“Home” away from home?

Abstract

In the late 1990s, Moroccan veterans in their 70s and 80s arrived in the city of Bordeaux, hoping to claim the retirement pensions that they were owed for serving in the French army. From then on, moving back and forth between Morocco and France, they entered a dynamic of “over-mobility.” In France, they experienced various forms of accommodation until they were housed in social residences. Using an approach drawn from Material Cultures studies, the investigation of their domestic space reveals divergent trends in their appropriation, manifested through three atmospheres linked to the temporary living conditions of these veterans. Despite their apparent detachment, they fulfil their need for “home” connections by cultivating a familiar atmosphere outside their host domestic space. Semi-directive interviews as well as in situ observations rendered through visual methods translate the particularities of the living conditions of Moroccan veterans in France and the spatial atmospheres resulting from their appropriations and uses.

Keywords

• moroccan veterans
• migration
• spatial appropriation
• atmosphere
• material culture
• visual methods