Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Migration and Home over Space

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Migration and the Search for Home

Part of the book series: Mobility & Politics ((MPP))

Abstract

Migrants’ ways of homing, in a spatial perspective, can primarily rely on one physical location, on more than one, or on the evolving interaction between different settings and places. Such a perspective entails three analytical foci: the variable degrees of “portability” and “reproducibility” of home as a social relationship with place, and the factors that account for this; the persistent materiality of home, embodied in migrants’ dwelling places in their countries of settlement and of origin, to be studied in light of their manifold functions and meanings; the micro/macro scale(s) of the home experience, together with the boundary-making processes associated with its location and spatial distribution in migrant everyday life.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    A preliminary and non-exhaustive list of case studies on migrants’ transnational housing, from a variety of contexts of origin and perspectives, includes the following: Smith & Mazzucato (2009), Obeng-Odoom (2010), Sinatti (2009), Freeman (2013) and  Wagner (2014) on African countries; Fletcher (1999), López (2010), Boccagni (2014a) and Mata-Codesal (2014) regarding Latin American countries; Dalakoglou (2010) and Van der Horst (2010) in Eastern Europe; Bivand (2012), Aguilar (2009) and Taylor (2015) as instances from Asian countries.

References

  • Abramsson, M. (2012). Housing careers. In S. Smith (Ed.), International encyclopedia of housing and home. London: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aguilar, F. (2009). Labour migration and ties of relatedness: Diasporic houses and investments in memory in a rural Philippine village. Thesis Eleven, 98(1), 88–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, S. (2008). Finding home: Challenges faced by geographically mobile families. Family Relations, 57, 84–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ambrosini, M. (2013). Irregular migration and invisible welfare. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Arbaci, S. (2007). Ethnic segregation, housing systems and welfare regimes in Europe. International Journal of Housing Policy, 7(4), 401–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berg, M., & Sigona, N. (2013). Ethnography, diversity and urban space. Identities, 20(4), 347–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berry, J. (1997). Immigration, acculturation and adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46(1), 5–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birdwell-Pheasant, D., & Lawrence-Zúñiga, D. (1999b). Introduction: Houses and families in Europe. In D. Birdwell-Pheasant, & D. Lawrence-Zúñiga (Eds.), House life. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birdwell-Pheasant, D., & Lawrence-Zúñiga, D. (Eds.) (1999a). House life: Space, place and family in Europe. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bivand, M. (2012). A place to stay in Pakistan: Why migrants build houses in their countries of origin. Population, Space and Place, 18(5), 629–641.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blunt, A., & Dowling, R. (2006). Home. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boccagni, P. (2014a). What’s in a (migrant) house? Changing domestic spaces, the negotiation of belonging and home-making in Ecuadorian migration. Housing, Theory and Society, 31(3), 277–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boccagni, P. (2015). Burden, blessing or both? On the mixed role of transnational ties in migrant informal social support. International Sociology, 30(3), 250–268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boccagni, P. (2016). Searching for wellbeing in care work migration: Constructions, practices and displacements among immigrant women in Italy. Social Politics, 23(2), 284–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boccagni, P., & Brighenti, A. (2015). Immigrants and home in the making: Thresholds of domesticity, commonality and publicness. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, forthcoming, available as online first.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boccagni, P., & Decimo, F. (2013). Mapping social remittances. Migration Letters, 10(1), 1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolt, G., Phillips, D., & Van Kempen, R. (2010). Housing policy, (de)segregation and social mixing: An international perspective. Housing Studies, 25(2), 129–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolt, G. (2012). Ethnic minorities and housing. In S. Smith (Ed.), International encyclopedia of housing and home. London: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brun, C. (2012). Home in temporary dwellings. In S. Smith (Ed.), International encyclopedia of housing and home. London: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butcher, M. (2010). From ‘fish out of water’ to ‘fitting in’: The challenge of replacing home in a mobile world. Population, Space and Place, 16, 23–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cancellieri, A. (2015). Towards a progressive home-making. Journal of Housing and the Built Enviroment, available as online first.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carling (2014). Scripting remittances. International Migration Review, 48(s1), S218–s262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carsten, J. (2004). After kinship. Cambridge: CUP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carsten, J., & Hugh-Jones, S. (1995). Introduction: About the house – Levi-Strauss and beyond. In J. Carsten, & S. Hugh-Jones (Eds.), About the house. Cambridge: CUP.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • CECODHAS (2007). Social housing and integration of immigrants in the European Union. Exchange, Special Edition, Brussels: European Social Housing Observatory.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cieraad, I. (2010). Homes from home: Memories and projections. Home Cultures, 7(1), 85–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, A. (2001). The aesthetics of social aspiration. In D. Miller (Ed.), Home possessions. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Constant, A., Roberts, R., & Zimmerman, K. (2009). Ethnic identity and immigrant home ownership. Urban Studies, 46(9), 1879–1898.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cuba, L., & Hummon, D. (1993). Constructing a sense of home: Place affiliation and migration across the life cycle. Sociological Forum, 8(4), 547–572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dalakoglou, D. 2010. Migrating-remitting-‘building’-dwelling: House-making as ‘Proxy’ Presence in Postsocialist Albania. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16, 761–777.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dedieu, J., & Mbodj-Pouye, A. (2016). The first collective protest of Black African migrants in postcolonial France (1960–1975): A struggle for housing and rights. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(6), 958–975.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, M. (1991). The idea of a home: A kind of space. Social Research, 58(1), 287–307.

    Google Scholar 

  • Easthope, H. (2004). A place called home. Housing, Theory and Society, 21(3), 128–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edgar, B., Doherty, J., & Meert, H. (2004). Immigration and homelessness in Europe. Bristol: Policy.

    Google Scholar 

  • England, K. (2010). Home, work and the shifting geographies of care. Ethics, Place and Environment, 13(2), 131–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, P. (1999). La casa de mis sueños: Dreams of home in a transnational Mexican community. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, L. (2007). Conceptualising home: Theories, laws and policies. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, L. (2013). Separation, connection and the ambiguous nature of émigré houses in rural highland Madagascar. Home Cultures, 10(2), 93–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gallo, E. (2013). Migration, circulation and shifting conceptions of the house: Perspectives from Kerala. Desi, 2, 103–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gauvain, M., & Altman, I. (1982). A cross-cultural analysis of homes. Architecture and Behavior, 2, 27–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gieryn, T. (2000). A space for place in sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 463–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, S., & Fasulo, A. (2013). Transformative homes: Squatting and furnishing as sociocultural projects. Home Cultures, 10(2), 111–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glynn, S. (2005). East end immigrants and the battle for housing: A comparative study of political mobilisation in the Jewish and Bengali communities. Journal of Historical Geography, 31(3), 528–545.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gram-Hanssen, K., & Bech-Danielsen, C. (2012). Creating a new home: Somali, Iraqi and Kurdish immigrants and their homes in Danish social housing. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 27, 89–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hage, G. (1997). At home in the entrails of the west: Multiculturalism, ethnic food and migrant home-building. In H. Grace et al. (Eds), Home/World. Sydney: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heller, A. (1995). Where are we at home? Thesis Eleven, 41, 11–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (2015). At home in inner city: Immigrant community gardens. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, forthcoming, available as online first.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, J., & Smith, S. (2008). Living room: Rematerialising home. Environment and Planning A, 40, 515–519.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kasinitz, P. (2013). Toward a sociology of home. Sociological Forum, 28(4), 881–884.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klaufus, C. (2006). Globalization in residential architecture in Cuenca, Ecuador: Social and cultural diversification of architects and their clients. Environment and Planning D, 24(1): 69–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Korac, M. (2009). Remaking home. Reconstructing life, place and identity in Rome and Amsterdam. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, K., & Makarova, E. (2008). The portable home: The domestication of public space. Sociological Theory, 26(4), 324–343.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lam, T., & Yeoh, B. (2004). Negotiating ‘home’ and ‘national identity’: Chinese–Malaysian transmigrants in Singapore. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 42(2), 141–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, R.J. (1985). A more humane history of homes: Research methods and applications. In I. Altman, & C. Werner (Eds.), Home environments (pp. 113–132). New York: Plenum Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, R.J. (1987). What makes a house a home? Environment and Behavior. 19(2), 154–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • López, S. (2010). The remittance house: Architecture of migration in rural Mexico. Buildings & Landscapes, 17(2), 33–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • López, S. (2015). The remittance landscape. Chicago: CUP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lozanovska, M., Levin, I., & Gantala, M.V. (2013). Is the migrant house in Australia an Australian vernacular architecture? TDSR, 24(2), 65–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lu, D. (2012). Cultural analysis of housing and space. In S. Smith (Ed.), International encyclopedia of housing and home. London: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mallett, S. (2004). Understanding home. The Sociological Review, 52(1), 62–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. (1992). A place called home? New Formations, 17, 3–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mata-Codesal, D. (2014). From ‘mud houses’ to ‘wasted houses’: Remittances and housing in rural highland Ecuador. REMHU, 22(42), 263–280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nieswand, B. (2013). The burger’s paradox. Ethnography, 15(4), 403–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noble, G. (2012). Home objects. In S. Smith (Ed.), International encyclopedia of housing and home. London: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowicka, M. (2007). Mobile locations: Construction of home in a group of mobile transnational professionals. Global Networks, 7(1), 69–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Obeng-Odoom, F. (2010). Urban real estate in Ghana: A study of housing-related remittances from Australia. Housing Studies, 25(3), 357–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olwig, K.F. (1999). Travelling makes a home: Mobility and identity among West Indians. In T. Chapman, & J. Hockey (Eds.), Ideal homes? London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozuekren, A., & van Kempen, R. (2002). Housing careers and minority ethnic groups. Housing Studies, 17(3), 365–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ralph, D., & Staeheli, L.A. (2011). Home and migration: Mobilities, belongings and identities. Geography Compass, 5(7), 517–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rapport, N., & Dawson, A. (1998b). Opening a debate. In N. Rapport, & A. Dawson (Eds.), Migrants of identity. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinders, L., & Van der Land, M. (2008). Mental geographies of home and place. Housing, Theory and Society, 25(1), 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ronald, R. (2011). Ethnography and comparative housing research. International Journal of Housing Policy, 11(4), 415–437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ronald, R., & Elsinga, M. (Eds.) (2012). Beyond home ownership. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandu, A. (2013). Transnational homemaking practices: Identity, belonging and informal learning. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 21(4), 496–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, P., & Williams, P. (1988). The constitution of home: Towards a research agenda. Housing Studies, 3(2), 81–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sinatti, G. (2009). Home is where the heart abides: Migration, return and housing in Dakar, Senegal. Open House International, 34(3), 49–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smets, P., & de Uyl, M. (2008). The complex role of ethnicity in urban mixing. Urban Studies, 45(7), 1439–1460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smets, P., & Watt, P. (2013). Editorial: Exclusion and belonging in urban public and quasi-public space. The Open Studies Journal, 6, 27–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. (2014). Interpreting home in the transnational discourse: The case of post-EU enlargement Poles in Dublin. Home Cultures, 11(1), 103–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, L., & Mazzucato, V. (2009). Constructing homes, building relationships. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 100(5), 662–673.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Somerville, P., & Steele, A. (Eds.) (2002). “Race”, housing and social exclusion. London: JKP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, S. (2015). “Home is never fully achieved…even when we are in it”: Migration, belonging and social exclusion within Punjabi transnational mobility. Mobilities, 10(2), 193–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tolia-Kelly, D. (2004). Materializing postcolonial geographies: Examining the textual landscapes of migration in the South Asian home. Geoforum, 35(6), 675–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Horst, H. (2004). Living in a reception centre: The search for home in an institutional setting. Housing, Theory and Society, 21, 36–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Horst, H. (2010). Dwellings in transnational lives: A biographical perspective on ‘Turkish–Dutch’ Houses in Turkey. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(7), 1175–1192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, L. (2014). Trouble at home: Diasporic second homes as leisure space across generations. Annals of Leisure Research, 17(1), 71–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiles, J. (2008). Sense of home in a transnational social space: New Zealanders in London. Global Networks, 8(1), 116–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Paolo Boccagni

Authors
  1. Paolo Boccagni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Boccagni, P. (2017). Migration and Home over Space. In: Migration and the Search for Home. Mobility & Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58802-9_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation