How do migrants feel "at home" in their houses? Literature on the migrant house and its role in the migrant experience of home-building is inadequate. This book offers a theoretical framework based on the notion of home-building and the concepts of home and house embedded within it. It presents innovative research on four groups of migrants who have settled in two metropolitan cities in two periods: migrants from Italy (migrated in the 1950s and 1960s) and from mainland China (migrated in the 1990s and 2000s) in Melbourne, Australia, and migrants from Morocco (migrated in the 1950s and 1960s) and from the former Soviet Union (migrated in the 1990s and 2000s) in Tel Aviv, Israel. The analysis draws on qualitative data gathered from forty-six in depth interviews with migrants in their home-environments, including extensive visual data. Levin argues that the physical form of the house is meaningful in a range of diverse ways during the process of home-building, and that each migrant group constructs a distinct form of home-building in their homes/houses, according to their specific circumstances of migration, namely the origin country, country of destination and period of migration, as well as the historical, economic and social contexts around migration.
1. The Migrant House in the Globalised City 2. Settlement, Belonging and the Migrant Home / House 3. "We Just Put It All Together": Houses of Migrants from Italy in Metropolitan Melbourne 4. "Home Is Where the Heart Is": Houses of Migrants from China in Metropolitan Melbourne 5. "I Record the Whole Story": Houses of Migrants from Morocco in Metropolitan Tel Aviv 6. "A House Like This Can Be Everywhere": Houses of Migrants from Former Soviet Union in Metropolitan Tel Aviv 7. Migrant Experiences Around the House / Home 8. Migrant Settlement and Home-Building in the Home / House. Appendix A: Migrants from Italy Who Participated in This Research. Appendix B: Migrants from China Who Participated in This Research. Appendix C: Migrants from Morocco Who Participated in This Research. Appendix D: Migrants from the Former Soviet Union Who Participated in This Research
Biography
Iris Levin is a post-doctoral researcher who has recently completed a large research project at Flinders University and is about to commence a new project at Tel Aviv University.
"This book is of great value to housing studies scholars in that it takes on the challenge of
engaging with homes as houses. It is an exemplary demonstration of the deep insight offered by
drawing together the theoretically diverse lenses of cultural capital, the everyday, and materialities
in the home, through the analysis of rich visual and textual data. In doing this, Levin explores
new dimensions of migration and settlement. By investigating the homebuilding practices of
these four groups of migrants, Levin demonstrates the significance of the physical form of houses
in migration and settlement processes, and the broader contexts in which houses become homes."
Tamlin Gorter, University of Tasmania, Australia, Housing Studies, 2017, VOL. 32, NO . 8, 1178–1182
