YOUTH-HOME · Migrant male youth home-making in Ireland

Migrant male youth home-making in Ireland

Feeling at home and home-making practices for migrants are vital to enhance their sense of belonging to the societies they live in. Lack of belonging is highlighted as a major issue on the path towards integration of migrants. Within this discourse, male migrants are constantly depicted as ‘problematic figures’ who pose a threat to the fabric of European societies. Such image of male migrant has been reflected in their experiences and feelings of home being neglected, not only in the national and European migration policy but also within the scholarship in migration and home studies. Youth Home aimed to provide an understanding of what ‘home’ means for young male migrants from two groups of international students and refugees. The reason for this comparison was to analyse the impact of migratory pathways on an understanding of home, a gap in the knowledge about these two groups of male migrants. This focused ethnography on home-making practices used a multi-stage collaborative methodology within domestic spaces and urban areas using: walking methods, ‘taste of home’ method, photography and visual analysis, action research and narrative analysis. The overall objectives were: RO1. To critically evaluate how young male migrants’ integration needs are represented within social and political discourses (at local, national and EU levels) about young refugees and international students. RO2. To analyse everyday domestic home-making practices, identities and understandings, using the intersectionality framework and focusing on gendered and aged experiences of migrants. RO3. To assess the impact of young male migrants’ everyday (re)construction of ‘home’ in domestic spheres on their urban identifications in Irish society in order to learn how to create and facilitate urban belonging. RO4. To produce knowledge for practitioner and policy-maker audiences at European level to enhance their understanding and appreciation of how to facilitate urban belonging among young male migrants. Youth Home reveals new findings into understanding of home among young male migrants within two spaces (domestic and urban): A. material composition of domestic spaces are extremely important for young men’s sense of home such as using artefacts, creation of food, decorations and sharing objects, organising and practising religious and cultural rituals. B. the ethnography in urban spaces that the sense of belonging to the city remains provisional and shallow. Home-making practices in urban spaces was largely through solitary activities and lifestyles that made making a home ‘here and now’ difficult and a project that belonged to a future time. The importance of structural (im)possibilities in Irish society impact the sense of belonging and created a sense of isolation from the mainstream Irish population. We conclude that the role of borders and migration regimes, although not visible, are felt and experienced on everyday basis by these migrants.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union