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Refugees and the Meaning of Home

Cypriot Narratives of Loss, Longing and Daily Life in London

  • Book
  • © 2015

Overview

Authors:
  1. Helen Taylor

    1. University of East London, UK

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Part of the book series: Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship (MDC)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Contexts and Catalysts

    • Helen Taylor
    Pages 1-20

  3. There’s No Place Like Home — The Spatial Home

    • Helen Taylor
    Pages 21-53

  4. Rhythms of Life — The Temporal Home

    • Helen Taylor
    Pages 54-87

  5. Senses of Belonging — The Material Home

    • Helen Taylor
    Pages 88-117

  6. Home Is Other People — The Relational Home

    • Helen Taylor
    Pages 118-151

  7. The Constructed Cypriot Home — Concluding Remarks

    • Helen Taylor
    Pages 152-161

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 162-188
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores the meaning of home for Cypriot refugees living in London since their island was torn apart by war. Taking an innovative approach, it looks at how spaces, time, social networks and sensory experiences come together as home is constructed. It places refugee narratives at its centre to reveal the agency of those forced to migrate.

Reviews

“Helen Taylor’s (2015) work on the Greek and Turkish Cypriot community in London is an investigation into how enforced displacement and exile problematizes questions of home, notably as diasporic generations become postdiasporic. … Interweaving theoretical insights into a careful and revealing account of the phenomenologies of home, Taylor is able to convey the complexities of home and how most Cypriots experience a sense of deep rooted and yet dual belonging. … Taylor’s research constitutes strong empirical testimony to the abiding importance of soil and rootedness in the mythologies of nation.” (Paul Nesbitt-Larking, Political Psychology, vol. 38 (3), 2017)

"Helen Taylor has written a thoughtful analysis of stories of home, narrated by Turkish and Greek Cypriot refugees living in London with little or no hope of returning to their pre-partition villages. Rich with insights into the individual and communal struggles of Cypriot refugees to make sense of their circumstances, Refugees and the Meaning of Home proposes new ways of thinking about place, nostalgia, and home culture. While the topic of 'home' is central to the field of forced migration and refugee studies, Taylor's book addressing spatial, temporal, material and relational aspects of 'home' provides a comprehensive and thorough treatment of the theoretical underpinnings and the debates in the field." - Anita Fabos, Clark University, USA

"Transcending the immediate setting of the Cypriot refugees from 1974, but drawing on their narratives after four decades of exile, Helen Taylor's book is a nuanced, compassionate and rich ethnography of the universal preoccupation with the meaning of home and, especially, the loss of home for forcibly displaced people. Recognising the multiple, complex, and often contradictory spatial, temporal, material and relational meanings which refugees ascribe to home, Refugees and the Meaning of Home. Cypriot Narratives of Loss, Longing and Daily Life in London is an innovative and subtle exploration of the way forced displacement impacts upon the making, unmaking and remaking of home for protracted refugees." - Roger Zetter, University of Oxford, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of East London, UK

    Helen Taylor

About the author

Helen Taylor is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging at the University of East London, UK. She has published in the fields of refugee studies, migration and narrative.

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