Struggling for home where home is not meant to be A study of asylum seekers in reception centers in Norway

Abstract

Th is article focuses on how asylum seekers in Norway struggle to create a sense of home within a physical and political environment that puts signifi cant challenges to their eff orts to do so. Based on a national survey and fi eldwork, we demonstrate that poor housing and the political derived marginality challenge ex-istential and material home-making processes, thus making it an ambiguous and strenuous experience. Th is view is rooted in a critical phenomenological under-standing in which home is built through inter-relational and intersubjective rela-tions that constitute self and senses of belonging and/or estrangement, as well as well-being and mental health. Th e agentive struggle for home is a crucial aspect of asylum seekers’ experiences of belonging, well-being and mental health, thus being at the heart of questions of social justice.

This article focuses on how asylum seekers in Norway struggle to create a sense of home within a physical and political environment that puts signifi cant challenges to their efforts to do so. Based on a national survey and fieldwork, we demonstrate that poor housing and the political derived marginality challenge existential and material home-making processes, thus making it an ambiguous and strenuous experience. This view is rooted in a critical phenomenological understanding in which home is built through inter-relational and intersubjective relations that constitute self and senses of belonging and/or estrangement, as well as well-being and mental health. The agentive struggle for home is a crucial aspect of asylum seekers’ experiences of belonging, well-being and mental health, thus being at the heart of questions of social justice.