Migration Studies Commons^™

"Home Means Nevada": Latinx Belonging In A New Destination, Maria G. Hermosillo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project examines how Latinx individuals construct meanings of home and belonging in a Southern Nevada micropolitan city. Nevada is considered a new “Hispanic settlement state” and “New Immigrant Destination” as the state has experienced significant Latinx population growth since the 1990s. This research addresses an empirical gap by centering Nevada in understanding Latinxs lived experiences through the taken-for-granted concept of “home” and a theoretical gap by advancing New Destinations research where moral order, economy, and region influence ethnic incorporation.

Drawing on 32 in-depth semi-structured interviews with current and former Latinx residents and supplemented by participant observation, the study analyzes …

The Migrant As A Pilgrim: Decolonising Identity And Belonging, Susan Nemec

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper responds to pilgrimage scholar George Greenia’s assertion that meaningful intersections exist between pilgrimage and various forms of displacement, such as migration or involuntary exile due to famine, war, or political unrest. Greenia proposes that vulnerable, displaced individuals might find shelter, both conceptually and emotionally, within the framing of pilgrimage. By extending concepts of pilgrimage, it can be understood as a deliberate and intentional journey, simultaneously emphasising the transformative potential inherent in migratory movement. By adopting a working definition of pilgrimage as ‘any form of travel that is intentional, purposeful, or transformative,’ the paper considers how migrancy, particularly within …

Towards Unbordered Worlds: Mutual Aid Amid Border Internalisation In New York City, Holly Maclean

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explores the relationship between mutual aid and border regimes through the case of Tompkins Distro, a mutual aid group that organises a weekly food distribution in the East Village of New York City. It focuses specifically on two forms of border internalisation that have shaped the emergence and context of Tompkins Distro: welfare state bordering and interior border enforcement. Drawing on four months of participant observations, interviews with core organisers, and documentary analysis, the study examines how Tompkins Distro meets people’s needs each week through a framework of collective care that actively rejects border logics of deservingness and …

Exploring Identity And Belonging Through Housing Pathways: Resettlement Experiences Of Female Ukrainian Refugees, Stephanie M. Duncan

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Background: This dissertation examines the resettlement experiences of female Ukrainian refugees in Germany following the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, which displaced over 8.5 million Ukrainians, including 1.2 million to Germany by April 2024. Focusing on Munich, the study explores the interplay of housing pathways, identity, and belonging, emphasizing gendered challenges faced by women, particularly single mothers and caregivers, navigating trauma, systemic barriers, and cultural adaptation. Organized into three articles, this work employs a social justice lens to address structural barriers, such as discriminatory housing markets, economic exclusion, and limited access to resources, which disproportionately impact marginalized women, …

Paths To Belonging: How Chinese Parachute Kids Construct Identity Across Borders, Huiying Chen

Pitzer Senior Theses

Chinese parachute kids, defined as unaccompanied minor who study in foreign countries alone while their parents remain in China, represent a unique segment of international students.This research specifically focusing on Chinese parachute kids studying in the U.S. Grounded in interviews with nineteen individuals who were once parachute kids, this study challenges the popular view that all international students have monolithic experiences especially within the assimilationist framework.

I propose a typology of three orientations (the heritage, the instrumental, and the global) and argue that Chinese parachute kids’ orientation determines their sense of belonging and their approaches to embeddedness in American educational …

Learning To Fly While Staying Grounded: How Forcibly Displaced Individuals Develop A Sense Of Belonging In Disempowered Cities, Janina L. Selzer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite a growing interest in belonging, immigration and urban scholarship has yet to develop an empirically grounded, spatially sensitive, and complex theorization of the concept itself. Drawing on a comparative case study of two disempowered cities – Bielefeld, Germany, and Detroit, US, – this dissertation analyzes how and to what extent forcibly displaced Yazidi and Chaldean Iraqis develop a sense of belonging. By triangulating data from semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations, as well as a discourse analysis of policy documents, the following pages trace how politics of belonging are continuously produced, reproduced, and challenged through a spatially mediated and often contradictory …

Timeline Itinerary For Webinar Series Talk With Guest Elżbieta Goździak, Integration And Belonging Hub

Webinars & Events

An internal timeline itinerary made for the Integration & Belonging Hub's Webinar Series talk on March 1st, 2023. Elżbieta Goździak was the guest speaker, giving a talk titled "The Deserving and the Undeserving: Ukranian Migrants and Middle Eastern Asylum Seekers in Poland". This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

This PDF was converted from an Excel sheet. The "Notes" column on page two corresponds to the rows on page one and so on and so forth.

Date refers to date of event, not date of creation.

Presentation Slides, "The Deserving And The Undeserving: Ukranian Migrants And Middle Eastern Asylum Seekers In Poland", Elżbieta Goździak

Webinars & Events

Contains the PowerPoint slides for Elżbieta Goździak's presentation "The Deserving and the Undeserving: Ukranian Migrants and Middle Eastern Asylum Seekers in Poland". This presentation was given on March 1st, 2023 as part of the Integration and Belonging Hub's webinar series. This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

Elżbieta Goździak is a migration scholar whose contributions span academic research and the world of policy, ranging from human trafficking, migrant children, global health and health disparities, and immigrant integration.

The main document is in text-only PDF format. To see the PowerPoint presentation, download the related file.

Permission was obtained by Elżbieta Goździak …

Timeline Itinerary For Webinar Series Talk With Guest Gaisu Yari, Integration And Belonging Hub

Webinars & Events

An internal timeline itinerary made for the Integration & Belonging Hub's Webinar Series talk on February 1st, 2023. Gaisu Yari was the guest speaker, giving a talk titled " "Afghan refugee voices: What does belonging look like in host countries?". This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

This PDF was converted from an Excel sheet. The "Notes" column on page two corresponds to the rows on page one and so on and so forth.

Date refers to date of event, not date of creation.

Presentation Slides, "Afghan Refugee Voices: What Does Belonging Look Like In Host Countries?", Gaisu Yari, Integration And Belonging Hub

Webinars & Events

Presentation slides for Gaisu Yari's talk "Afghan Refugee Voices: What Does Belonging Look Like in Host Countries?". This event was held on February 1st, 2023 as part of the Integration and Belonging Hub's webinar series. This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

Yari is a former commissioner in the Civil Service of Afghanistan and a human rights advocate who holds a master’s degree in Human Rights from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern and Gender Studies from the University of Virginia. In addition to her work in Afghanistan with National and International Organizations, Yari is leading Afghan …

Concept Note -- Draft, Anita Fabos, Leora Kahn

Vision, Mission, & Funding

A concept note which gives insight into the mission and operations of the Integration and Belonging Hub.

"Belonging Talks Will Examine Refugee Integration Through A Wider Lens", Clarknow, Melissa Lynch

Press

An article from the ClarkNow website that shines a spotlight on the Integration and Belonging Hub and their upcoming (at the time of the article) Belonging Talks event featuring guest Gaisu Yaru.

Permission was granted by Melissa Lynch to reproduce this article in the Digital Commons.

*This is a born digital website article that was printed and scanned for this reproduction.

Timeline Itinerary For "Virtual Brown Bag" Webinar With Guest Stephanie Acker, Integration And Belonging Hub

Webinars & Events

An internal timeline itinerary made for the Integration & Belonging Hub's "Virtual Brown Bag" series webinar on November 30th, 2022. Visiting scholar Stephanie Acker was the guest speaker, giving a talk titled "Beauty and beautification in refugees' lives and its implications for refugee policy". This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

This PDF was converted from an Excel sheet. The "Notes" column on page two corresponds to the rows on page one and so on and so forth.

This document includes a redaction regarding sensitive information.

Date refers to date of event, not date of creation.

Digital Flyer For "Virtual Brown Bag" Webinar With Guest Stephanie Acker, Integration And Belonging Hub

Webinars & Events

A digital flyer made for the Integration & Belonging Hub's "Virtual Brown Bag" series webinar on November 30th, 2022. Visiting scholar Stephanie Acker was the guest speaker, giving a talk titled "Beauty and beautification in refugees' lives and its implications for refugee policy". This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

Date refers to date of event, not date of creation.

Presentation Slides, "Beauty And Beautification In Refugees' Lives And Its Implications For Refugee Policy", Stephanie Acker

Webinars & Events

Contains the PowerPoint slides for Stephanie Acker's presentation "Beauty and Beautification in Refugees' Lives and its Implications for Refugee Policy". This presentation was given on November 30th, 2022 as part of the Integration and Belonging Hub's "Virtual Brown Bag" series. This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

Stephanie Acker is a visiting scholar at Clark University and is a policy, program, and communications leader in improving outcomes for forcibly-displaced populations.

The main document is in text-only PDF format. To see the PowerPoint presentation, download the related file.

Permission was obtained by Stephanie Acker to make this PowerPoint publicly available.

Date …

Digital Flyer For "Virtual Brown Bag" Webinar With Guest Craig Mortley, Integration And Belonging Hub

Webinars & Events

A digital flyer made for the Integration & Belonging Hub's "Virtual Brown Bag" series webinar on November 16th, 2022. Craig Mortley was the guest speaker, giving a talk titled "Learning to Belong When No Place Feels Like Home: Experiences with Belonging for LGBTQI Asylum Seekers and Refugees". Mortley is a forced migration practitioner and emerging scholar. This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

Date refers to date of event, not creation.

Timeline Itinerary For "Virtual Brown Bag" Webinar With Guest Craig Mortley, Integration And Belonging Hub

Webinars & Events

An internal timeline itinerary made for the Integration & Belonging Hub's "Virtual Brown Bag" series webinar on November 16th, 2022. Craig Mortley was the guest speaker, giving a talk titled “Learning to Belong When No Place Feels Like Home: Experiences with Belonging for LGBTQI Asylum Seekers and Refugees". Mortley is a forced migration practitioner and emerging scholar. This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

This PDF was converted from an Excel sheet. The "Notes" column on page two corresponds to the rows on page one and so on and so forth.

Date refers to date of event, not date of creation.

Visioning Lunch; Design Think Activity Post-Its And Transcript, Visioning Lunch Attendees

Vision, Mission, & Funding

Contains photos of the Post-its, and an accompanying transcript, that emerged from the Design Think brainstorming activity at the Integration & Belonging Hub's Visioning Lunch, held on November 9th, 2022. This visioning lunch was held for Clark University colleagues whose work (whether teaching, research, and/or practice) aligns with refugee and immigrant integration and belonging. The goal was to seek input from these colleagues in driving the next steps and future funding for the Hub. The Design Think exercise contained categorized questions, ranging from the broad to the motivational to the narrow, to facilitate conversation and ideas.

The Post-its transcript is …

Visioning Lunch Invitation, Integration And Belonging Hub

Vision, Mission, & Funding

Contains the invitation to the Integration & Belonging Hub's Visioning Lunch, held on November 9th, 2022. This visioning lunch was held for Clark University colleagues whose work (whether teaching, research, and/or practice) aligns with refugee and immigrant integration and belonging. The goal was to seek input from these colleagues in driving the next steps and future funding for the Hub.

Date refers to date of event, not date of creation.

Visioning Lunch; Design Think Activity, Anita Fábos

Vision, Mission, & Funding

Contains the questions and layout for the Design Think brainstorming activity at the Integration & Belonging Hub's Visioning Lunch, held on November 9th, 2022. This visioning lunch was held for Clark University colleagues whose work (whether teaching, research, and/or practice) aligns with refugee and immigrant integration and belonging. The goal was to seek input from these colleagues in driving the next steps and future funding for the Hub. The Design Think exercise contained categorized questions, ranging from the broad to the motivational to the narrow, to facilitate conversation and ideas. You can see the results from this activity here. …

Academic Innovation Fund Progress Report, Integration And Belonging Hub

Vision, Mission, & Funding

In September 2021, President David Fithian and Provost Sebastián Royo announced a $300,000 Academic Innovation Fund to be allocated to selected applicants across the university, to promote efforts across areas of strategic imperative: The Integration and Belonging Hub was one of the twenty-two initiatives accepted for this grant. This document is a progress report provided to the fund.

Notice For Guided Internship And Professional Development Program, Integration And Belonging Hub

Internship Program

Contains the notice/advertisement for the Integration and Belonging Hub's Guided Internship and Professional Development program. This program was developed by the Hub for undergraduate and graduate students interested in working with refugees and other forced migration populations in Worcester and in other parts of the country.

This document contains information of what is offered, an orientation agenda, qualifications, and application instructions. This advertisement was also used during the Spring semester of 2022 to recruit interns for Summer 2022

Internship Program Syllabus, Anita Fábos, Leora Kahn

Internship Program

Contains a syllabus for the Fall 2022 interns in the Integration and Belonging Hub's Guided Internship Program. This document breaks down placement outcomes, internship expectations, resources, outputs, and a full schedule.

Date refers to the time period covered in this document, not the date of creation.

Workshop Discussion Topics Responses, Integration And Belonging Hub

Worcester Inter-Unversity Refugee Workshop

Each of the Worcester Inter-University Refugee Workshop's three sessions contained a series of questions for breakout group discussion. This document contains those questions as well as notes taken on the answers and responses provided by the various discussion groups.

Facilitators Notes And Discussion Questions, Integration And Belonging Hub

Worcester Inter-Unversity Refugee Workshop

Notes and Discussion Questions for the facilitators of the Worcester Inter-University Refugee Project, Anita Fabos, Noa Shaindlinger (Worcester State University), and Sarah Ihmoud (Worcester State University and College of the Holy Cross). Notes taken summarizing the group responses of these questions can be found in the PROVIDE LINK.

Attached is also a supplemental file containing a draft of this document, with some internal notes and insight into the formulation of these questions.

Workshop Agenda, Integration And Belonging Hub

Worcester Inter-Unversity Refugee Workshop

This document lays out the schedule and agenda for the Worcester Inter-University Refugee Workshop held on September 22, 2022.

"Worcester Inter-University Refugee Workshop" Presentation, Jozefina Lantz

Worcester Inter-Unversity Refugee Workshop

Contains the Power Point slides for Jozefina Lantz's presentation, "Worcester Inter-University Refugee Workshop" which was part of Session III of the workshop held on September 22, 2022.

The main document is in text-only PDF format.

"Unpacking Displacement" Presentation, Noa Shaindlinger

Worcester Inter-Unversity Refugee Workshop

Contains the PowerPoint slides for Noa Shaindlinger's presentation "Unpacking Displacement" which was part of Session I of the Worcester Inter-University Refugee Workshop held on September 22, 2022. The presentation concerns an overview of forced migration and settlement in Worcester.

The main document is in text-only PDF format. To see the PowerPoint presentation, download the related file.

Worcester Inter-University Refugee Workshop Invitation, Integration And Belonging Hub

Worcester Inter-Unversity Refugee Workshop

Invitation to the Inter-University Worcester Refugee Workshop held on September 22, 2022 at Tilton Hall at Clark University.

Steering Committee Notes [April 4th, 2022 Through September 7th, 2022], Axelle Rivot

Vision, Mission, & Funding

Contains all of the notes taken during the Integration & Belonging Hub Steering Committee meetings from April 14th through September 7th 2022. In this time, they held seven meetings total. Committee members during this time included Anita Fabos (Clark University), Jude Fernando (Clark University), Adam Saltsman (Worcester State University), Amer Macedonci (community member), Sarah Ihmoud (College of the Holy Cross), Noa Shaindlinger (Worcester State University and College of the Holy Cross), Axelle Rivot (intern), and Jozefina Lantz (Clark University).

Steering Committee notes were taken by Axelle Rivot, Clark University student and intern for the Integration and Belonging Hub.