134.4
Housing Pathways: A Tool for Approaching Everyday Life of Unaccompanied Minors
Qualitative research methods have a long and honourable history in studies on immigration, related mobilities and families. The Polish Peasants in Europe and America by Thomas and Znaniecki is often mentioned as one of the earliest works studying the culture and social organization of immigrants and their family relationships, and also developing new methods of social investigation (qualitative analysis of letters). Today we face similar challenges: Europe has encountered its greatest refugee crisis since WW2, with tens of millions of people from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia leaving their homes to escape wars, conflicts and persecution. The significant and rapid increase of “strangers” has also activated efforts to get to know and understand the Other – also through research-based information.
The aim of this paper is to reflect on the idea of housing pathways for examining the sequential, multi-local experiences of minor children who apply for asylum (in Finland) unaccompanied by their parents. Unlike previous research on refugee children, focusing on the children's mental state from the perspective of trauma, an analysis of housing pathways employs the concepts of place of residence, moving and change of residence, suggested to be close to children’s ordinary daily life. A housing pathway is understood to be constructed through children’s meaning giving, but also in interaction with the structural conditions of life (e.g., war, refugee policy and practices). It is argued that a study of housing pathways broadens the previous debate on the situation and well-being of these children. Accounts of feeling a sense of place, including a sense of home with family-like close relationships, increase our knowledge about social conditions where the experience of being a stranger/the Other may sometimes even become less powerful.