Forced Migrants and Secure Belonging: A Case Study of Syrian Refugees Resettled in the United States

• In Event: 1207 - Vulnerability, Exclusion, and Belonging among Refugees

Abstract

What does it mean to belong? Belonging is a central concept in immigrant incorporation literature and scholars discuss belonging as an ascribed or attained outcome in terms of citizenship, social locations and incorporation, and identity and emotional attachments. Scholars have, however, less frequently examined how the concepts of migrant membership and belonging translate across cultural and linguistic boundaries (see Crowley 1999) and how migrants themselves understand subjective belonging. In this research, based on twelve months of participant observation and twenty-two interviews, six Syrian refugee families resettled in the United States share their understandings and experiences of belonging in a new place. They do not use the term belonging in English or Arabic (intima') in making sense of their lives in the United States. Interviewees instead use terminology of safety and comfort (raha), happiness (mbsoot), relaxation (irtaha), and feeling natural and at ease (tabia). Interviewees talk about belonging as something they adopt, rather than something achieved or ascribed. Most interviewees identify a shift from initial feelings of foreignness (gurba), strangeness, nervousness (tawattur) and being different (muktalif) to acclimating (ta'aqlama), getting used to life in the United States (ta'awwud), and being part of (juz min') the community. This shift to a feeling of belonging occurs for most interviewees within the first year following resettlement. Finally, respondents discuss belonging as ‘not being different’ from others around them or being with people similar to themselves. Based on these findings, this paper challenges scholars to consider the cultural, linguistic and generational translation of belonging as a frame for understanding citizenship, integration, and identity. Turning the concept of belonging over to migrants themselves to understand this subjective experience will offer additional insights into how migrants make sense of belonging as identity, positionality and citizenship.

Author

• Michelle Sara Dromgold-Sermen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill