Moving from case studies of storytelling by refugees to a project which attempted to facilitate them in situated, reciprocal conditions, this final chapter aims to advance our understanding of belonging and its affective dimensions. It begins by reflecting on belonging as a ‘feeling of our times’, albeit a political one that attempts to move past a superficial, libertarian focus on harmony in new migrant communities. Instead, through the case study of a recent migrant community project with a creative outcome based in South West Sydney, I examine what belonging looks and feels like when the focus is on co-creating cultural safety through approaches that favour reciprocity and creative agency. This lens on belonging also reverses the discursive construction of new migrants as those requiring integration initiatives to fit in or of certain others in need of de-radicalisation. Instead, it asks: what will make them feel safe enough to invest in local and national communities? This is not to discount the value of resettlement programs and English-language classes. Rather, the focus here is on augmenting existing programs with projects that decentre the majority community and make space for cultural belonging to emerge in a reciprocal manner. Therefore, this chapter spotlights the following aspects of belonging: (1) it is more effective than ‘identity’ as a point of solidarity in the 21st century; (2) it needs to be seen as a ‘reciprocal affect’ and not just as an individual feeling to make solidarity possible; (3) its manifestation in the local and/ or the creative is a way to ground and enable reciprocal affect, re-conceptualise and co-create belonging that is more culturally mobile while being safe.

Introduction: situating the self and South West Sydney

As I draft this chapter, I’m nestled in a corner of the Level 2 open space near the lifts at the University of Wollongong’s South West Sydney campus that is now nearly three years old. While trawling through the literature on belonging, I hear one male student at the elevator calling out to his friend on the other side of the closing doors: ‘I love you, bro’. He stretches out his right arm to stop the door as his compatriot utters, ‘Love you too, this semester has been good ‘coz of you’.