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Community is a key and contested concept much used in social sciences and public policy, including asylum and immigration policies. The notion of refugee community is often utilized uncritically to apply to national, ethnic or other groups, yet the existence of 'community' cannot be assumed. Where refugee community has been addressed, studies of refugee community organizations dominate. Less attention has been given to everyday experiences of people seeking asylum, particularly those living outside London following the introduction of compulsory dispersal. This ethnography results from fourteen months of fieldwork in the major dispersal city of Leeds in the north of England, and included people from over twelve countries at different stages of the asylum process. The research found that conditions in the country of origin and UK policies create insecurity that shape social life and affect the ways that 'community' is experienced. Policy infiltrates daily life through housing control mechanisms, shaping capacity for homemaking and affecting social relationships. In this precarious context secrecy is a vital tool in managing social life. Refugee community organizations, parties and social events form around nascent social groupings that include some and exclude others. Moving beyond recognition that divisions exist within 'communities', this research examines how boundaries operate in new UK social settings for recently-arrived refugees. Forms of familiarity and cultural reproduction are achieved through music, dancing, dress and food. Rather than simply representing 'home' culture, such practices create moments and places to contest both continuity and adaptation to the UK The central importance of food highlights the particular role of women in reproducing community - the ephemeral nature of eating and dancing enables a sense of shared values within the context of fluidity. Recently-arrived refugees do not live in a community, but engage with (or avoid) spatial and temporal realizations of community.

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This thesis investigates the reception and treatment of the refugees from Hungary and Egypt who arrived in France and in Britain after the Hungarian revolution and the Suez crisis. The thesis argues that the reception of the refugees from Hungary and from Egypt was primarily linked to the French and British immigration policies and influenced by the Cold War context. The first part deals with the creation of the Hungarian refugees and their reception in France and Britain. Chapter two gives a brief account on the Hungarian revolution and what led 200,000 Hungarians to leave their country. Chapter three deals with the reception and treatment of the Hungarian refugees in France, and sets out to demonstrate how the revolution and the refugee situation were first exploited for propagandistic purposes and national political interests. It also examines immigration policy in France and how the Hungarians were to serve France's economic and demographic interests as candidates for immigration. French-Jewish responses to the refugee situation are also explored. Finally, it discusses the effects of the Cold War in the resettlement process. Chapter four explores similar questions about the Hungarians with respect to Britain. The second part of the thesis studies the expulsion of the French, British and stateless Jews from Egypt and their resettlement in France and Britain. Chapter five deals with who the refugees from Egypt were, and the unusual nature of their nationality and cultural background. Chapter six deals with the reception and treatment of refugees from Egypt in France, and focuses on how the French government and administration oscillated between obligation and desire to provide relief to the French Jews of Egypt, as they were not considered to be suitable candidates for resettlement in France according to immigration policies and practices. As most of the refugees from Egypt were Jewish, the chapter also looks at the Jewish specificity of the resettlement policy and how their resettlement made the refugees question their French identity. Chapter seven discusses the reception of the refugees from Egypt in Britain. It analyses the different domestic context regarding the Suez crisis and its impact on the refugees. The question of identity and cultural background is also explored.

This thesis examines the nature and role of resilience in forced migrants’ lives with particular reference to the day-to-day lives of Somali women living in the UK. In contrast to the dominant discourse of victimhood associated with the label of ‘forced migrant’ this empirical study explores the notion of the ‘strong migrant woman’. Drawing upon perspectives that illuminate power relations and adopting a social constructionist framework, a qualitative and predominantly ethnographic approach was taken to elicit Somali women’s accounts of their family life in a city in southern England. Challenges encountered within the research field, including language barriers, issues of informed consent and women’s reluctance to engage with the study, led to the adoption of an increasingly informal, flexible process of data generation. This was via formal and informal individual and group interviews and participant observation of women’s daily activities. Together these rich sources of data illuminate the complexity and contraction of the resilience concept and in doing so promote a more informed understanding of the diversity and richness of forced migrants’ lives. Findings from this study challenge the use of static frameworks and labels in determining and categorising migratory journeys and experiences of (re)settlement. The need for recognition of the complexity and fluidity surrounding the nature of border crossings is argued. Drawing on a pluralistic theoretical approach to understanding resilience, this thesis illuminates the complex ways in which risk and protection, strengths and vulnerability operate within women’s day-to-day lives. ‘Complexity and contradiction’ and ‘movement and fluidity’ are identified as key inter-related themes in understanding the nature of resilience within these migrant women’s family life. A model developed on the basis of this study’s findings and encompassing a more holistic approach is outlined as a potential tool to aid the complex task of resilience assessment.