Lost futures and “starting from zero”
Affective experiences of downward social mobility among refugees and asylum seekers in Spain
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8130901 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jacqueline Wagner (0009-0002-4128-5770, Washington University in St. Louis, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethos (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0091-2131 • E-ISSN: 1548-1352 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/etho.70026 |
| OpenAlex | W7129068996 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 35 |
This article examines how refugees and asylum seekers from the upper and upper‐middle classes in their countries of origin contended with the prospect of downward social mobility in Madrid, Spain. Notably, downward social mobility involved losing not only material resources but also social status, opportunities, and imagined futures. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at an official refugee and asylum seeker reception center in Madrid, I argue that this process of coming to terms with their new socioeconomic positions represents an experience distinct from acculturation or integration, and I assert that it comes with its own unique set of affective experiences, including feelings of distress, injured pride, threats to identity, and disruption to existing life plans. Furthermore, the pace of downward mobility impacted the dynamics of loss for refugees and asylum seekers. This has implications for broader psychological anthropological examinations of how people grapple with change and upheaval in their lives
Acculturation · Asylum seeker · Ethnography · Feeling · Futures contract · Pace · Refugee · Social mobility · Socioeconomic status · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration
Casualties of Care
The prevalence of mental illness in refugees and asylum seekers
The global burden of mental disorders
Posttraumatic stress disorder in the World Mental Health Surveys
Outline of a Theory of Practice
On the Doorstep of Europe
The Migration Apparatus
Illegality, Inc
The Rules of Art
The Logic of Practice
Policing Borders, Producing Boundaries. The Governmentality of Immigration in Dark Times
Special Issue Discourses of Displacement and Deservingness
Citizens‐in‐Waiting, Deportees‐in‐Waiting
Spatial and social im/mobility in forced migration
What Matters
Migrants in Translation
The Land of Open Graves
Critical Evidence
The Truth from the Body
Queer Forms
Constructing truths in a culture of disbelief
Hysteresis and the sociological perspective in a time of crisis
(In)credible Subjects
How Did It Feel for You? Emotion, Narrative, and the Limits of Ethnography
The biopolitics of hospitality in Greece
Flucht nach vorne (seeking refuge in the future)
Asserting Existence
Asylum-Seeking Work, Precariousness, and the Making of Claimant-Workers
A transit state
Representing the "European refugee crisis" in Germany and beyond
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |