3 November 2025, Monday

12.30

Istanbul Bilgi University

santralistanbul Campus, E1-207

Social Resilience, Migrants’ Lived Experiences, and Diasporic Citizenship: Conceptual Pathways and Research Directions

Azher Hameed Qamar, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Münster

Abstract

The seminar explores how social resilience can serve as a critical lens for understanding migrants’ lived experiences and their negotiations of belonging, identity, and citizenship. Drawing on Dr. Qamar’s previous research with young adult migrants in Sweden, he shows how social resilience is best understood as a socially constructed phenomenon shaped by migrants’ interactions with political, economic, cultural, and social environments. From a life-course perspective, it is highlighted how status, access to resources, support networks, and visibility intersect with institutional structures to shape migrants’ adaptive and transformative social practices.

Building on this foundation, Dr. Qamar introduces the ongoing research on social resilience and diasporic citizenship, which investigates how migrants construct belonging and well-being through processes of being, becoming, and coexisting for social membership. This project examines the migrants’ lived experiences, addressing how migrants negotiate identity, belonging, support, and citizenship in everyday life. Using social resilience as a theoretical lens, the seminar reflects on both conceptual advances and methodological directions for future research. Ultimately, he argues for bridging human rights-based and social membership-based approaches to integration, offering insights into how social resilience and diasporic belonging can inform more just and inclusive futures.

Biographical note

Dr. Azher Hameed Qamar is a social scientist and researcher with expertise in migration, social resilience, holistic well-being, and participatory methodologies. Holding a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, his interdisciplinary work spans sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Dr. Qamar’s research emphasizes the lived experiences, community integration, and innovative approaches to social research. His recent project at Lund University, Sweden, advances theoretical, methodological, and empirical understanding of social resilience in migration contexts. Since May 2025, he serves as Post-doctoral fellow at University of Münster, Germany.  

* Visitors to enter the santralistanbul Campus should use the "Visitors' Gate/Ziyaretçi Girişi", located next to Kazım Karabekir Street and at the end of the parking lot. 

• Poster - Seminar 3 November 2025