Permanent temporary: the temporal and digital dimensions of refugee resettlement in Australia

Australia’s migration policies have resulted in many forced migrants navigating the ‘permanent temporary’. After spending considerable time in detention, they have been given temporary visas—which are not necessarily ‘temporary’—that affect their ability to resettle and feel at home in Australia. This paper explores how digital technologies and social media mediate and shape the permanent temporary for Sri Lankan refugees in Australia. Drawing on interviews and a digital scrolling method, the research revealed that the permanent temporary encompassed two critical aspects: precarity and waiting. Sri Lankan refugees relied on digital technologies to share emotions and stories, pass the time, and advocate for permanence. Their digital practices also responded to the temporal constraints imposed by the state. The paper extends understandings of the politics and meanings of home for those living in an extended state of impermanence and highlights how digital tools can shape and ameliorate such experiences.