Host perspectives

Everyday hosting: research with ‘hosts’[i]

The research has been informed in two main ways:

First, we designed a qualitative, participatory, small-scale research approach where we talked to and spend time with a smaller number of people who decided to host, over several months. Ideally, this included a visit to people’s homes, and a conversation; a walking interview in the area where they lived; and eventually participation in an art-based workshop where we spend a whole day together at the Art House in Wakefield. This meant that we got to know a few people relatively well, and learnt what motivated them to host, how the relationships evolved over time, what worked and what worked less well, as well as what surprised them. We were also exposed to what people felt was lacking from the scheme in terms of the support they received. Using this approach, we have been hearing about various complexities that emerged from mundane day-to-day lives that mattered and made the relationships more or less successful. These diverged from household to household, depending on different practices, priorities and values, and were shaped by such banal things as heating, clearing dishes or emptying bins, or more emotionally complex impacts of co-living.

The second way in which our research has been informed was through attending various meetings and trainings with councils and various organisations, where we got to be exposed to somewhat different issues and concerns. For example, we attended weekly meetings joined by representatives from councils across Yorkshire and Humber where they shared how they did things, as well as raised some questions, most often relating to budgets and practical issues concerning the scheme. The aim behind these meetings was to have an overall regional approach and understanding of the scheme. Additionally, we have been attending a few training sessions commissioned by Migration Yorkshire and ran by the charity RESET on the topic of ‘Planning for the end of hosting - for Hosts’. During these sessions we did not take notes, nor did we ask questions. We just listened to what the participants decided to share, ask or worry about. Each of these sessions was attended by members from about 20-25 households.

We found this approach to be complementing in a sense that it exposed us to a variety of experiences and perspectives that gave our research depth when it came to understanding hospitality, hosting and the Homes for Ukraine scheme in general.