation to multiple places”37. Helen Taylor considers that refugees may retain a sentimental affiliation with their “lost” home, whilst simultaneously constructing a new home and sense of belonging in their host country. 38 Yasin displays a “transnational identity”39 allowing him an ability to function and feel a sense of belonging in both cultures.

On the contrary to Yasin’s positive outlook on both his Moroccan identity and his Dutch identity, Buitelaar and Stock describe Leyla’s negotiations between a negative experience in the Netherlands and a longing for her Moroccan identity. Leyla’s recently found identification with her native Moroccan culture can be seen through the introduction of material cultures into her home. Originally upon settling in the Netherlands, she had a lack of Moroccan objects and artefacts, portraying a desire to find a sense of home, belonging and identification within Dutch society. Since Leyla’s attitude towards Dutch society has changed, she has begun to hang traditional Moroccan artwork suggesting a shift towards a longing for her previous home.40 Leyla has introduced a sense of Morocco into her Dutch apartment, displaying her homely attachment and identification with the place, the culture and the society.

Petridou argues that “the material culture of the home can be used to examine realizations of the self … through interactions with the objects”, this has been labelled the process of “objectification” by Miller.41 Through examining Leyla’s process of objectification, it is possible to argue she has used material culture to display her negotiations between home and self identification. Daniels argues “the material culture of the home is expressive of the changing social relationships of its inhabitants and illustrates the complexities, conflicts and compromises involved in creating a home”42. Leyla’s social experiences have led to

Buitelaar and Stock. p. 170.

Blunt and Dowling. pp. 217.

38 Helen Taylor, ‘Refugees, the State and the Concept of Home’, Refugee Survey Quartely, 32.2 (2013), 130–50.

39 Ruth Williams, ‘Place Attachment, Sense of Belonging and Identity in Life History Narratives of Iranian Baha’i Refugees’, Baha’i Studies Review, 15.1 (2009), pp. 3–18.

40 Buitelaar and Stock. pp. 170 - 172.

41 Petridou. p. 88.

42 Inge Maria Daniels, ‘The ‘Untidy’ Japanese Home’, in Home Possessions: Material Culture behind Closed Doors (Daniel Miller) (Oxford: Berg Press, 2001), (pp. 201 - 229). p. 205.

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an adaptation of her sense of home, resulting in a longing for her lost home, she has used material culture and homemaking to exhibit this. Home and a sense of belonging, although often intertwined and used simultaneously, can be at odds with one another. “(T)his is my home, but I feel as though I do not belong here.”43 This statement suggests that feelings of home and belonging can be separate from one another and connections can be held with multiple places in different ways. Leyla may feel a connection and sense of belonging with her lost home but can also feel she has constructed a new home within the Netherlands. This example provides evidence for the dynamic concept of home and the importance of material culture and homemaking in displaying a diasporic sense of home.

Referencing Chevalier, Hecht argues “to lose a home is to lose a private museum of memory, identity and creative appropriation”.44 This statement encapsulates the essence of the arguments presented in chapter 1. The description of a home as a ‘museum’ emphasises the importance of material culture in the creation of a meaningful home whilst capturing the connection with immaterial influencers such as memory and cultural identity within the feeling of home. People of diaspora use material culture and familiar objects reflecting their heritage in order to evoke feelings of belonging and nostalgic reminiscence of places, relationships and past comforts, in turn creating a sense of home within an unfamiliar space.

Buitelaar and Stock. p. 163.

S Chevalier, ‘The Domestic as Museum: Collective and Individual Memory in French and British Homes’, EASA Conference Paper (Unpublished), 1996. in Hecht,’ Estate Agency: Home Sweet Home: Tangible Memories of an Uprooted Childhood’, p. 123.

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F i g u r e s 1 1 (left) and 1 2 (above). Tumaini and Jouliana’s living rooms in Syracuse, New York, following displacement from the Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Both living rooms exhibit a display of familiar, ‘homely’ objects. The images document the way the spaces are inhabited by the families - the way a sense of home is found and practiced within the physical space, expressing the importance of the relationship between the architecture and the found sense of home.

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C H A P T E R 2 : Familiar Behaviours in Unfamiliar Space Habitus and performativity - everyday behaviours within the home

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F i g u r e 1 3 . a migrant cooking a ‘familiar’ meal in an ‘unfamiliar’ kitchen

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C H A P T E R 2 : Familiar Behaviours in Unfamiliar Space

It is argued by Kim and Smets that “although home can include housing, it is generally related with the senses of feeling at home, of belonging and of identity.” 45 These feelings of home and belonging are often stimulated by subconscious and embodied responses to everyday life. Buitelaar and Stocks state that whilst physical domiciles and dwellings may serve as “diasporic sites of belonging”, a sense of home can be induced by other factors including habit, smells, relationship, or specific objects.46 By looking at internalised habits formed in past homes alongside everyday behaviour recreated in migrants’ homes in their host country, we can argue that a sense of home is constructed through familiarity.

The notion of familiarity can be introduced using Paulo Boccagni’s theories. Boccagni examines the theoretical background of a home in relation to migration as an impressionable and temporal concept as opposed to a “fixed and immutable place in itself”.47 Boccagni uses a temporal and spatial conceptual model to represent migrant’s associations with home. Firstly, “home_here-and-now” meaning the current residence in their host country, secondly “home_there-and-now” meaning the native country and thirdly “home_thereand-then”. “(H)ome_there-and-then” represents the immaterial influences, memories of the past and experiences of displacement. This can include both conscious and subconscious principles of homes, perhaps relating back to their habitual behaviours that are embedded in the migrants prior to their displacement. Boccagni claims “home conflates the habitual ways of feeling and behaving as well as the prevalent domestic cultures (and even housing styles), embedded in respondents’ everyday lives prior to their emigration.”48 This discussion can be related to Bourdieu’s theories of Habitus and cultural production 49 and Butler’s theories of performativity 50. The relationship between the internalised dispositions of one’s habitus and both culturally inscribed performativity and gender performativity, suggests a deeper connection between diasporic behaviours and the creation of a sense of home. The temporal separation of each ‘home’ allows us to compare the self-identity and sense of home across the time frame of displacement.

Thus, we can see the relationship between each element and how the combination of all three influence one’s current sense of home. Ballantyne’s theories on one’s relationship with architecture through the development of habit can be related to this discussion.

It is undeniable that Ballantyne’s theories of habits evolved from Bourdieu’s theories of habitus. In his article ‘Architecture, Life and Habitat’ 51, Ballantyne notes that our

Kim and Smets. p. 609.

Buitelaar and Stock. p. 166.

47 Paulo Boccagni, ‘At Roots of Home, Away from It: Meanings, Places and Values of Home through the Biographic Narratives of Immigrant Care Workers in Italy’, in Contested Belonging: Spaces, Practices, Biographies (Emerald Group Publishing, 2018), (pp. 313–32.), p. 315.

48 ibid. p. 319.

49 Bourdieu. pp. 43–53.

50 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York NY: Routledge, 1990).

51 Andrew Ballantyne, ‘Architecture, Life and Habit’, The Journal Of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 69:1.The Aesthetics Of Architecture: Philosophical Investigations into the Art of Building (2011), pp. 43–49.

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association with buildings, is not fixed on the building itself, but rather on our habits within the building, he points to the significance of the unconscious. He writes: “[…] in its routine use, the building is more or less ignored, and what matters about it, for its inhabitants, is whether their life-habits are conveniently accommodated.” 52 Upon applying the two theories to “home_there-and-then” as an influence on migrants’ feelings of home, it is clear the habitual behaviours developed in response to the everyday life in their country of origin could be imperative to the way a ‘sense of home’ is established in their present dwelling in the host country. If there is a confliction between the “home_here-andnow” and the way one’s habitus is accommodated, the individual’s feeling of home and belonging may be affected.

It is important to recognise the potential contrasts between male and female diasporic experiences. An individual’s experience of diaspora is not uniform – gender, alongside additional factors such as age and class, may influence the search for a feeling of home and a sense of belonging within a host country. Referring to the work of Betty Friedman, Webber claims that the “historical confinement of women to the domestic sphere is significant in shaping understandings of home and continues to impact upon how home is understood and negotiated”.53 For this reason, the introduction of gender as a factor which impacts upon the displaced individuals’ feelings of home is vital. Butler’s theories of gender performativity allow us to consider the relationship between gender and bodily responses related to the creation of a new home and sense of belonging within the host country. Butler states;

“Gender ought not to be constructed as a stable identity or locus of

agency from which various acts follows; rather, gender is an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through the stylized repetition of acts. The effect of gender is produced through the stylization of the body, and hence must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements and styles of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self.” 54 Gender performativity and the everyday performativity of identity employ the habitus and “embodied dispositions through a process of cultural socialisation”55. During resettlement, this process is undoubtably varied for men and women. This could be due to the traditionally different stereotypical behaviours associated with each gender within the domestic environment. This gendered administration of domestic roles within a household is still prominent among many cultures today, leading to varied associations with the home for each gender and individual. For example, within Syrian culture, women are continually

Ballantyne. p. 43.

Webber. p. 48.

54 Butler in Nof Nasser-Eddin, ‘Gender Performativity in Diaspora: Syrian Refugee Women in the UK’, in A Gendered Approach to the Syrian Refugee Crisis (Routledge, 2017), p. 143.

55 Webber. p. 108.

52 53

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C H A P T E R 2 : Familiar Behaviours in Unfamiliar Space

defined as “caregivers within the domestic sphere”56, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. Nasser-Edin uses the example of one particular Syrian refugee woman living in the UK who states that her responsibilities within the UK as women have not changed from her time in Syria.57 These traditional “gender dynamics” may be altered and renegotiated upon displacement and resettlement within a new culture. However, often the domestic dynamics remain largely the same as within the home culture in an attempt to preserve cultural values. With women generally staying at home completing domestic tasks, it is likely the search for a sense of belonging within an unfamiliar space will be associated with familiarity within the home.

The interconnection between these theories prompts a consideration towards the everyday behaviours performed in the home and their influence on a sense of home. The habitual performativity of everyday tasks, such as cooking, provokes internalised feelings and memories of a previous home to emerge. According to Webber, “through the engagement of material culture with repetitive, embodied and performative processes such as cooking and eating food, the dispositions which comprise one’s habitus are made visible; particularly when situated within a new and unfamiliar environment.”58 Webber explains that the use of the food to represent one’s cultural identity allows the individuals embodied habitus to surface, acting as a negotiator between home and self, as well as “a bridge between people, places and times”59. Webber discusses an interview with Becky 60, a Nigerian refugee living in Glasgow, introducing the notion of embodiment. Describing a traditional Nigerian meal she cooked from memory, she says “it shows home is already here”.61 Becky associates a new found feeling of home with memories of past homes and practices. This suggests her habitus allows her embodied performativities to surface creating a response of comfort and ‘homeliness’. Butler argues “the body often appears to be a passive medium that is signified by an inscription from a cultural source figured as ‘external to that body’”62. This statement suggests the body acts as an instrument to hold knowledge, including one’s habitus and ethnic identity that has been learned through external sources and performative repetitions. This affirms Becky’s suggestion that home is already present, she has embodied the familiar sense of home through the memories and knowledge of a recipe from her previous domicile. The act of cooking this recipe is enough to allow her to feel a sense of belonging and home. Contrary to Ballantyne’s theories relating to architecture accommodating for certain habits, here, the physical space is not important.

Nasser-Eddin. p. 144. ibid. p. 144 - 145.

58 Webber. p. 109.

59 ibid. p. 107.

60 Becky has been seeking asylum in Glasgow since 2014 with her 3 children. This follows her displacement from Nigeria in an attempt to escape the increasing danger within the country.

61 Webber. p. 111.

62 Butler. p. 164.

56 57

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C H A P T E R 2 : Familiar Behaviours in Unfamiliar Space

Webber goes on to discuss an interview with Haya 63, once again pointing to the significance of physical entities in cohesion with performative acts and memory. Haya explains her family eat their meals on the floor, they use traditional Arabic rugs and sit in circles. She says “you feel like you are in your country. Brings nice memories”64. The familiarity of eating in a traditional manner combined with the use of native artefacts transports Haya back to her country of origin, providing evidence for the multifaceted sense of home.

Once again, the interaction between cultural identity, performative acts and memory is clear in the creation of a sense of belonging for diasporic individuals.

Petridou considers “the experience of home as a sensory totality”65. Although this description of home may be applicable to all, it is clear the use of sensory prompts, such as familiar tastes and smells, is particularly common in the search for a sense of home for the displaced. Hadjiyanni argues that, “when endowed with a distinctive smell, spatiality transforms into a conduit for immaterial connections”66, she states that this becomes an expression of identity. Whilst undoubtably related to ‘memory-history’ as already discussed, the use of sensory triggers such as specific aromas can also be used to voice heritage. Amal 67 uses ‘unsi’, a traditional Somali incense, to revitalise and freshen her house. She says, “when you pass by apartments and you smell this, you know it is Somali people living there”. 68 By ensuring the smell of her home embodies her native identity and culture, she allows the space to hold a sense of familiarity, a key factor in the construction of a meaningful home for the displaced.

The olfactory sense is not alone in redefining a sense of home. The visual and auditory recognition of a home is a form of “claiming space”. 69 Anna 70, a Mexican migrant living in the US, is firm in her opinion that “home is the feeling that you have your place in the world”. 71 In order to claim a place that is her own, Anna uses a range of recognisable elements to fill her apartment, triggering a range of sensory perceptions into forming a sense of home. She has filled her apartment with familiar sounds and smells, the television is programmed to only show Spanish channels and all music is Spanish. The sounds emitted “charged the space with a sense of Mexicanness”72. By characterising the space, she has created a physical environment that conveys her cultural identity and therefore provides her with a sense of home.

Haya has lived in Glasgow since 2013 with her husband and 2 children. They were displaced from Iraq and all have refugee status.

64 Webber. p. 111.

65 Petridou. p. 89.

66 Hadjiyanni. p. 117.

67 Amal is a Mother of three living in Minneapolis following her displacement from Somali.

68 ibid. p. 117.

69 ibid. p. 166.

70 Anna is an undocumented Mexican migrant living with her Boyfriend, Daughter and three Granddaughters in Minnesota. She has lived in the US for 11 years but does not have citizenship status.

71 ibid. p. 161.

72 ibid. p. 165.

63

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C H A P T E R 2 : Familiar Behaviours in Unfamiliar Space

F i g u r e 1 4 . Photograph showing a ‘traditional’ Moroccan kitchen

F i g u r e 1 5 . Photograph showing a typical Dutch kitchen.

31

C H A P T E R 2 : Familiar Behaviours in Unfamiliar Space

Using the example of Ourda, a Moroccan migrant living in the Netherlands, the concept of ‘gustatory nostalgia’ 73 is introduced. Ourda uses a specific blend of spices whilst cooking, the smell of this particular combination transports her back to the “homely feeling” she would get from her grandmother’s kitchen in Morocco. This example presents the significance of a multisensory approach. Although the familiar act of cooking is undoubtably noteworthy for Ourda to feel a sense of comfort within an unfamiliar space, here the prominence of smell is evident. Gustatory nostalgia describes the feelings of both longing for a lost home and a sense of nostalgic belonging induced by food. Sutton suggests this longing induced “by the smells and tastes of a lost homeland” provides a “temporary return to a time when their lives were not fragmented”. 74 75 This momentary ‘homecoming’ allows the displaced individual to experience a feeling of home in a new and perhaps not yet familiar environment. Although Holtzman’s theory of gustatory nostalgia suggests that this sense of home is created through the smells replicating the environment and atmosphere of her grandmother’s kitchen, a past home, it is possible that it is in fact associated with the figure of her grandmother, rather than the physical environment of her Moroccan family house. This hints at a potential interaction between sensory familiarity and social familiarity. Instead of a longing for the physical spatiality of her lost home, it is possible Ourda is in fact longing for the comfort provided by her relationship with her grandmother. The familiar smells created by cooking food that she remembers being cooked by her grandmother provoke memories of time spent with her grandmother. It is possible she associates a feeling of home with the company of family, she therefore looks to recreate familiar behaviours and sensory prompts that remind her of time with them in her lost home and allow her to feel and remember a sense of home and belonging.

Feelings of home sparked by internalised and embodied dispositions, as discussed in chapter 2, demonstrate the importance of familiarity for displaced individuals. Having the ability to reproduce familiar behaviours and environments is vital in the construction of a meaningful home. The interaction between the habitus, everyday performative acts and the five senses; smell, sound, touch, sight and taste, can result in a momentary transportation back to a lost home and the familiar feelings of comfort and belonging associated with that point of life.

Buitelaar and Stock. p. 166.

Jon Holtzman, hi’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 35.1 (2006), pp. 361–78.

75 David Sutton, ‘Sensory Memory and the Construction of “Worlds”’, in Remembrance of Repasts : An Anthropology of Food and Memory (Oxford: Berg Press, 2001), pp. 73–102.

73 74

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C H A P T E R 3 : A Social Home Security of self-identity and comfort of social interaction

33

F i g u r e 1 6 . Startblok Riekerhaven

34

C H A P T E R 3 : A Social Home

It is undeniable that forced displacement and the uncertainty which surrounds the process of diaspora has destructive consequences on an individual, their sense of self and their sense of home. Edward Said defines exile as “an enforced rift between human being and native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted”76. He goes on to suggest that the memory of the lost home is never abandoned, every “habit of life”77 is acted against and compared to memories prior to exile. Said’s assumptions related to the disruption of self and the comparison of memories and behaviours prior to and post exile both support the arguments presented in chapters 1 and 2 and introduce the relationship between self-identity and social behaviours within a home.

Having a place to live is described by Easthope et al, as a catalyst for the development of “feelings of control and ontological security”78. Ontological security is defined as “the continuity of self-identity and constancy of social and material environments”79. The redevelopment of a home is reliant on the restoration of one’s ontological security, according to Fozdar and Hartley,80 meaning the relationship between space and selfidentity is evidently prominent in the meaning of home for displaced individuals.

Feeling at home can be associated with feeling in control, allowing one “to exercise a degree of autonomy over their lives” and be “free to be themselves and at ease”, according to Saunders 81 and Parsell 82. Here, the house becomes a representation of the desired feelings of control and security within oneself, emphasising the importance of physical spatiality in allowing immaterial responses which are associated with the feeling of home.

The feeling of control could be related to a firm sense of self, having a space in which you are able to behave as you please and prompting a relationship with culture and identity.

Social interaction and identification with culturally specific social behaviours can be key in the strengthening of the affiliation between self-identity and a sense of home. This could be related back to the arguments explored in chapter 1 in which physical objects are used to reclaim a position within society, again a representation of control. Here, social identity and social behaviour are used to affirm cultural identity, in turn reclaiming a position within society. Having control over a space allows individuals to practice cultural habits which may not be the norm within the host countries and therefore may not be widely practiced in public settings. This private controlled space allows diasporic individuals to “realise a desired way of living” 83, thus emphasising the significance of the physical space in

Edward Said, Reflections on Exile: And Other Literary and Cultural Essays (United Kingdom: Granta Books, 2001) <https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Reflections_on_Exile/txx73Fw205QC?hl=en&gbpv=0>. p.

173.

77 ibid. p. 186.

78 Hazel Easthope and others, ‘Feeling at Home in a Multigenerational Household: The Importance of Control’, Housing, Theory and Society, 32.2 (2015), (pp. 151–70.), p. 151.

79 ibid.

80 L Hartley and F Fozdar, ‘Housing and the Creation of Home for Refugees in Western Australia’, Housing, Theory and Society, 31.2 (2014), p. 148–73.

81 Peter Saunders, A Nation of Home Owners (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990). p. 389.

82 Cameron Parsell, ‘Home Is Where the House Is: The Meaning of Home for People Sleeping Rough’, Housing Studies, 27.2 (2012), (pp. 159–73.), p. 160.

83 Parsell. p. 160.

76

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C H A P T E R 3 : A Social Home

provoking imagined and immaterial feelings of home. It is therefore clear the interaction between material and immaterial factors is essential in the formation of a feeling of home.

Parsell claims that individuals are able to build “social and intimate relationships”84 through having control over a space. The ability to use a home to recreate traditional cultural behaviours with fellow refugees who have had similar experiences allows for reminiscence of previous homes, prompting a sense of home and belonging to be felt.

Therefore, linking the relationship between social interaction and a feeling of home, with control and a feeling of home, the two concepts are intertwined and rely on one another.

The social interaction that takes place within a dwelling, whether this is the recreation of a traditional ritual or simply a casual everyday conversation, can assist in the establishment of feelings of comfort and belonging for displaced individuals. A sense of home may be created “through social and emotional relationships”, according to Blunt and Dowling 85.

Startblok Riekerhaven, a housing initiative located in Amsterdam, focused on the construction of affordable housing for both refugees and young Dutch residents. The project is concentrated on social interaction, creating individual dwellings and public spaces that encourage communication and communal living among the occupants with the aim of creating a ‘homely’ environment.

F i g u r e 1 7 . A private bedroom in Startblok Riekerhaven.

84 85

ibid. p. 161.

Blunt and Dowling. p. 23.

C H A P T E R 3 : A Social Home

36

shared kitchen / living room shared bathroom

shared hallway / storage

private bedrooms

F i g u r e 1 8 . Floor Plan showing spatial arrangement of 2 bedroom apartment.

private bedrooms shared bathroom

shared hallway / storage

shared kitchen / living room

private bedrooms

F i g u r e 1 9 . Floor Plan showing spatial arrangement of 3 bedroom apartment.

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C H A P T E R 3 : A Social Home

The complex comprises of 565 housing units, 282 for status holders and 283 for Dutch residents, all single and aged between 18 and 27 years old. The accommodation is split into 19 groups, each sharing a hallway, a common room and cooking facilities. 86 The 565 units consist of 463 studios and 162 private rooms in shared apartments. As shown in figures 18 and 19, the shared apartments consist of 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom dwellings, each with a shared hallway, kitchen, living space and bathroom. These dwellings are then split into ‘living groups’, consisting of up to 32 residents sharing a common area. 87 Kim and Smets study on the ‘home experiences and homemaking practices of single Syrian refugees’ living in Startblock Riekerhaven investigated the domestic experiences of the residents primarily through interviews. The spatial arrangement of the apartments and studios encourage communal activities and the formation of social relationships, whilst still allowing residents to maintain their own independence. As the key concept behind the housing scheme, this confirms the importance of relational and social influences on the formation of a home. The communal activities on offer including games nights, book clubs and parties with cultural music allow the residents to form connections with one another based on both ethnic and personal interests. Kim and Smet found that Syrian refugees had a tendency to recreate a sense of their primary homes, they generally

F i g u r e 2 0 . Residents at Startblok Riekerhaven - social relationships and familiar activities are associated with familiar feelings of home and belonging.

86 87

Kim and Smets. pp. 612 - 616.

‘Housing Units’, Startblok Riekerhaven <https://startblokriekerhaven.nl/en/living-startblok/housing-units/>.

38

F i g u r e 2 1 . Photograph of private studio at Startblok Riekerhaven.

C H A P T E R 3 : A Social Home

F i g u r e 2 2 . Photograph of private studio at Startblok Riekerhaven.

achieved this through their relationships with fellow Syrians. Having friends from the same cultural background who have potentially been through similar experiences of displacement allows them to recall and reminisce about their Syrian homes and the associated feelings of home and belonging. 88 It is evident that they use their private dwellings to display material culture and familiar objects evocative of their previous homes. This supports the arguments presented in chapter 1, the individuals use the space to exhibit a sense of cultural identity and provoke memories associated with a lost feeling of home and belonging. Kim and Smet argue that “although spatially constrained, they have reproduced a physical environment in which they can feel comfortable and can reproduce common behaviours from Syria”. 89 Although the physical spaces and dwellings they reside in are important to allow for communal activities to take place, it is essentially the social interaction itself and the subsequent familiarity that is felt which allows for the creation of a sense of home.

This suggests the need for material influences to allow for immaterial responses to be provoked, in turn forming a sense of home.

Whilst discussing the way a space accommodates activities associated with creating a sense of home, it is important to note the effects that spatial constraints of domestic architecture can have for different societies. Hadjiyanni states “in a house, life attains significance through gatherings with friends and family…”90. Pointing out the significance of the social interaction in creating a sense of togetherness in order to establish a meaningful home, she refers to ‘topophilia’ meaning the “affective bond between people and place”. 91 Interviewing migrants living in America who have been dislocated from Laos, Hadjiyanni analyses how their well spatial domiciles accommodate traditional social

Kim and Smets. pp. 616 - 619. ibid. p. 616.

90 Hadjiyanni. p. 1.

91 ibid. p. 5.

88 89

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C H A P T E R 3 : A Social Home

behaviour and traditions. Collective identity is central to the cultural values held by the Hmong community. Accommodating Hmong cultural norms in order to recreate a lost home and initiate a sense of home within an American dwelling can result in negotiations and potential contestations for the displaced community. For the Hmong, the word ‘home’ means the bond between a community and a family, it does not refer to a particular place or dwelling. The traditional spatial arrangement of a native Hmong house caters for multiple generations to live in one dwelling and space for regular large social occasions. Pao, a Hmong man living in a duplex in North Minneapolis explained the spatial arrangement of the apartment has allowed him to maintain the key values he holds as part of his cultural identity. With himself, his wife and his two children living in the upper unit and his ageing relatives living on the ground floor, he is able to provide the care his parents require whilst maintaining his own space,92 a factor that a traditional Hmong dwelling would be designed around. This ability allows Pao to maintain a connection with his cultural heritage, therefore introducing his cultural values and a sense of home into his American dwelling.

The sense of immaterial unity is also expressed by Carmen93, a migrant from Mexico, when she asserts that “home is family … to always be together”. Carmen did not emphasise the use of material culture to reproduce a sense of her former home in order to evoke a feeling of belonging, she instead associates the sense of home and contentment with the company of her family. However, the spatial arrangement of the physical house is vital in in order to provide a space that accommodates their social needs, relating back to Bourdieu’s theory of habitus 94 and Ballantyne’s 95 judgements on architecture accommodating one’s habitus. Carmen explains the similarities between the spatial arrangement of her American home and a traditional Mexican dwelling comparable to her previous home. The kitchen is located in the middle of the house, ‘the heart of the home’. This central space allows everyone to be together, the most important factor in Carmen’s meaning of home and therefore confirms the importance of social interaction and familiar relationships in creating a sense of home for displaced individuals but does not undermine the importance of spatiality. In turn, supporting the significance of the relationship between material and immaterial influences, with the spatial arrangement of the home allowing for the emotional comfort of familiar relationships. Carmen expresses the importance of laughter in a social setting in provoking feelings of happiness and comfort, also factors that are associated with a sense of home. Bennet and Lengacher argue that laughter “relieves physical or emotional stresses or discomfort”96. It could be argued that a home, wherever it may be, is a space to escape from distress and anxiety. Blunt and Dowling emphasize the destructive and adverse effects the distress of displacement can

Hadjiyanni. pp. 53 - 62.

Carmen is a Mexican migrant who has lived in the US for 17 years with her husband and two daughters.

94 Bourdieu, ‘Habitus’.

95 Ballantyne, ‘Architecture, Life and Habit’.

96 Mary Payne Bennett and Cecile Lengacher, ‘Humor and Laughter May Influence Health: 111. Laughter and Health Outcomes’, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 4.1 (2007), pp. 37–40.

92 93

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C H A P T E R 3 : A Social Home

have on one’s wellbeing and cultural identity 97, this potentially accentuates the need for space that provides relief from feelings of discomfort and anxiety. Carmen’s need to be surrounded by family in order to feel at home suggests her need to escape from emotional stress, using the immaterial sentiments provoked by laughter, comfort and happiness to bring her a sense of home.

Socialisation and companionship among communities of diaspora provokes a sense of ‘togetherness’. As argued by Taylor, “reciprocal relationships generate social capital and define the nature of home life”.98 This allows migrants and refugees an opportunity to experience home day-to-day, enforcing a sense of cultural identity. Groups of migrants together may recreate traditional behaviours from their native countries, creating an opportunity for reminiscence about their lost homes. Nostalgic conversations assist in the formation of feelings of home and belonging by allowing migrants to integrate a sense of their ‘home_there-and-now’ into their ‘home_here-and-now’. By discussing their heritage and memories of their past, perhaps recreating customs and traditions, the past home and feelings of belonging they associate with that heritage are introduced into their current dwelling. This chapter points out the significance of the physical dwelling in acting as a space in which to reproduce native behaviours and customs. Using Ballantyne’s ideology, it could be implied that if the physical structure of the home does not accommodate the desired social behaviours, it is possible the individuals’ experience of home will be disturbed, therefore disrupting the creation of a sense of home and belonging within that environment. This suggests that although the physical dwelling alone is not the catalyst for the construction of a sense of home for displaced individuals, the combination of the dwelling with anthropological factors can result in the construction of a feeling of home.99 Again, supporting the labelling of a home as a “spatial imaginary; a set of intersection and variable ideas and feelings, which are related to context, and which construct places, extend across spaces and scales, and connect places”.100

Blunt and Dowling.

Taylor, ‘Refugees, the State and the Concept of Home’. p. 138.

99 ibid.

100 Blunt and Dowling. p. 2.

97 98

41

F i g u r e 2 3 . The kitchen as the ‘heart of the home’.

C H A P T E R 3 : A Social Home

42

C O N C L U S I O N : In Search for Familiarity

43

F i g u r e 2 4 . Photograph from ‘a refugee’s kitchen’ - familiar relationships, familiar tastes, familiar objects.

44

C O N C L U S I O N : In Search for Familiarity

As claimed by Blunt and Dowling, “a house is not necessarily nor automatically a home”101.

A home is built from a multitude of factors, exceeding the basic shelter of a house. It is a layered construct, dependent on the interaction between place, people and object.

Taylor states “while all of us may reflect upon the meaning of home, for refugees such deliberations are heightened and approached with a sense of urgency, because of the forced nature of their migration.” 102 When approaching the complexity and intricacy of this topic, it is important to keep in mind the individuality and complexion of each experience of displacement in order to avoid generalisation. To quote Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 103, it is vital to look past the ‘single story’ of an individual, a culture, a country. Single stories are generalized to create stereotypes, as a result it is “impossible to engage properly with a place or person, without engaging with all of the stories of that place or person”104. I believe this statement can be applied to the analysis of displaced individuals and their feelings of home. When beginning to consider the ways in which refugees and people of diaspora find meaning and belonging within an unknown environment, it is important not to just recognise refugees as individuals who have been displaced. Instead, we must recognise refugees as individuals who have lost homes for a multitude of reasons, who have faced differing experiences both prior to and post displacement and are within their rights to search for a new home. Although a search for a sense of home is notably dependent on a huge array of factors, many of which I have not been able to cover, this essay has introduced three key notions which make up the arguably conceptual, abstract model of home: material objects, behaviour and social relationships. Helen Taylor claims “it is what the house represents which matters the most”105. It is clear this representation cannot be generalised; a feeling of home is found in different ways for different people. However, the entwining factor between each approach to the search for a feeling of home is the clear yearning for familiarity. Whether this is achieved by the triggering of a memory history through the creation of a “personal memory museum”, the reenactment of common habits or the comfort found through culturally specific behaviours in social relationships, the security felt through each well-known ‘act’ is enough to evoke a feeling of home and belonging among the individuals who have been displaced. This indicates the power a home has to create such feelings of comfort and belonging – it is something which should not be taken for granted.

Blunt and Dowling., p. 3.

Taylor, ‘Refugees, the State and the Concept of Home’., p. 131.

103 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘The Danger of a Single Story’ (unpublished TEDTalk, TEDGlobal, 2009) <https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en#t1110495>.

104 Ngozi Adichie.

101 102

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C O N C L U S I O N : In Search for Familiarity

This essay is the very beginning of an exploration into this subject and has possibly probed more questions than has found answers. Upon researching the meaning of home and ways in which a feeling of home is introduced into the houses of displaced individuals I have found a lack of resources relating to the importance of the physicality of the home and the reconstruction of a sense of home. Physicality is evidently a key factor when talking about the sense of home and I believe this reflects an absence of care towards the housing of those in need. As architects, it is important for us to understand the significance of material and physical factors upon both a sense of home and wellbeing established within a home. This is something I believe is often overlooked, particularly in the provision of social housing in the UK. The social housing crisis is not just an issue for immigrants and refugees, it is a problem which faces the wider population; housing for profit, not housing for people. With many individuals forced to live in unsuitable housing, often cramped and lacking the fundamental housing requirements, it is evident a reconstruction of a sense of home will be severely altered. It is clear there is a need for architects to prioritise factors which contribute to feelings of comfort, belonging and home, alongside the provision of the basic and fundamental requirements of a house. According to Ballantyne’s theories, the architecture of the house - the material - through the accommodation of habit and behaviour, is essential in the subsequent creation of feelings related to the architecture - the immaterial. Using this ideology and the prominence of the interaction between material and immaterial factors in the techniques of finding home I have analysed, it is evident that a consideration towards architecture accommodating for individuality is essential, especially within housing for the displaced.

46

LIST OF FIGURES

Cover - Yinka Shonibare, ‘The British Library’ Author’s own photograph, August 2020.

Figure 1. - Yinka Shonibare, ‘The British Library’ Author’s own photograph, August 2020.

Figure 2. Salgado, Sebastião, ‘Migrant In A World Of Migrants’, 2014 <https://lens.blogs. nytimes.com/2014/02/27/sebastiao-salgado-migrant-in-a-world-of-migrants/> [Accessed 20 May 2020] Figure 3. ‘UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency’ <https://www.unhcr.org/uk/figures-at-aglance.html>, [Accessed 10 November 2020] Figure 4. Hafez, Mohamad, ‘UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage’, 2017, image from: Stewart, Jessica, “Interview: Artists Rebuild Refugees’ Emotional Memories Of “Home” Inside Suitcases”, My Modern Met, 2020 <https://mymodernmet.com/mohamad-hafezunpacked-interview/> [Accessed 25 January 2021] Figure 5. ibid.

Figure 6. ibid.

Figure 7. Hafez, Mohamad, ‘UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage’, 2017 <https://www.unpackedrefugee.com> [Accessed 19 January 2021] Figure 8. Hadjiyanni, Tasoulla, The Right To Home: Exploring How Space, Culture And Identity Intersect With Disparities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) p. 233.

Figure 9. Webber, Ruth, ‘Picturing Home: Exploring the Everyday Home-Making Practices of Migrant, Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Women in Glasgow’ (School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, 2018) p. 136.

Figure 10. Webber, Ruth, ‘Picturing Home: Exploring the Everyday Home-Making Practices of Migrant, Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Women in Glasgow’ (School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, 2018) p. 137.

Figure 11. Staab, Maranie Rae, ‘The Geography Of Belonging’, 2021 <https://www. maranierae.com/the-geography-of-belonging/9yna2bye1e3qkwalxxe2x09tlc4b94> [Accessed 24 January 2021] are-different> [Accessed 21 January 2021] Figyure 12. Staab, Maranie Rae, ‘The Geography Of Belonging’, 2021 <https://www. maranierae.com/the-geography-of-belonging/9yna2bye1e3qkwalxxe2x09tlc4b94> [Accessed 24 January 2021] Figure 13. Edited by Author. Orignal image: Smart, Christopher, ‘Refugee Kitchens: Savoring Memories From Homeland, An Iraqi Family Finds Safety In Utah’, 2017 <https:// archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=5190354&itype=CMSID> [Accessed 20 January 2021]

47

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 14. Bahrim, ‘Cooking With A Moroccan Family’ Traditional Cooking Experience In Marrakech, Morocco, 2021 <https://www.airbnb.co.uk/experiences/1659307> [Accessed 21 January 2021] Figure 15. Stitched in Colour, Expat Chronicles: How Dutch Houses Are Different, 2019 <https://www.stitchedincolor.com/blog/2019/7/12/expat-chronicles-how-dutch-housesFigure 16. Kim, Kyohee, and Peer Smets, ‘Home Experiences and Homemaking Practices of Single Syrian Refugees in an Innovative Housing Project in Amsterdam’, Current Sociology, 68.5 (2020), (pp. 607–27), p. 613.

Figure 17. World Habitat Awards, ‘Startblok – Bringing Young People And Refugees Together Through Housing’, 2018 <https://world-habitat.org/world-habitat-awards/ winners-and-finalists/startblok/> [Accessed 25 January 2021] Figure 18. Edited by Author. Original image from: ‘Housing Units’, Startblok Riekerhaven <https://startblokriekerhaven.nl/en/living-startblok/housing-units/>, [Accessed 20 October 2020] Figure 19. Edited by Author. Original image from: ‘Housing Units’, Startblok Riekerhaven <https://startblokriekerhaven.nl/en/living-startblok/housing-units/>, [Accessed 20 October 2020] Figure 20. World Habitat Awards, ‘Startblok – Bringing Young People And Refugees Together Through Housing’, 2018 <https://world-habitat.org/world-habitat-awards/ winners-and-finalists/startblok/> [Accessed 25 January 2021] Figure 21. Kim, Kyohee, and Peer Smets, ‘Home Experiences and Homemaking Practices of Single Syrian Refugees in an Innovative Housing Project in Amsterdam’, Current Sociology, 68.5 (2020), (pp. 607–27), p. 615.

Figure 22. Kim, Kyohee, and Peer Smets, ‘Home Experiences and Homemaking Practices of Single Syrian Refugees in an Innovative Housing Project in Amsterdam’, Current Sociology, 68.5 (2020), (pp. 607–27), p. 615.

Figure 23. Staab, Maranie Rae, ‘The Geography Of Belonging’, 2021 <https://www. maranierae.com/the-geography-of-belonging/9yna2bye1e3qkwalxxe2x09tlc4b94> [Accessed 24 January 2021] Figure 24. Edited by Author. Original image: Smart, Christopher, ‘Refugee Kitchens: Savoring Memories From Homeland, An Iraqi Family Finds Safety In Utah’, 2017 <https:// archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=5190354&itype=CMSID> [Accessed 20 January 2021]

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