Migration, Settlement, and the Concepts of House and Home

What is the meaning of the house and its materiality for migrants? This book aims to find out through an exploration of homes of migrants from Italy and China in Melbourne, and migrants from Morocco and the former Soviet Union in Tel Aviv. It argues that every migrant group constructs a distinct form of home-building in their houses/homes.

"This book is of great value to housing studies scholars in that it takes on the challenge of
engaging with homes as houses. It is an exemplary demonstration of the deep insight offered by
drawing together the theoretically diverse lenses of cultural capital, the everyday, and materialities
in the home, through the analysis of rich visual and textual data. In doing this, Levin explores
new dimensions of migration and settlement. By investigating the homebuilding practices of
these four groups of migrants, Levin demonstrates the significance of the physical form of houses
in migration and settlement processes, and the broader contexts in which houses become homes."


Tamlin Gorter, University of Tasmania, Australia, Housing Studies, 2017, VOL. 32, NO . 8, 1178–1182

Iris Levin is a post-doctoral researcher who has recently completed a large research project at Flinders University and is about to commence a new project at Tel Aviv University.