Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10679/5962

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Browsing by Subject "Belonging"

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    Akle Tayyibe [Tasty Dish]—Cooking up belonging in the Syrian refugee foodscape in Turkey
    (Taylor & Francis, 2023) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Kanal, M.; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
    This article is a study of Syrian women’s food practices in Turkey. Researchers have shown that food matters for belonging, but we need more research examining how migrants use food in memory-work; how they cook to create a “happy home”; and how shared meals are tied to inclusion in communities. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, this research examines five food practices of belonging that can inform migration researchers about how refugees relate to their heritage and collective memories. The article sheds light women’s agency within struggles over belonging and the role of food in the home-making processes of refugee families.
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    Beyond legal status: Exploring dimensions of belonging among forced migrants in Istanbul and Vienna
    (Cogitatio Press, 2020-03-25) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
    Migrants with precarious legal statuses experience significant structural exclusion from their host nations but may still feel partial belonging. This article explores two dimensions potentially relevant for this group’s sense of belonging: city-level opportunity structures and public political discourses. Specifically, we examine perceptions of belonging among forced migrants with similarly precarious legal statuses located in Istanbul and Vienna. Drawing from semi-structured interviews, we argue that opportunity structures in the cities provide a minimal sense of social normalness within a period of life otherwise considered anomalous or exceptional. Any articulations of belonging in this context however remain inherently tied to the conditions of legal limbo at the national level. With regard to public political discourses, migrants display a strong awareness of the role of religion within national debates on culture and integration. In a context where religion is discussed as a mediator of belonging, we found explicit affirmations of such discourses, whereas in a context where religion is discussed as a marker of difference, we found implicit compliance, despite feelings of alienation. Overall, this article shows the importance of differentiating belonging, and of cross-regional comparisons for highlighting the diverse roles of cities and public political discourses in facilitating integration.
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    Citizenship ethics: German-Turkish return migrants, belonging, and justice
    (Sage, 2018-08-01) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
    This article examines citizenship for German-Turkish return migrants attending monthly meetings of the Rückkehrer Stammtisch (Returner’s Meetings) in Istanbul. Meeting attendees call themselves “world citizens” and remain deeply concerned about disrespect and inequality they experience as ethnic minorities in Germany and as citizens in Turkey. Drawing on the anthropology of ethics, this research demonstrates the importance of ethical relationships for understanding these migrants’ experience of citizenship. Moving beyond work that views citizenship primarily in terms of state power and legal disciplining, this research demonstrates that citizenship for these migrants is focused heavily on an ethics of care and responsibility developed in the course of personal interactions with fellow citizens. This article also adds ethnographic specificity to the concepts of belonging and justice. It analyzes how ethical relationships established among meeting attendees confer feelings of comfort, intimacy, and a sense of shared humanity that structure migrants’ inclusion in national spaces.
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    Forced migration and the politics of belonging: Integration policy, national debates and migrant strategies
    (Sage, 2023) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
    This research note examines the politics of refugee belonging in Germany, Sweden, Austria, United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Specifically, it explores how migrant belonging is impacted by integration policies and national political debates on immigration in these countries. Prior research suggests that refugees have little knowledge of policy, but that national political or media debates strongly impact a feeling of inclusion. Our research shows that both policy and national/media debates affect belonging. Despite widely differing legal and national contexts, the countries studied largely base integration on principles of cultural assimilation that can be hostile to “outsiders” and lead to insecure and contradictory belonging. The article also examines the strategies migrants adopt to forge belonging, depending on the national context. We find that in some contexts, migrants emphasize that they take individual responsibility for integrating and in others they build belonging on cultural and religious similarities with the host community. Thus, this research shows that the national policy environment not only impacts belonging, but also shapes the strategies migrants adopt to achieve it. The research is based on a long-term study conducted as a part of an EU Horizon 2020 project, RESPOND.
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    (Lived) Spaces of belonging, culture, and gender: Spatial practices of home for Syrian women in Istanbul
    (Sage, 2022) Sezginalp Özçetin, Pınar; Rottmann, Susan Beth; Interior Architecture and Environmental Design; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth; SEZGİNALP, Pinar Özçetin
    Combining architectural and cultural anthropological approaches, this study explores the domestic lived spaces of Syrian women in Istanbul to understand how they create belonging in a new social and architectural setting and perform gender roles. We analyze data gathered from several types of dwellings according to the concept of spatial practice of Henri Lefebvre to explore how women’s daily life praxis fosters feelings of contentment and safety, and how they reflect on their previous homes in Syria through a lens of nostalgia. At the same time, we explore how houses in Syria are remembered via reflections on spatial changes. Methodologically, we rely on semi-structured interviews and mental map drawings of houses in Istanbul and reminisced houses from Syria. Ultimately, this research provides a fine-grained portrait of the (lived) space of Syrian women, showing how they reconstruct domestic lives through past/Syrian and current/Turkish spatial practices.