Geographies of Home and Migration

Home is simultaneously a physical dwelling, a set of social relations and an emotional compass for individuals and communities navigating displacement and settlement. Research in this field investigates how migrant groups and long‐standing residents adapt, resist and reconfigure domestic spaces in response to migration, urban change, policy frameworks and ecological imperatives. Scholars have traced the networks of human and non‐human actors—ranging from kinship ties and institutional bodies to material landscapes and technological infrastructures—that shape processes of home‐making. Emphasis is placed on scalar interactions, from intimate household practices to regional and transnational circuits of mobility. Temporal dimensions of home emerge as residents negotiate past memories, present routines and future aspirations. The geographies of home and migration reveal the unevenness of access to secure, meaningful shelter, the role of governance and market forces, and the creative strategies by which individuals assemble, disassemble and reassemble senses of belonging. Findings carry global significance for housing policy, social integration and sustainable community development.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent empirical work has reconceptualised home as a dynamic, relational network of human and non‐human actors. Drawing on actor‐network theory, this research examines rural migrants in China and illustrates how farmland, local infrastructures and ecological norms interweave with the aspirations of newcomers. Three phases of translation—problematisation, enrolment and negotiation of shared passage points—offer a framework for understanding how migrants and local communities co‐construct ideal domestic arrangements. Sustainability and recyclability emerge as common interests that bind disparate actors, while the study underscores the persistent instability of land–human relations in rural settings. This approach foregrounds the material and social negotiations that underpin contemporary processes of settlement and rural revitalisation.

Geographies of Home and Migration publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in geographies of home and migration across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Actor‐network theory: A framework that treats human and non‐human elements as equal participants in networks that co‐produce social realities such as home.

Assemblage: An analytical concept describing the heterogeneous components—objects, practices, discourses and actors—that come together to form social phenomena like domestic space.

De‐territorialisation: The process by which established spatial boundaries and place‐based meanings are disrupted through mobility or policy changes.

Relational ontology: An approach emphasising the interconnectedness of actors (human, environmental and technological) in shaping social and material worlds.

Sense of place: The emotional and symbolic attachments individuals or groups form with specific locations, underpinning identity and belonging.

References

1. Re-conceptualizing the ideal homes in rural China: an actor-network theory approach. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2023).
2. Assembling a ‘kind of’ home in the UK private renting sector. Geoforum (2019).
3. The “living of time”: Entangled temporalities of home and the city. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (2020).
4. A place migrants would call home: open-ended constructions and social determinants over time among Ecuadorians in three European cities. Comparative Migration Studies (2021).