We Asked for Refugees, We Got People Instead : Refugee Placemaking in Canada

A small minority of the world’s refugees are resettled to a new country. These refugees must rebuild their lives while navigating a specific set of expectations: They must become good citizens and show proper appreciation for the generosity extended by host communities. We Asked for Refugees, We Got People Instead explores how refugee newcomers navigate demands both explicit and tacit while simultaneously working towards social inclusion and economic independence.

Drawing on fascinating ethnographic fieldwork, Bronwyn Bragg offers a place-based account of families living in a housing complex that became known as Little Syria, situated in a low-income East Calgary neighbourhood. The book traces how white, middle-class norms cast Syrian families, particularly mothers, as both deserving of resettlement and the objects of intense moral scrutiny. Attending closely to daily practices and women’s labour, frequently within conditions of poverty, Bragg uses the tools of feminist geography to understand how this community negotiates the terms of its own belonging, an act she describes as refugee placemaking.

Bragg’s powerful work highlights how displaced people are often unequally absorbed into host societies along lines of gender, class, and race and how, despite these structural constraints, they go on to actively shape and improve the communities in which they live.