Making Home in Forced Displacement: young Syrian men navigating everyday geographies of migration, belonging and masculinities in the Netherlands

Making Home in Forced Displacement challenges dominant and often hostile social discourses on young Syrian male refugees’ everyday practices in the Netherlands. In particular, Syrian men’s attitudes towards gender and partner roles tend to be considered problematic and detrimental to imagined gender identities and relations. In search of a counter-narrative, this thesis provides novel insights into the homemaking practices of young Syrian male refugees in everyday places. It illustrates that forced migration and resettlement disrupt many facets of Syrian men’s daily lives and their identities. They complicate previously developed feelings of home, and prospects for a safe and meaningful life. Throughout, the thesis analyses a repertoire of masculinities young Syrian men employ in their articulations of everyday experiences to overcome these challenges. It further discusses the essential role of places and local opportunities in carving out spaces of home in new and unfamiliar societies. Despite the categorical construction as undesired subjects, the empirical evidence foregrounds various responses of young Syrian men to participate and actively construct a home. As a result, the diverse, heterogeneous and multifaceted nature of Syrian men’s everyday practices disrupts simplistic understandings as to how everyday life is organised.