Migrant Homescapes

Recording of presentation given at Vital Signs 2 Conference, 7-9 September 2010, University of Manchester
Home is the site where some of the most intimate facets of our identities and relationships are performed. It is not surprising then that this can be one of the most difficult research sites for social scientists to penetrate. Perhaps this is why Mona Domosh lamented, in 1998, that we as researchers have “barely begun to open the door and look inside” (Domosh, 1998, 281). However this has been changing, a shift reflected in the empirical basis for this discussion - my current study of migrant families in Ireland. This is a geographical exploration of the ways in which the migration process can renegotiate migrant’s lived experience, and individual understanding of family. Engaging with participant generated photographs of family and home, this project understands the lived reality of migrant families through a multitude of sites or scapes, rather than more traditional hierarchical scales. The current paper will attempt to map one such constellation of spaces – homescapes – as a means of demonstrating one possible approach to generating a theoretical understanding that resonates with migrant’s lived reality of home in Ireland. Underpinning this discussion will be the epistemological question: how can we know the home?