An oral history collection that shares nuanced, complex stories of refugees, immigrants, and generations-long residents in Appalachia, highlighting the ways that communities create spaces of belonging, home, and connection.

Within the dominant media, there is an expected Appalachian narrative, an expected refugee narrative, and an expected immigrant narrative. Resettled provides a more nuanced picture of Appalachia and highlights how making community is the counternarrative. Importantly, Resettled illustrates that there is now and always has been movement within Appalachia—that in fact, Appalachia is a place structured by movement and mobility.

In Resettled, we see an expansive Appalachia. The narrators in Resettled do not see themselves as victims. They don’t really see themselves as heroes, either. They’re ordinary people—they get to the daily business of living their own lives in their communities in the face of adversity. Some of it is clearly borne of trauma, some not so clear, but for many, they struggle and survive in a slow-burning environment of systemic failures. Resettled asks: What does contemporary life in Appalachia look like, and how might we ensure equity, both for people who have lived in Appalachia for generations and for those newly arrived?