Experiencing and resisting interwoven social boundaries: the case of highly educated recent refugees in Norway

Abstract

This article explores forced migrants’ experiences with mainstream social boundaries and investigates how classed resources are used to resist and renegotiate such boundaries. The case of forced migrants from Syria who came to Norway during the ‘refugee crisis’ is demarcated by ‘bright’ boundaries vis-à-vis mainstream society. Moreover, arriving with middle-class resources like higher education may represent bargaining power in boundary negotiations at the individual level. I show that the research participants encountered boundaries where prejudice against forced migrants and prejudice against established minorities are nested together. These interwoven social boundaries are resisted by signalling distance from excluded practices and renegotiated by drawing on classed resources such as higher education and classed repertoires such as mastering outdoor leisure pursuits. Drawing on interwoven resources, these strategies enable access to many important middle-class arenas. Access to mainstream sociability, however, remains limited even for individuals who manage to convert their classed resources and repertoires.