Calm in the eye of a storm: exploring how third places nurture a sense of belonging for people of refugee backgrounds in London

Placemaking in the post-migratory environment

In the context of forced migration, placemaking challenges essentialist notions that frame displacement as inherent and irreparable due to a permanently severed connection from a geographical homeland (3). In contrast, cultivating a positive sense of place can improve mental health by fostering communication, stewardship, and belonging within a community. This struck me as vital in the UK, where no-choice dispersal, short-notice relocations and poor-quality accommodation contribute to disproportionately high rates of poor mental health by denying people seeking asylum access to socially supportive environments (4) .

As successive governments have pursued policies of the hostile environment, third-sector organisations (TSO) have increasingly taken on the role of providing welcoming and supportive spaces for refugees and asylum seekers (RAS). Some of these spaces embody the characteristics of Ray Oldenburg’s ‘third places’. These are locations outside home or workplace that encourage social interaction and offer a break from life’s routines. Characterised by accessibility and inclusivity, they allow people to be themselves and feel part of a community, while also countering the reproduction of social status and enabling those seeking asylum to connect with identities beyond the refugee label (5) .

To better understand these practices, I explored how five London-based organisations curate spaces of belonging amidst a storm of political hostility towards RAS. Through four semi-structured interviews and a photovoice project, participants drew upon over 80 years of combined experience to share how their organisations provided ‘third places’ to offer RAS a respite from the challenges of daily life.

Practicing belonging

TSO staff defined belonging both in terms of actions, such as including someone in a process, and more abstract sentiments, like feeling accepted or ‘not having to try too hard’. While seeking asylum was often described as marked by judgment, the ability to express oneself without fear of criticism contrasted sharply with the discrimination faced outside the TSO. Through this unconditional acceptance, RAS could explore parts of themselves they had chosen, or been forced, to hide.

Creating a sense of belonging extended into physical practices that centred individual agency. Being included in decision-making, choosing how to spend time, and finding shared interests with others all highlight the importance of choice in belonging, an action perhaps overlooked given its normalcy for those with regularised immigration status, but that RAS are often denied within the asylum system.

Nurturing connection

All TSO staff mentioned how food acted as a gateway to forging positive connections to a place. Growing culturally significant ingredients allowed people to cook dishes with the authentic flavours of home, while shared meals guided conversations toward the culture and history of different foods. Bringing the objects, smells and tastes of home into the present space helped to envisage how positive past experiences can be recreated within new routines to introduce familiarity to the present.

Feelings of rootedness emerged in TSO spaces where RAS could safely connect with their past, present, and future through activities like dancing, gardening, sewing, and collage. These activities encouraged joy, laughter and natural conversation, uniting people through a shared remembering of positive past experiences in a way that transcended ethnic or cultural divides. Supporting clients to explore activities they loved as a child, or subjects they enjoyed at school, led to visibly increased confidence and a stronger sense of self, two factors central to improved mental wellbeing. Another activity involved tending an allotment which helped foster initial connections between strangers and, in turn, created a sense of belonging that extended beyond the space, enabling peer-to-peer support with tasks such as moving house.

By offering RAS space to look ahead and consider long-term aspirations, perhaps for the first time since arriving in the UK, TSO nurtured opportunities to reclaim agency over future outcomes and to form positive attachments to London. Collectively, these embodied experiences supported the reestablishment of belonging and fostered a post-migratory environment conducive to improved mental health.

Collective participation and co-creation

Positive human connection tethers us to a sense of belonging, so it is perhaps unsurprising that my conversations suggested belonging was co-created between staff and RAS alike. Whether through collectively participation in activities, shared responsibility for projects and spaces (photo 2), or celebrating clients’ milestones together, the levelling ethos of each TSO had a therapeutic effect on both staff and RAS, strengthening their sense of community and supporting mental health.

Concluding remarks

Considering the widespread detrimental impact of the asylum process on mental health, it could seem of little urgency to focus further research on activities deemed to be ‘of leisure’. I’d argue, however, that the hostility of the environment created in the UK is precisely why further research into the role of mundane, communal and informal social settings is necessary. Third places provide light-hearted joy that is at odds with the rigour, regiment and inflexibility of the asylum system. Critically, spaces curated by TSO offer respite from everyday routines that are characterised at best by boredom, and at worst by isolation, uncertainty, stress, and trauma.

My research has demonstrated the invaluable role played by TSO in providing integration support and has added to the substantial body of evidence that supports more sustainable, rights-based alternatives to the hostile environment.

To read a copy of the full study please get in touch via susannah.france@kcl.ac.uk.

1. Ellery, P.J., Ellery, J. and Borkowsky, M. 2020. Toward a Theoretical Understanding of Placemaking. International Journal of Community Well-Being. 4(1), pp.55–76.

2. Sampson, R. and Gifford, S. M. 2010. Place-making, settlement and well-being: The therapeutic landscapes of recently arrived youth with refugee backgrounds. Health and Place, 16(1), pp.116–131.

3. Malkki, L. 1992. National Geographic: The Rooting of Peoples and the Territorialization of National Identity among Scholars and Refugees. Cultural Anthropology. 7(1), pp.24–44

4. Ermansons, G., Kienzler, H., Asif, Z. and Schofield, P. 2023. Refugee mental health and the role of place in the Global North countries: A scoping review. Health & Place. 79, p.102964.

5. Biglin, J. 2021. Photovoice accounts of third places: Refugee and asylum seeker populations’ experiences of therapeutic space. Health & Place. 71, p.102663.