Dans l’intérêt de la famille

Abstract

This article investigates home-making through voluntary kin and social anchoring. More specifically, it explores how young migrants from first and 1.5 generations enact their agency to create kin and spaces of belonging in the city of Brussels, using data from ethnographic interviews. Results show that while stability and security are key factors of home, and may, to some degree, be offered by a secure migratory status, there are many elements of home-making and kinship that the structural element of migratory status cannot provide. Experiences of limbo and isolation can be very strong even for those who have Belgian citizenship and have lived in the country most of their lives. At the same time, those who have migrated recently and are in a more precarious situation in terms of their migratory status in the country, such as those who are undocumented, sometimes feel anchored to Belgium and wish to remain even without the presence of biological kin. In addition, relationships other than biological and legal kin may be just as, or more, significant in participants’ home-making. Children and young people may wish to choose proximity to voluntary kin who have become social anchors, over proximity to their biological or legal kin. Structural elements of policy and laws, however, may not allow them that choice.

Keywords

• family
• voluntary kin
• home
• young migrants
• social anchoring