Homemaking and forced migration: A bibliography (pdf)

The literature on forced migration, particularly to Europe, has exponentially grown in the past few years. Indeed following the so called 2015 European “refugee crisis”, issues of refugees and asylum politics have been met with renewed interest, in scholarly as well as in public debate. Yet, it is important to underline that forced migration in Europe and beyond, far from being something radically new, stands out as an entrenched social reality embedded in specific historical and political contexts. Those continuities have been addressed by a number of research studies, which started exploring refugees’ lived experiences much before the mediatized beginning of the European “refugee crisis”.
Within this extensive research field this selective bibliography – based on the relevance of the literature to the HOASI research project – is concerned with the counter-intuitive linkages between homemaking and forced migration. It thus covers a number of studies broadly engaged with lived experiences of (often) temporary accommodation of refugees, being that a refugee camp, an institutional reception center, a squat, etc. Its aim is to be a useful – although certainly incomplete – tool for those interested in forced displacement and belonging, as well as in the relationships between homemaking, humanitarianism and processes of government. References are organised along key categories, which will hopefully help the reader to orient himself within this multi-faceted and evolving field of research. As Italy is the setting of the HOASI research project, this annotated list of sources is specifically concerned with the Italian and European context. Yet, a number of non-European studies are also included, as they were
considered particularly relevant for their theoretical and analytical framework. At the end of the paper we also added a selection of documentaries and videos, which portray refugees’ dwelling experiences in a plurality of contexts.