Gonca Șahin, ‘Everyday Struggles of Queer Refugees for Homemaking’, 6(1) Movements 2021, 42-63

Abstract

This article explores the meaning of home and homemaking in conditions of temporary displacement. Drawing on Catharine Brun and Anita Fábos’ conceptual framework of the constellation of HOME-Home-home, my analysis focuses on the experiences of queer refugees who temporarily reside in Turkey while waiting for resettlement to a third country. Based on four in-depth interviews, I suggest that displaced people continue to think about and make homes while living in temporary conditions, such as transit countries. The case studies presented in this article have demonstrated that my participants have creatively engaged in homemaking within the tension of processes of marginalization and identity-making. Homemaking for them involves, not only an ongoing process of day-to-day negotiation of liminal and precarious circumstances of the transit country, but it also includes everyday struggles which enable queer identities, practices, and spaces. Informed by an intersectional analysis, I demonstrate that my participants have produced different strategies of homemaking, attending to their particular social positionalities.