‘Finding housing was an illness’: refugees’ sense of continued displacement in Belgium

Hala El Moussawi

Housing Studies, 2024, vol. 39, issue 9, 2377-2398

Abstract: Housing is a key empirical entry point into the lifeworlds of refugees in host societies. To date, scholarly work has mainly focused on the first phase of arrival, that of asylum accommodation. Here I extend the scope of post-arrival housing research by looking into the housing trajectories of refugees after they have received protection status. This contribution reveals their lived experiences on the regular housing market, which exposes them to contingency, inaccessibility and exclusion. Based on interviews with 20 households who received refugee status in Belgium after 2015, the article puts the urban studies notion of displacement into dialogue with the notion of precariousness in housing studies, arguing that refugees develop a sense of continued displacement. The analysis captures how post-arrival housing trajectories make refugees relive the exclusionary nature of forced displacement, as they not only struggle to secure housing but are also unable to once more find home and fixity. The article highlights the importance of considering refugees’ housing experiences as vehicles to further understand already existing housing difficulties in host societies.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2023.2180493

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