Home Experiences and Home-Making Strategies of Syrian Refugees in Amsterdam

The recent sociopolitical situations in the Middle East have caused numerous refugees in the world. It has been revealed that how they lost home and what kinds of experiences they had during the journey; however, which kind of house they live in and how they experience the daily life since their arrival in European cities are barely unveiled. This study aims to understand how Syrian refugees experience home in a new living environment and what strategies they employ to ‘feel at home’. Providing comprehensive understanding of home in multidimensional perspective, this paper attempts present how refugees manage spatial setting and relationship with other people to create home-like living environments.

This study employs the qualitative research methodologies, mainly interviews with various participants. This research will portray the home experiences and home-making strategies of young Syrian refugees, along with assessment of an experimental housing project in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. ‘Startblok Riekerhaven’ is an experimental housing project initiated by the city municipality and the housing authorities, which consists of 565 housing units for 282 young refugees and 283 Dutch students of 18-28 years old. The project is notable in three aspects: first, it copes with both local and global agenda which are low-cost housing for native youngsters and housing for young refugees; second, it creates opportunity of integration with natural interactions between the refugees and the locals by shared communal spaces and various group activities; third, it provides chances of home-making practices for both groups by flexible decision making processes and self-organizing activities.