Post-Disaster Home, Place-making, and Incorporation

This project addresses the following questions: How do movers who have left their homes after a natural hazard adapt to and integrate into their new communities over time? How do those movers’ social statuses and identities shape adaptation and integration experiences after post-disaster population movement? In what ways do movers create meaning in new places of residence, and under what conditions do they remain settled or return to the disaster-stricken place?

Answers to these questions are important because they can reveal what elements of a destination place are conducive to long-term settlement, and the conditions under which movers can successfully rebuild their lives after a disaster uproots them. The Principal Investigator (PI) will answer these questions by interviewing post-disaster movers about their experiences recovering and rebuilding their lives after moving to a new place.

The PI will locate and interview study participants who were surveyed and interviewed in 2020 after their post-disaster movements, to understand what opportunities and challenges they have encountered in their new communities since these interviews took place. This study advances knowledge and scholarship by using novel longitudinal data to examine how movers rebuild their lives after disaster-induced population movement, focusing on the role of destination places in shaping long-term settlement decisions.

Aligned with NSF’s mission, this project addresses the intersection of population movement, disaster response, and social integration to promote societal welfare and scientific progress. Additionally, it promises to benefit society by informing more effective incorporation strategies and support services for movers in disaster-prone areas.

The project focuses on movers after hurricanes compromised their homes in 2017 and beyond. The study explores how demographic characteristics influence movement in order to better understand the relationship between place- and home-making processes and societal incorporation. By re-interviewing a sample of 54 movers, including a sub-sample of return movers, this project will be the first to longitudinally examine post-disaster population movement, capturing not just multi-level factors influencing incorporation and settlement, but return movement and resettlement and factors that shape re-adaptation.

Data collection will involve 2–3-hour in-depth interviews conducted in participants’ homes or other significant community spaces. Understanding post-disaster population movement will illuminate broader patterns and processes relevant to other disaster-prone regions globally.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.