What does this research mean for the field?

Remittance-funded, under-occupied houses in migrant communities function as 'standby dwellings'—a durable housing trajectory characterized by active maintenance for future use that reorganizes housing temporality, care, and belonging. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.NOVEL_FINDING. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To conceptualize standby dwellings—remittance-financed homes maintained in constant readiness despite prolonged vacancy—and examine how migration reshapes housing temporality and property maintenance.

September 8, 2026Housing Theory and Society

Dwelling Across Borders: Standby Dwelling and the Migration–Home Nexus in South Lebanon

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Authors

HSHucen SleimanLebanese American University

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Implication

Qualitative fieldwork reveals how remittance-funded houses remain durably under-occupied across transnational households, highlighting suspension as an enduring housing trajectory.

Key Points

To conceptualize standby dwellings—remittance-financed homes maintained in constant readiness despite prolonged vacancy—and examine how migration reshapes housing temporality and property maintenance.
Qualitative fieldwork conducted between 2023 and 2025 across four villages in South Lebanon.
Empirical analysis based on nineteen residential houses and fifteen in-depth research conversations.
Identifies three primary modalities of stabilized residential under-occupation: protective, exhausted, and contested emptiness.
Shows that return capacity spans economic, legal, and biographical dimensions, with housing readiness sustained through transnational kin care networks.
Distinguishes standby dwelling from abandonment or speculative vacancy through legally structured return uncertainty, socially constrained property transfer, and enduring claims to belonging.

Cite This Study

Hucen Sleiman (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9fd7c658e84d0ff5b46b81 https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2026.2730406

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Implication

Qualitative fieldwork reveals how remittance-funded houses remain durably under-occupied across transnational households, highlighting suspension as an enduring housing trajectory.

Dwelling Across Borders: Standby Dwelling and the Migration–Home Nexus in South Lebanon

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Dwelling Across Borders: Standby Dwelling and the Migration–Home Nexus in South Lebanon

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Also Consider

Also Consider