In Search for Beloning: A case study on feelings of belonging and home from the perspectives of Syrians with a refugee background and actors involved in their integration process in Middelburg, the Netherland

Abstract

This research aims to create an understanding of what it means to belong and to be home for Syrian status holders living in Middelburg, and how they try to reshape these feelings in their place of resettlement. At the same time, we examined the ways in which stakeholders concerned with integration perceive the meaning of belonging and home, and how their integration policies contribute to the development of these feelings. In doing so, we connected stories told by both Syrians and involved actors from organizations, institutions and projects to theories that have been prevailing in debates concerned with ‘belonging’ and ‘home’ over the last decades, such as Antonsich’s place-belonginess (2010), and Yuval-Davis’ (2006) politics of belonging.