Temporal logics and lived experiences of time in refugee displacement, transit and settlement: The case of Ethiopian-Australians in Melbourne

This thesis explores how Ethiopian refugees in Melbourne understood, negotiated, and experienced time throughout their migration journeys. Using 52 semi-structured interviews, the thesis shows that participants’ migratory experiences were mediated, not just by space and time, but by a range of what I call temporal logics – the internal cognitive and socio-cultural imprints that refugees carry within them about how time is, and should be, organised and lived through. Temporal logics determined the ways in which the participants made sense of their present, reconstructed their past and aspired their future. The thesis makes significant conceptual, methodological, analytical and policy-related contributions.