Precarious refuge: housing affordability, amenity migration, and the embodied experience of refugee resettlement in Missoula, MT

This article examines the mundane and place-based experiences and practices of refugee resettlement in a nontraditional resettlement community in the U.S.: Missoula, Montana. Missoula is experiencing an influx of amenity and pandemic fueled in-migration, an influx that has precipitated an acute housing shortage and a loss in housing affordability. As people flock to Montana for the possibilities of remote work alongside a beautiful natural landscape, the Missoula community is experiencing the impacts and challenges associated with the intersection of an amenity-migration driven housing shortage and refugee resettlement. Drawing on qualitative, ethnographic fieldwork, I examine this convergence and situate these factors within the confines and governance of the resettlement program in order to illustrate how staff, refugees, and advocates contend with these dynamics. In doing so, this article focuses on how resettlement operates locally in the midst of a housing crisis.