Do Objects (Re)produce Home among International Migrants?

Ordinary objects can play a significant role in the making and reproduction of home, as an emplaced set of emotions, memories and relationships, among international migrants. Based on qualitative research with Ecuadorians and Peruvians in Britain, Italy and Spain, we show how certain objects, by virtue of their evocative power, help migrants to transform their dwelling places into homely environments (home making), and/or retain connections with what used to be home for them (home reproduction). We develop a framework on the potential of objects for home making and reproduction along four lines: embodying migrants’ collective backgrounds and identities; affording migrants to feel at home; encapsulating the memories and symbols of former homes, households, and significant relationships; eliciting connections with settings and events that meant ‘home’ over their life course. Such functions hold a promise to guide comparative research on migration-related materialities and on migrant transnational homemaking.