Why we have forgotten about refugee adaptation and why studying it in the Global South is critical

Abstract

This paper first critically assesses the sociology of immigration and refugee studies and demonstrates that they have long ignored refugee adaptation. Immigration studies have focused on the assimilation of labor immigrants and their descendants in the Global North. Refugee studies have developed largely as a depoliticized humanitarian field with attention to refugees in the Global South. The paper, then, reveals the differences between immigrants and refugees in terms of networks, demography, mode of incorporation, and perceptions and argues that these differences result in dissimilar adaptation pathways. The paper finally points out that investigating refugee adaptation in the Global South can significantly modify existing assimilation/integration theories because of the blurry configurations of racial, ethnic, social, cultural, and religious boundaries between refugees and host societies.