“Place” Centeredness: An Analysis of the Intersection between Social and Bodily Experiences of Emplacement Among Minorities in a New Place

In this presentation, the meaning of “place” as a theoretical concept will be interrogated based on two published research with recent immigrants and international students, mainly from the global south, in a small city in Canada. In the research, participants were invited to take photos of comfortable and uncomfortable places as a way for them to share their settlement and integration experiences. Because a place has unique social, economic, and political histories, it emanates social and cultural meanings that migrants may find welcoming or alienating. The analysis of this paper revolves around the embodied nature of place. Among migrants, while cultural dislocation shapes their sense of place, bodily incongruence, such as the incompatibility of their bodies with the local somatic norm, engenders a unique sense of place. The analysis focuses on theorizing “place” as a conceptual tool that can capture and bridge the intersectionality of social and bodily experiences, particularly among minority newcomers settling into a new place. To this extent, using “place” as an analytical lens can inform policy debates and designs and help shape a welcoming place for newcomers as they engage in the process of emplacement and reterritorialization in a new place.