Contexts and Catalysts

Abstract

All these people who think it’s easy to throw somebody out of their house and then give him another house a few hundred miles away, or put him in a boat and take him somewhere. If you lose your house, where your roots are, you know, where you grew up, it’s not an easy thing. Nothing can compensate that.

These are the words of Dimitris, ¹ a Greek Cypriot refugee from Agios Amvrosios, a village on the northern coast of Cyprus which is now in the Turkish Cypriot-controlled area of the island. His was one of a number of Cypriot refugee narratives gathered in London for this study of the meaning of home in protracted exile. Dimitris became a refugee in 1974 and has lived in Britain ever since, where he is the model of a successfully resettled migrant. He has prospered as a businessman, speaks good English, owns his own house and is a committed community activist. Dimitris has personal and financial security, his two children were born and raised in Britain and he can go on holiday to Cyprus whenever he wishes. So why does his lost home still matter so much? This book is an attempt to answer that and other questions, by focusing in depth on what home means to people who are faced with the loss of home and the task of remaking home.