Home in displacement: scales of home along the refugee journey

The loss of home is a defining feature of the refugee condition. While there are numerous variations in the social, cultural and personal history of displacement, as well as circumstances that lead to that condition, it is true that all refugees, broadly defined, have been forced to leave their home and find another one, either temporarily or permanently. This chapter examines the multiple meanings for those who have been forced to leave their homes due to conflict. Building on several frameworks around home and displacement, we construct a multi-scalar understanding of home linked to three sites of home along the refugee journey: the nation-state, the refugee camp, and housing in the host city. We argue that although home in displacement comprises spiritual, emotional, relational and temporal aspects, it is not placeless and cannot be conceptualized without a link to a physical, spatial place (or places). We stress the importance of home as a human right exercised by refugees and asylum seekers with agency, albeit within structural barriers. This chapter delves into the possibilities of making a home while in long-time displacement, focusing on examples from current literature and a recent case study. We highlight the lived experience of forced migrants and their daily negotiations of the construction of home, and the ambivalence embedded in experiences and practices of homemaking.