Geographies of Belonging: A Phenomenological, Arts-Based Inquiry Into Adults’ Migrant Experiences in Group Art Therapy

Although belonging is central to migration of populations across the globe, it has received limited direct attention in art therapy research, typically emerging as a secondary rather than a primary focus of investigation. This article presents a secondary thematic analysis of three phenomenological, arts-based studies, involving 46 adult participants from diverse migrant populations. The first one explored immigrant women’s migratory processes, the second addressed the existential dimension of migration, as experienced by voluntary migrants, and the third took place in a museum context. Across the three studies, belonging and unbelonging emerged consistently in participants’ narratives, artworks, and group exchanges. The findings indicate that these are not fixed or opposing states, but dynamic, relational, and embodied processes shaped through experiences of continuity and change, attachment and loss, and familiarity and difference. Belonging was associated with relationships, cultural and familial connections, memories, and the reconfiguration of meaning, whereas unbelonging was associated with dislocation, loss, exclusion, and disruptions of identity. These experiences were not mutually exclusive but often coexisted and shifted in relation to one another. Art making and visual narrative enabled participants to represent memories, emotions, and aspects of identity that were difficult to articulate verbally, while group dialogue supported reflection and the coconstruction of meaning. By integrating findings across three studies, the article offers a broader understanding of belonging and unbelonging in migration than any single study could provide. This study illustrates how creative processes experienced in relational contexts support the expression and exploration of migratory experience in art therapy. However, given the small, diverse samples and the secondary, integrative nature of the analysis, the findings are best understood as interpretive patterns across studies rather than generalizable or uniform experiences.