Transnationalism, return visits, home and belonging: second generation from refugee backgrounds

Public Seminar Series, Hilary term 2019

Series convenor: Dr Naohiko Omata

about the seminar series

This public seminar series consists of two separate themes: 1) Refugees in the United Kingdom and 2) Urban Refugees. Speakers come from diverse backgrounds, including both practitioners and academics, to consolidate existing empirical and theoretical knowledge of the proposed themes.

1)  Refugees in the United Kingdom

At the end of 2016, the United Kingdom hosted nearly 120,000 refugees from a range of countries. While the available literature on this population has been growing, many areas of refugees’ post-resettlement/asylum lives remain under-explored. This seminar series will offer insights into the ways in which refugees in the UK have adapted to their new lives, with a focus on understanding the lived experiences of their economic and socio-cultural integration – or lack thereof.

2)  Urban Refugees

Currently, more than half of the world’s refugees live outside of designated refugee camps or settlements, surviving with varying degrees of independence and success, and often living under the radar of aid organisations. This seminar series will enable audiences to cultivate a better understanding of the day-to-day lives of ‘self-settled’ refugees around the world, particularly in the Global South.

About the seminar

This seminar will explore the role and significance of different types of transnational engagement – social, cultural, political and economic – in the lives of second generation from refugee backgrounds. Drawing on in-depth interviews with the British born adult children of refugees from Tamil, Kurdish and Vietnamese backgrounds, it will examine the transnational activities of second generation, the ways in which they differ from their parents and how their refugee histories may have shaped transnational engagement including complex experiences and feelings during return visits. The seminar highlights both the comparative aspects of the three groups and the micro influences of biographies and family relations in shaping the transnational activities among second generation which in turn influence ideas of home and belonging.

About the speaker

Alice Bloch is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on understanding the lived experiences of forced migrants. Key themes include: marginalisation and exclusion, rights and agency, engagement in transnational relations, social and community networks, economic strategies and labour market experiences and the ways in which experiences intersect with class, gender, ethnicity and power.

Read more at: https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/alice.bloch.html

Registration is not required. Refreshments will be served after the seminar.