Time and displacement: changed temporal experiences of refugee families after reunion

Abstract

ABSTRACT The temporal tensions experienced by refugees in European host societies result from a sharp disruption between past and present, as well as from the unpredictability of the future. The prolonged violence experienced in countries of origin and the tactic of time used in bureaucratic forms of domination in countries of destination through complex and lengthy procedures contribute to the chaos and precarity of the refugee experience. Yet how this experience changes in the longer term has received limited attention in the literature. This article draws on one year of fieldwork using interviews, participatory photography, and film with families who have been reunited for one or more years in Manchester and Glasgow, UK, to understand the transformations that occur after the uncertainty of waiting during asylum and family reunion applications has been ‘resolved’. Following the key themes identified in our analysis, we look at challenges that continue or emerge, temporal possibilities that arise, and people’s strategies to balance both, as well as at how these experiences are manifested in and through the body. We found that following key indeterminate periods of waiting, temporal tensions coexist with the capacity to start thinking about the future, embodying a more active experience of time.