Feeling at Home? A Dynamic Analysis of the Impact of Discrimination, Refugee-Specific, and Participation Characteristics on Recently Arrived Refugees’ Belonging

Belonging has regularly been related to discrimination, most studies originally focusing on the contrasting effect of education (and later also employment, language proficiency and social contacts) in explaining belonging through discrimination (e.g. the integration paradox). Yet, few studies focus on ‘feeling at home’ as indicator of belonging among recently arrived refugees nor do they investigate dynamics or include refugee-specific (reception period and mental health) characteristics as determinants. Employing longitudinal survey data on 2484 recently arrived Syrian refugees in the Netherlands to explain their ‘feeling at home’ during the initial period after arrival, results showed the positive impact of changes in mental health, being active during reception and changes in social contacts on changes in Syrians’ feeling at home in the Netherlands. Like in previous studies, higher education was negatively related to Syrians’ feeling at home. Indicating indirect effect for the refugee-specific characteristics we found that those with a better mental health generally perceived discrimination less, resulting in feeling at home in the Netherlands more strongly. Also, among this relatively new group of refugees, perceived discrimination directly and indirectly explains the dynamics in feeling at home. As such, policies targeted at newcomers’ integration can ultimately be effective if being allowed to belong by receiving society members is an integral part of this.