Abstract

The current concept of social resilience, which developed from the classic definition of resilience, neglects social resilience as a social phenomenon including social experiences and practices in the face of change and adversity. I argue that framing social resilience as a capacity or ability undermines its characteristics as a complex and contextualized social phenomenon that contributes to adaptive and transformative abilities in the context of migrants' lived experiences. In this article, I present a social constructionist approach to conceptualize social resilience. From a life course perspective, I emphasize on migrants' lived experiences. In this context, I describe status, network, support, and visibility as four institutionally embedded dimensions of social resilience that interconnect environmental factors to impact social experiences and practices. Social resilience is a phenomenon characterized by migrants' lived experiences marked by uncertainty and turning points embodied in the host country's political, economic, cultural, and social contexts.