After displacement : Meanings of civil society for participation and belonging after forced migration

This thesis investigates the significance of civil society for citizenship in terms of participation and belonging after forced migration. Through a process perspective deriving from migration studies, emplacement processes after forced migration,that is, processes of participation and belonging, are investigated. This means that a broader perspective on citizenship is applied than citizenship as formal status. The ambition is also to illustrate such processes from a 25-year perspective. The thesis demonstrates that the four civil society roles described in previous civil society literature are also relevant after forced migration: participation in collectiveproblem-solving, social integration, provision of member services, and the democratic role. Added to that, it is argued that there is another civil society role relevant after forced migration: civil society as an arena for negotiating and balancing belongings. This role relates to individual processes as well as processes involving the surrounding society. Furthermore, the thesis demonstrates processes of social integration at three levels: individual, organisational, and societal. Departing from this, social integration is depicted as a phenomenon taking place through contacts and social networks involving the majority population, but also compatriots and other migrants. This result points to social integration as more complex than often depicted. The study also concludes that civil society participation may be one way to interweave a lifeworld consisting of (at least) two countries