Forced migrants and secure belonging: a case study of Syrian refugees resettled in the United States

ABSTRACT

For forced migrants, what does it mean to belong in a new place? Drawing on twelve months of participant observation and twenty-two interviews with six Syrian refugee families resettled in the south-eastern United States, I find that participants identify security as a central dimension and mechanism of belonging. I introduce the concept of ‘secure belonging’ to theorise the freedom from physical danger, fear and anxiety that is central to participants’ belonging in a new place. Mechanisms of linguistic and cultural security, financial security and legal security strengthen participants’ civic, social and emotional attachments, while insecurity causes their sense of belonging to waver. By situating security as a central dimension of belonging and examining mechanisms of security for processes of belonging, this paper furthers our theoretical understanding of belonging’s multidimensionality, situational and subjective nature and variation by gender and life course stage. The introduction of the concept of secure belonging builds upon existing literature on security, belonging and migration, explores a new dimension and mechanisms of existing analytical frameworks and emphasises the centrality of security in the immigrant incorporation process.

KEYWORDS:

• Belonging
• security
• refugees
• Syrians
• United States

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the Syrian refugees who shared their time, stories and inspirations, and opened up their homes as participants in this study. She also thanks Jacqueline M. Hagan, Charles Kurzman, and Suzanne Shanahan for their guidance and support throughout this project. Finally, this article has benefited tremendously from the suggestions and feedback of anonymous reviewers, members of the Culture and Politics, Inequality, and Migration Working Groups at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Rebecca Bielamowicz, Alyssa Browne, Tania Cabello-Hutt, Alexis Dennis, and Mehmet Sermen. This article would not have been possible without your insights and support. Thank you.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).