"Feeling at Home" in Migratory Contexts: The experiences of Portuguese women in the UK

Abstract

In my research, I aim to better understand how Portuguese women feel at home when living in the UK, considering their homemaking practices, everyday routines, and social relationships. To do that, I draw on the existing literature from sociological fields such as housing and home; migration and transnationalism; material culture; and the sociology of personal life with the objective of creating a theoretical dialogue to operationalise 'home'. Consequently, I develop an analytical framework that considers the multidimensionality of home comprised in three main areas: the physical home, the sensorial home, and the relational home. I then bring to the discussion how participants' experiences of feeling at home, as well as their creation of home atmospheres are intimately connected with the migratory context in which they do and give meaning to such practices. That is, this thesis' theoretical contribution is to consider how home, in its multidimensionality, is done and signified by Portuguese women while engaging in transnational social fields. The methodology employed in this study was qualitative and inductive in its approach and included a set of different methods of data collection undertaken in a collaborative way, namely: thirty-one semi-structured interviews, twenty-eight video house tours, participant-generated diaries and/or timelines, and twenty-two elicitation interviews. The entire fieldwork was done during the COVID-19 pandemic meaning that all the interactions between me and participants were digitally mediated originating a co-presence with different features than when developing an ethnographic research in-person. Nonetheless, I will argue that this research, as it is presented, would not been possible if not in this digital environment. The empirical chapters that follow consider firstly the physical home and the dialectic relationship between subject and object, as well as participants' housing journeys - i.e., not only the journey from dwelling to dwelling, but also the different processes of accommodation within the same dwelling. Secondly, the sensorial home is analysed considering everyday routines, practices and objects that are understood and signified by participants as home(ly), or as creating a home atmosphere when in the UK. Finally, the relational home is understood as pushing further the role that social relationships have, not just for human beings, but particularly for migrant human beings. In the conclusion, I present an overview of the thesis arguments and key findings, including how each chapter includes new considerations of home and homemaking in the three main dimensions analysed (physical, sensorial, and relational). I also present my main empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions to knowledge. I close the thesis with a section where I reflect on its limitations and include potential suggestions for future sociological research.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Sue Heath (Supervisor) & Sophie Woodward (Supervisor)