BELONGINGS – Challenging Anti-Immigrant Narratives and Creating Pathways for Belonging With Refugees, 2024

The BELONGINGS project was motivated by the urgent challenges surrounding forced displacement, migration, and belonging, both globally and within the UK. At the time of the programme, forced displacement was at record levels, while UK legislation and polarised public discourse contributed to rising anti-immigrant sentiment. Refugees frequently experienced racism, social exclusion, and barriers to integration, which undermined their mental health, wellbeing, and ability to develop a sense of belonging. In this context, belonging was defined as the capacity to form social and emotional connections to people and place, achieve a dignified standard of living, and lead flourishing lives within a community. Displacement often disrupted these connections, creating significant obstacles for refugees rebuilding their lives.

The project aimed to increase refugees’ sense of belonging by fostering meaningful connections between people with lived experience of displacement, community organisations, institutions, and the wider public, while challenging polarising anti-immigrant narratives. It adopted participatory and arts-based approaches from the social sciences and humanities, emphasising capacity strengthening, collaboration, and knowledge exchange. The project sought to create bonds among refugees, build bridges between refugees and broader society, and establish links with stakeholders to inform more humane and inclusive asylum and integration policies.

The data generated by the project derived from a public art exhibition, participatory workshops, panel discussions, networking events, and reflective visitor engagement. These data included qualitative written reflections from exhibition visitors, recorded panel discussions and talks, documentation of participatory embroidery workshops, and insights generated through networking and knowledge-exchange activities. The topics covered migration histories, forced displacement, sanctuary seeking, belonging, mental health and wellbeing, education and integration, placemaking, public attitudes towards refugees, and pathways to policy change. Collectively, the dataset supports interdisciplinary research, policy engagement, and public understanding of displacement and belonging, with relevance for academia, community organisations, and policymakers.