Here and elsewhere: multi-cited destinations and refugee place-making in rural and peri-urban Portugal

Resumen

Many countries receiving refugees have adopted a dispersed reception system. We examine the experiences of settling refugees in rural and peri-urban areas (north and centre of Portugal), using multiple case studies supported by the ethnographic method and semi-structured interviews. The main purpose of our analysis is to understand the complex intersections between the refugees’ ambivalent subjectivities and the specific characteristics of these locations as a determinant factor in their connection and attitude towards place. To this end, we illustrate how their subjectivities are associated to imaginaries of other places (in and outside of Portugal) and how they build such imaginaries through digital networks. Understanding the significance of these digital connections implies avoiding the pitfalls of what we call methodological ruralism.