The Meaning of Home in Male Migration: Listening to Men’s Experiences

Abstract

We assessed the sense of psychological home among adult men (n = 17; M age = 29.7 years old) who had experienced migration to Italy, focusing on the relationship between psychological home and the process of integration into the new country. Psychological home is a dynamic process in which people sense a safe and secure environment that ranges beyond the confines of a structured dwelling, a process which is reflective and which communicates one’s self-identity. Participants engaged in a semistructured interview with the aim of establishing a generic concept of psychological home and identifying the issues that arise at the intersection of psychological home and migration. The results highlighted certain themes about the meaning that psychological home assumes in the lives of migrants and about the way in which the migration experience acts to support or hinder the process of building this sense of home. Of special interest is the idea that individuals might develop multiple psychological homes related to the different places and relationships that they experience. In this sense, establishment of a psychological home might be considered the ideal affective state for psychological adaptation to a new country.

Socio-Psychological Online Survey of Ukrainian Forced Migrants in the First Months of the War in 2022: General Characteristics of the Study and Methodological Aspects of Data Collection on Facebook

“…Geography of respondents. The country where people migrate can include important aspects for successful adaptation and integration [19], so special attention has been paid to the analysis of the countries in which respondents are located. At the end of data collection, adults from 38 countries participated in the survey (Table 6).…”

“…The most important element of an online questionnaire survey is the preparation of an online questionnaire. It was developed in March 2022 based on the analysis of papers on migration and refugee issues [18][19][20], and the experience of volunteer work with Ukrainian refugees in the official reception centre for Ukrainians in Switzerland (canton of Fribourg). The Google Forms online platform was used to create the questionnaire.…”

Home Away from Home: Comparing Factors Impacting Migrants’ and Italians Sense of Psychological Home

“…Three studies predominantly look at psychological home in migrants. The first is a scoping review looking at what the literature in a variety of fields has said on migrants and home [ 15 ], the second is a qualitative study looking at conceptions of psychological home in male migrants [ 16 ] and the third is a study looking at the relationship between psychological home, sense of community and neighborhood attachment, and resilience in migrants [ 6 ].…”