‘Thinking about the Future, stuck in the Past’: Imaginaries of the Future Home among the Palestinian Diaspora in Germany
While many people are concerned with the meaning of home, the question remains rather complex and dynamic. This project examines imaginaries of the future home among Palestinians living in Germany. This anthropological study is situated in Berlin, where Palestinian identity and solidarity have faced policing and repression. Blunt and Dowling (2022) argue that regardless of how individuals and groups define the home, associate with it, or construct it as a space, they invoke various means of belonging, alienation, safety, or crisis. The project investigates the fluid and temporal relationship between present political and social circumstances and an imagined future home. It examines temporal orientations such as anticipation, speculation, or imagination that frame the participants’ experience of the future. It also examines how the realities of being in a permanent state of temporariness while navigating socio-political circumstances impact the perceptions and meaning of the Home. Further, what are the potential material, immaterial, and emotional features essential in imagining future homes among Palestinians?