When does forced internal displacement end? And when does a structure become a home? These are some of the questions that Romeo Joe L. Quintero explores in this PhD dissertation, concerning the lives of internally displaced persons (IDPs) affected by the 2013 Zamboanga City siege in the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines.

Through the paradox of state abandonment, on the one hand, and state surveillance, on the other hand, Romeo examines how oppressive structures are reproduced in resettlement sites, and in turn, reinscribed in the everyday lives of IDPs in Zamboanga City.

Using multimodal qualitative research methods, involving interviews, observations, community walkthroughs, photovoice, and video voices with IDP women and LGBTQ people from three different local communities, Romeo learned that displacement is not a temporal status that IDPs transition in and out of. Concerns over material needs, such as food, employment, and shelter, as well as the very question of citizenship, linger even after years of living in resettlement sites.

At the same time, his research illustrates how IDP women and LGBTQ people contend with their experience of everyday violence. By carving out spaces of conviviality, intimacy, love and joy—spaces that are fragmented and fleeting—we can learn how IDP women and LGBTQ people construct wayward practices of belonging. From patak-patak or the chipping in of material resources to salo-salo or the sharing of food, stories, and information, IDPs in resettlement sites become each other’s tagasalo or catchers of pain and suffering.

These everyday practices of care and empathy are rooted in the Filipino culture of damayan. In the context of resettlement sites where livelihoods are scarce and services are depleted, IDPs extend their support willingly (kusang loob) without any debt of gratitude (utang na loob), because they know that they could need similar help from the members of their community in the future.

Yet this should not encourage the government to withdraw from its responsibilities. If access to livelihoods and social services remains inaccessible and inadequate to promote a sustainable quality of life, more individuals could be at risk of experiencing repeated or prolonged displacement. With these lessons, Romeo demonstrates how resettlement may not always lead to integration and recovery. In doing so, his research challenges what the United Nations Refugee Agency advocates as a durable solution to forced displacement.

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Romeo Joe L. Quintero is a PhD Candidate in Geography at York University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. His research is under the supervision of Philip Kelly and funded by SSHRC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholarship, Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Vivienne Poy Asian Research Award, and Academic Excellence Fund. Romeo received his MA in Women’s and Gender Studies from Carleton University and BSocSci Hons in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa.