Displacement, Belonging, and Social Integration: Understanding Refugee Journeys Across Origin, Transit, and Destination

Global refugee displacement, driven by conflict, persecution, and violence, forces millions of people to cross borders in search of safety, often enduring profound disruptions across origin, transit, and destination contexts. These multifaceted journeys expose refugees to trauma and family separation, while also fostering remarkable resilience and innovative transnational networks that sustain communities across borders and can lead to new lives of achievement. In origin contexts, systemic inequalities drive flight; transit zones amplify vulnerabilities such as exploitation and smuggling; and destinations test integration through social hierarchies, policy barriers, the criminalization of migration, and cultural adaptation. This Research Topic aligns with the 75th Anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention and with the annual World Refugee Day, celebrated on 20 June, spotlighting displaced persons’ humanitarian crises, endurance, and potential for achievement and societal enrichment.Refugee journeys disrupt belonging and social integration, from severed community ties in countries of origin and dangers in transit to persistent objective and subjective barriers in destination countries, including discrimination, institutional restrictions, distrust and rejection, language gaps, negative attitudes, and inequality. These barriers may limit access to health care, education, and employment, conflicting with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to well-being, reduced inequalities, and employment, while jeopardizing integration and the sense of belonging. This Research Topic addresses these matters by advancing sociological frameworks and leveraging a variety of quantitative and qualitative tools, including surveys and survey experiments for assessing integration perceptions and attitudes, probability models for examining selection processes, and rigorous qualitative analyses of the limitations and possibilities posed by different institutional contexts. It also draws on sociological theories of successful integration and contributions to host societies, with the aim of generating testable implications. The Research Topic promotes multidisciplinary and comparative studies to generate new knowledge about resilience, levels of social inclusion and exclusion, refugees’ contributions, and their societal roles.In sum, this Research Topic examines the sociobehavioral aspects of refugee journeys across origin, transit, and destination contexts, focusing on the effects of displacement on belonging and integration, together with the possible aftermath of reinvigorated human development and new achievements. Original papers with well-posed questions and rigorous research designs and methods are invited.Sample themes:o Identity shifts and multiple losses during origin and transit, with possible later identity rebuildingo Integration barriers such as language, hierarchies, institutional restrictions, and social relations in destinations, with possible gains from learning new languageso Networks, including familial and occupational networks, spanning different journey phases and the process of social integrationo Health, resilience, and well-being during displacement and while developing new liveso Employment, Weberian life chances, and economic integrationo Distributive justice, status hierarchies, and stratificationo Migrant generations and the adaptation of post-displacement habitso Mathematical models, such as probability distributions, and empirical approaches, such as factorial surveys, that prioritize a deeper understanding of the various impacts of migration, both positive and negative, on individuals and societieso Attitudes of host-society members and host-society perspectivesArticle types:o Original Researcho Reviewo Brief Research Reporto Conceptual Analysiso Mini ReviewThis Research Topic may consider exceptional pieces of the following Article Types:o Data Reporto Hypothesis and Theoryo MethodsThis Research Topic will not consider the following Article Types:o Opiniono Policy & Practice Reviewo Policy Brief Topic editors: Guillermina Jasso, Marina ARIZA, Eldad Davidov Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85123/displacement-belonging-and-social-integration-understanding-refugee-journeys-across-origin-transit-and-destination