Solastalgia and nostalgia: The role of emotional bonds to place in refugee and host community interactions

Helen Adams; Samar Ghanem

doi:10.1080/1369183X.2023.2218579

Solastalgia and nostalgia: The role of emotional bonds to place in refugee and host community interactions

Helen Adams, Samar Ghanem

American University of Beirut

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

While sustainable solutions to protracted refugee situations remain elusive, conditions for refugees and their host communities can deteriorate. Drawing from environmental psychology, we apply a place attachment framework to analyse wellbeing and refugee-host interactions in protracted situations to inform alternative interventions. Based in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, we carried out qualitative interviews on place attachment with Syrian and Palestinian refugees from Syria who had fled the conflict in Syria, and their Lebanese and Palestinian host communities. Results show a rural host population with strong place identity experiencing, we suggest, solastalgia due to refugee-related place change. Strong place identity contributed to anti-refugee sentiment as a form of place protective behaviour. Syrian refugees had no secure base in Lebanon but rather nostalgia for Syria. This was driven, in part, by immobility preventing meaningful interactions with locals in surrounding areas. Palestinian refugees from Syria, doubly displaced, were increasingly defined by the Palestinian dimension of their identity. Palestinian refugee hosts articulated both a lack of a secure base in Lebanon but also a sense of loss at the changes occurring. A place attachment framing highlights pathways to ameliorate some of the mental health impacts of protracted displacement and remove barriers to social cohesion.

Original language	English
Journal	JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES
Early online date	4 Jun 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2023.2218579
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 4 Jun 2023

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title = "Solastalgia and nostalgia: The role of emotional bonds to place in refugee and host community interactions",

abstract = "While sustainable solutions to protracted refugee situations remain elusive, conditions for refugees and their host communities can deteriorate. Drawing from environmental psychology, we apply a place attachment framework to analyse wellbeing and refugee-host interactions in protracted situations to inform alternative interventions. Based in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, we carried out qualitative interviews on place attachment with Syrian and Palestinian refugees from Syria who had fled the conflict in Syria, and their Lebanese and Palestinian host communities. Results show a rural host population with strong place identity experiencing, we suggest, solastalgia due to refugee-related place change. Strong place identity contributed to anti-refugee sentiment as a form of place protective behaviour. Syrian refugees had no secure base in Lebanon but rather nostalgia for Syria. This was driven, in part, by immobility preventing meaningful interactions with locals in surrounding areas. Palestinian refugees from Syria, doubly displaced, were increasingly defined by the Palestinian dimension of their identity. Palestinian refugee hosts articulated both a lack of a secure base in Lebanon but also a sense of loss at the changes occurring. A place attachment framing highlights pathways to ameliorate some of the mental health impacts of protracted displacement and remove barriers to social cohesion.",

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note = "Funding Information: The authors would like to thank M{\'a}ir{\'e}ad Collins at ForumZFD, formerly at Christian Aid, and Leila El Ali and Osama Hamzeh at Association Najdeh for providing links to refugee communities and guidance throughout the research; Suleiman Abd Al Baset Suleiman, Fatima Khodor Ayyache and Zain Saleh for field assistance and translation; Rima Gabriel for simultaneous translation; and Rayan Batlouni for transcribing and translating interviews. Ultimately, thanks go to the respondents for their time and hospitality. This work was supported by the British Academy under Grant number IC160149. The paper is dedicated to the late Mahmoud Hadid (1965–2019), without whom the research would not have been possible, and who is sorely missed. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.",

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Solastalgia and nostalgia: The role of emotional bonds to place in refugee and host community interactions

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