Lost futures and “starting from zero”: Affective experiences of downward social mobility among refugees and asylum seekers in Spain

Abstract

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.