Identity and Belonging

Newly arrived migrants are in between efforts of seeking to belong and the politics of whom belonging is granted, impacting on their identities and opportunities for integration. To help practitioners stay on top of the latest evidence on identity and belonging in regard to migrant integration, we reviewed both academic and policy-oriented research since 2011.

Learn about the common policy approaches facilitating and restricting migrants’ integration and effective, practical measures that you can put in action by checking out the Results of our study!

Key outputs:

Brief

Chapter

Brief for Identity and Belonging:

A snapshot of European research findings on the challenges migrants* are facing in terms of identity and belonging, and policy practices tackling those.

Here you can find evidence-based and effective recommendations that can be applied by governments and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). To dive into the details, see the full Chapter on Identity and Belonging (link here) synthesising research on migrants in the EU from the past decade.

Featured studies:

‘Living Liminality’: everyday experiences of asylum seekers in the ‘Direct Provision’ system in Ireland

Learn about how the insecure and highly controlled status of asylum seekers impacts on their every day lives and how they negotiate this liminality through everyday practices, finding a few ways to integration and belonging in a system that discourages both.

Reimagining German identity through the politics of history: changing interpretations of German past migrations during the ‘Refugee crisis’, 2015/2016

This study shows how Germany’s founding narrative of flight and expulsion was reframed by leading politicians and media in 2015-16 and helped to alter Germany’s identity boundaries in a more inclusive way.

Lessons on the Boundaries of Belonging: Racialization and Symbolic Boundary Drawing in the French Civic Integration Program  

Discover how underlying racialised and symbolic boundaries in civic integration programmes actually reinforce national boundaries and impede migrants’ entry into society. The study finds that historical relationships between Europeans and non-Europeans continue to shape the definitions of who belongs in Europe, whereby race operates in the form of language, culture and religion.

Find selected research on Identity and Belonging on The Migration Research Hub

Find academic experts on the Migration Research Hub

Where is the evidence?

Here you can see how much evidence on Identity and Belonging is available in each country (from the Migration Research Hub).

SPRING Community

Want to connect and learn from organizations with expertise on Identity and Belonging? Check out the SPRING Community members below. Want to join? You are in good company. 
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