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People migrated because of their need to have a better opportunity to find a home, have a safe refuge and create a better future. Home, however, defined, became a human right in Europe after the Second World War "The right to respect for your family and private life, your home and your correspondence (Article 8, The European Convention on Human Rights). The 20th century is well known in Europe as the century of migration, and the search for a better life within Europe and across the oceans. That is why migration is both a historical phenomenon and a phenomenon which is part of a contemporary global society. For a decade now, people are fleeing from the Middle East, Africa and Asia because of war, climate change and poverty, to Europe and are building refugee camps all over the European Union border, hoping to find a new safe home in a foreign place.

Home, or the right to a home, faces more and more challenges in today's world, and people often have limited access to it or the right to a home is violated. Refugee camps are growing day by day, the new war in Europe has forced millions of people to leave their homes, and young people all over the world are faced with high prices of rent and impossible conditions to buy a property. The perception of home is, on the one hand, a very individual experience, and on the other hand, a very collective one, because human beings have a need to belong, since we are, first and foremost, social beings. Since the experiences of migration, finding and creating a home can be very different for each person, in this blog, I decided to present part of my own experience of finding the meaning of home during the ASTRA project. The concept of home is also the central question of my doctoral thesis, so I think it is crucial to have a reflection on my own experience to be able to understand other people's definitions of home.

Nowadays more than 700,000 people haven鈥檛 a place to call home in Europe, in the last few years this condition has increased enormously, and the exact number is still unknown. 鈥淗ome鈥� plays a fundamental role in everyone's life, a role that is given by the relationship between social and environmental, that is, between the human being and the environment and their interaction. "Home" is a seemingly clear concept, but when analysed more deeply, a broader meaning emerges.
For obvious reasons, the start of my doctoral path, which deals with the youth homeless, made me research, read, and think about the concept and definition of home. How can we even imagine finding a solution to the problem - the lack of a place to call home - if we do not think about what "home" actually is? I read a lot of scientific and non-scientific articles and observed the reality around me, the places, the people, and their interactions as a function of the home, but then I felt the need to search within myself what "home" really is for me.

These days we often talk about housing, costs and the housing and energy crisis, making it clear that we need to rethink a system that is no longer sustainable and probably never was - rethinking a system means starting a transition, a process of comprehensive change that reduces growing social and economic inequalities. In this context, I am convinced that the human factor and social ties must play a leading role, without being subjugated to economic interests.

In the last 10 years, and especially in the last 12 months, I have travelled a lot and lived for more or less time in different European countries. Exploring new languages and traditions, I have encountered new worlds, people and customs that have enriched and influenced my experiences and my ability to observe and reflect. By going far away, I have understood what home is, attributing to it a different value than the physical and geographical one, or simply complementing it. In all these years I have lived in a variety of places that I would not always call home but that was safe, and I always had the certainty of having a 鈥渟afe harbour鈥� to which I could return at any time, a place where I could stay, a 'home' where I was welcome and well-liked. The path of growing up leads us to go out and explore ourselves and understand our priorities and needs, but the certainties we are given in early childhood and youth are important to be able to make mistakes by having the chance to go back, to go 鈥渉ome鈥�.

Going home means, for me, returning to a place where I feel protected and safe. My 鈥渉ome鈥� is made up of people, emotions, and places where I can cultivate my passions. When I think of my idea of home, I think not only of the practical sense of dwelling but also of the healing nature of it, which is linked to the social relationships between people and the environment.

I am a person who loves travelling, exploring, and moving, I am also very sociable but moving/moving for short or medium periods has been a challenge that has been anything but easy. Despite the certainty of a home, I felt that I lacked the social ties I needed, lacked the people with whom to make those new 鈥渨alls and bricks鈥� a little more home. This made me think that it is not enough to have 鈥渁 roof over one's head鈥� to feel at home. When I am asked where my home is, I think of it, as also Pico Iyer said, more as a piece of my soul than a piece of land, it is mostly a working progress project, a process in which people are constantly making changes, corrections, and improvements.

Since I started my PhD, or perhaps even a little earlier, I started to get curious about how other people could see and conceive the concept of the home according to different perspectives from mine, I am sure I am not the only one with this interest. What seems important nowadays more than ever is to use critical thinking, that is, as suggested by Dr Craig Gurney, to go beyond the usual list of words mostly with a positive value or connotation of 鈥渉ome鈥�, but to understand whether two people mean the same thing, and how to be able to share these ideas.

'Home' has been defined as an 鈥渋ncubator of memories鈥� and as a place antagonistic to chaos where one can feel safe, but to think that 'home' is only a positive place is limiting and not exhaustive it could be perceived as an absence by those who have never really experienced it constantly or traditionally or experienced it very negatively.

In conclusion, I believe that every person has the right to have the opportunity to create for themselves a space to call home, a physical and social place that reflects their needs, a place that has a healing value in difficult times and in which to be safe and that has a private dimension. Every person, especially if in a vulnerable condition, should have the possibility to choose by preventing homelessness.

In my reflection on home, I understand home as more than just a human right, it is a human need as a 鈥渟ocial animal鈥�. The home and everything that defines it (nature, walls, people, community, etc.) is the beginning and the end of our existence, so in social work, we must aim to preserve people's homes, (re) build them and ensure that people have access to the home. The human desire to create a home will forever be a part of human nature and with this statement, I encourage you to reflect, comment, and share your story and your point of view.