ABSTRACT

This article explores place attachment and well-being among Afghan refugees in a small Finnish town. The small town offers a unique perspective on newly arrived Afghan refugees’ place attachment, as it only started receiving resettled Afghan refugees in 2012. Our analysis draws on the sociology of associations and the concept of assemblages, which provide a novel theoretical lens for integration studies. The data in this study were collected by utilising multi-sited ethnography from 2016 to 2018. The analysis reveals that there is a socio-material side to building place attachments. Different actor-assemblages can ‘plug in’ or attach themselves to a place in divergent ways, but neither the individual nor the place determines the outcome of the resettlement. Some of our research participants found it easy to connect with surrounding assemblages, while others could not connect at all. The third group had initial incompatibility issues but was able to reassemble attachments by using a variety of adapters. These adapters can be the ‘keys to the city’ for newly arrived refugees. Support in finding these adapters would be important for social service providers as well as policy makers to focus on.

摘要

本文探讨了芬兰小镇上阿富汗难民的地方依恋和幸福感。这个小镇从 2012 年才开始接收重新安置的阿富汗难民，为新抵达的阿富汗难民的地方依恋提供了独特的视角。我们的分析借鉴了协会的社会学和集合的概念，为融合研究提供了一个新的理论视角. 本研究中的数据是利用 2016 年至 2018 年的多地点民族志收集的。分析表明，建立地方依恋存在社会物质方面。不同的行动者组合可以以不同的方式“插入”或依附于一个地方，但个人和地方都不能决定移民的结果。我们的一些研究参与者发现与周围的组合很容易连接，而其他人则根本无法连接。第三组最初存在不兼容问题，但能够通过使用各种适配器重新组装附件。这些适配器可以成为新抵达难民的“城市钥匙”。支持寻找这些适配器对于社会服务提供者和政策制定者来说非常重要。