Homestay Accommodation for Refugees in Europe International Conference
Dal 08.10.2026 al 09.10.2026
Following the inaugural International Seminar held in Padua (2024), which mapped the foundational dimensions of homestay as a form of private hospitality, this second edition aims to take stock of recent empirical and theoretical advancements in the field.
In recent years, accelerated by the large-scale displacement from Ukraine since 2022, homestay accommodation has evolved from a spontaneous solidarity gesture into an organized, multi-layered governance practice. This conference builds directly upon the collective reflections of our previous meeting and the upcoming Special Issue currently under review in JEMS (Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies). Moving forward, this edition seeks to critically interrogate how homestay practices intersect with macro-level migration politics, legal frameworks, border regimes and the reproduction of systemic inequalities.
Key Themes
1. Governance and Institutional Entanglements
- How public institutions, NGOs, civil society, and grassroots actors co- produce, finance, and regulate hosting schemes.
- The alignment, complementarity, or friction between homestay initiatives and state-led asylum/reception policies.
- Multi-level governance: comparing local (municipal) networks with national and European migration regimes.
- National, regional and local differences and disparities in homestay support and provision
2. Categorization, Deservingness, and Rights
- Critical analysis of labelling practices and bureaucratic procedures that produce specific "categories" of refugees (including theoretical discussions on ‘domopolitics’)
- How eligibility criteria reinforce or contest hierarchies of vulnerability and "deservingness" (e.g., the differential treatment of different cohorts of displaced people).
- The impact of legal constraints on the sustainability of homestay and on migrants’ long-term rights and subjectivities.
3. Power Dynamics and Intersectionality within the Household
- Deepening the analysis of the intrinsic asymmetry, but also mutual support potential, of hospitality.
- Exploring the intersections of class, race, gender, age, language, religion, and legal status between hosts and guests.
- Exploring the spatial dynamics of homestay domestic experiences
- Centering refugee voices: discourses, life trajectories, identities, and post-homestay residential trajectories.
4. Bordering Practices, Geopolitics, and Spatial Control
- The externalization and internalization of borders: How homestay practices reflect, reinforce, or resist external European border regimes and internal state controls.
- Everyday bordering in the domestic sphere: Examining how geopolitical borders are re-enacted, negotiated, or dismantled within the private home and local neighborhoods.
- Differential geography and mobility: How geographical location (e.g., borderzones, transit countries vs. destination countries) impacts the structure, duration, and safety of homestay arrangements.
- Digital and physical infrastructure: The role of technology, matching platforms, and physical border controls in directing displaced populations into specific private housing networks.
Call for Papers & Submissions
We invite comparative, empirical, and theoretical contributions from scholars, practitioners, and policymakers that address these themes. We particularly welcome papers that bridge local case studies with broader global migration regimes, exploring whether homestay can provide genuine alternative pathways for inclusion and solidarity or if it risks privatizing state welfare obligations.
Note on Publication: Outstanding papers will be considered for future collaborative publishing initiatives.
Committees & Organization
- Role Members Scientific Committee: Matteo Bassoli, Kathy Burrell, Michele Di Bari, Clément Luccioni, Elena Bonel, Andrea Pettrachin
- Organizing Committee: Matteo Bassoli, Polina Zavershinskaia
- Promoted by SPGI Department (Università di Padova) & URBES Observatory / CISR
