Nicole Plante

Despite the prevalence of refugees in the news and a surge in research on forced displacements and refugees in general, there is a relative lack of specific research on intersections of their resettlement experiences, belonging, and well-being that moves past the mental health view of well-being, narrowly defined as acculturative stress. This study aims towards more nuanced understandings of belonging and well-being. It examines how newly resettled refugees negotiate belonging in particular places and on multiple scales, from community centers and schools to a broader national sense of belonging. The focus on familiality and space exhibits how refugees create belonging as a family unit and as individuals within a family as well as how space and place play a role in belonging. Specifically, this research seeks to address how current US rhetoric and policy affect the way refugees create a sense of belonging; how refugee parents and youth differ in their approach to creating a sense of belonging; and how those differences affect relational family dynamics. To do so, this research draws on data from participant observation, interviews, and focus groups carried out with primarily African refugee youth and adults and key-stakeholders in the refugee community in Greensboro, North Carolina. These methods highlight how refugees actively create belonging and home post resettlement in multiple spaces and on multiple scales within the family unit. This research has implications for researchers and practitioners as it provides insight from refugees on what hinders and helps them as they create belonging after resettlement and addresses how familiality, space, and place impact their experiences.