Migration, Social Interaction, and Resilience: Everyday Practices of Mutual Adaptation

Migration reshapes the social worlds of both migrants and members of established societies, yet adaptation is still predominantly examined as a task borne by migrants alone. This article addresses this imbalance by examining resilience as a relational process through which adaptation is co-produced in everyday social interactions. Drawing on qualitative interviews with migrants and non-migrants in five European countries, the study explores how participation in shared activities, particularly volunteering, fosters belonging and adaptive capacities under conditions shaped by social and structural constraints. The findings show that resilience emerges not only through migrants’ efforts to establish social ties and navigate exclusionary contexts, but also through non-migrants’ gradual accommodation to diversity, involving shifts in how community boundaries and belonging are understood. While these adaptive processes are mutually constituted, they unfold unevenly due to differences in power, legal status, and linguistic access. By foregrounding everyday interaction as a site of relational adaptation, the article advances debates on integration and belonging by conceptualising resilience as a shared, dynamic, and conditional process rather than an individual attribute or one-sided outcome.