Reconceptualising the Migrant

This book highlights the impact of migrant self-narratives and the non-binary nature of sociocultural identities on everyday social interactions, demonstrating how meaningful relationships emerge not from predetermined social categories, but through shared experiences, common interests and everyday encounters. Migration has traditionally been understood through fixed categories such as nationality, ethnicity, religion and culture, with integration often conceptualised as a process through which migrants adapt to established societies. Drawing on qualitative research conducted across six European countries, this book develops the concepts of self-narrative-induced interactions and joint belongingness to explain how migrants and members of established societies negotiate difference and develop more inclusive forms of belonging. By examining volunteering, sports, arts and community-based activities, it shows how everyday environments create opportunities for interaction, mutual recognition and the formation of meaningful social relationships across cultural boundaries. Bringing together migration studies, belonging, identity, conviviality, resilience and transnationalism, this book offers an original and empirically informed conceptual framework for understanding everyday migrant–established society relations. It will appeal to scholars, researchers and postgraduate students in migration and diaspora studies, sociology, political science, identity studies and social inclusion, as well as those interested in belonging, intercultural relations and the role of everyday interactions in diverse societies.