Hoayda Darkal

ORCID

Abstract

Forced migration has recently reached an all-time record. With the flows of forced migrants across Europe, and the states’ responses to the forcible movement of people focusing on ‘migration management’ on one hand while pushing for the agendas of resilience building on the other, it is vitally important to question the effectiveness of resilience strategies for those experiencing forced migration first-hand in the developed countries. This thesis provides a critical understanding of social resilience, as a process rather than an outcome, in the context of forced migrant families in the UK. In developing a framework based upon family migration this research advances contemporary discussions of forced migration and resilience in geography, as it investigates the experiences of participants in their social environment and employs both actor-oriented and constructivist social resilience approaches in doing so. To achieve this aim, the thesis draws on empirical research conducted in Plymouth, UK, a city in the South West of England with relatively little ethnic diversity yet operates as a dispersal centre for asylum seekers. The methods combined focus-groups with forced migration third sector, in-depth interviews with forced-migrant families from Arab countries, and participant observation in the case study. The findings highlight family changes during the process of forced migration and the subjective ways in which building resilience is managed and articulated in and through forced migrant families experiencing periods of acute stress and anxiety. They show the complex ways by which family practices and homemaking, knowledge, culture, and spirituality are associated with building and developing social resilience in families. The analysis stresses the importance of formal and informal connections in managing existing and new forms of bonding, and bridging capitals through the transitional process of resettlement. It emphasises the significance of power and agency in shaping the process of building resilience and managing its varied determinants, and in doing so it emphasises the importance of recognising family resilience as a non-linear and subjective process. The study introduces a visualised framework reflects its understanding of building social resilience as a complex, an ongoing in-the-making process. This study contributes to knowledge by enhancing understandings of the varied practices and performances of family, and of home as a temporal, multi-scalar, and multi-sited set of socio-spatial processes. It signifies the flaws in the perception of family that is held by immigration policies. Understanding family social resilience as a subjective process also adds to academic debates that challenge viewing social resilience as linear with a positive, upward trajectory.

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2022-01-01

DOI

10.24382/1049

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