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Paper Short Abstract:

This paper will examine the objects that refugee ‘women as mothers’ chose to turn their social housing into spaces of belonging. By following the processes of home-making, I aim to explore what objects are placed in the new homes to create empowering spaces of belonging.

Paper Abstract:

Refugee families in the UK are initially placed in temporary housing, after long periods of waiting, that could be up to three years, they are provided permanent housing. Upon arrival these spaces are colour-less and material-less, it is the responsibility of the refugee families to move their belongings to this new space. In this paper I will examine the gendered, racialized and classed home-making process that refugee women as mothers navigate. What objects are firstly set out? What objects are left behind? Upon moving moving to their new houses, refugee ‘chose different objects to turn social housing into s where they are no longer out-of -place. I will examine the objects that are chosen by the mothers to slowly and purposely (and magically) turn this real state into places of belonging. Through the careful choice of pictures, symbols, furniture and colours I will explore how meaning is enacted and how they find ways of being emplaced. The arguments in this paper are based on my current research project with ‘(Un)deserving’ refugee mothers who arrived through family reunion processes to England.