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The complex mental health needs of refugee and asylum seeker (RAS) communities, often resulting from past trauma, are not met by overburdened and inadequate service provision. Pre-displacement, in-transit, and post-settlement traumas create a specific set of mental health needs which underfunded mental health services often cannot meet, despite the illusion of access to a range of services. This paper aims to explore how a range of stakeholders responded to inadequate provision at the local level. Interviews and focus groups with regional stakeholders, charities and RAS community groups, which were conducted as part of wider mixed-methods project on international migration in Northern England, revealed several gaps in provision. Findings indicate that charities and community groups are often left to fill the gap and provide signposting and liaison with local authorities. However, these groups are often ill-equipped to provide sufficient support but the absence of commissioned services leaves limited options. We conclude by suggesting that further research is necessary on trauma, RAS communities, and the pathways to mental health support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution and role of psychologists, psychiatrists or mental health practitioners in working alongside forced migrants may take many forms. The guidance on which this paper is based, came about when several members of the British Psychological Society (including those with lived experience and insight and those who had set up services); became aware of the need for good practice guidance for clinicians working with refugees, asylum seekers including forced migrants across Britain. These guidelines cover a range of areas where clinicians work with individuals in clinical contexts, schools, nurseries, colleges and within community organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with refused asylum seekers from Zimbabwe and Kurds from Turkey, who have stayed in Britain as irregular migrants, this paper examines everyday lives, strategies and fears. The paper focuses on four main areas: individual experiences of the asylum system leading to irregularity; living as an irregular migrant with the constraints on economic participation and limited housing options; social lives, relationships and community activities alongside the ways in which decisions about social interactions intersect with irregularity and subsistence support; the fears and everyday struggles faced by irregular migrant's living in England, and the ways in which this translates into relationships with place and space. The paper draws out both the commonalities and the diversity of experiences among refused asylum seekers living in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People who are seeking asylum often have lived experience of their personal boundaries and human rights being violated. For this reason, it is especially important that we consider the impact of boundaries in therapeutic work with this population. This paper explores work with a woman with a severe trauma history who was seeking asylum in England. Examples of perceived boundary crossings in the therapeutic relationship are examined. Considerations for other clinicians working with asylum seekers are discussed. These include: addressing socio-political factors; being sensitive to cultural differences; the importance of supervision and reflective practice; the personal impact of such work; and using critical thinking and warmth to manage boundaries rather than rigidly following rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that governing parties can use privatization as a political discipline mechanism to reward core constituents and swing voters by diverting unwanted social and economic costs to other places. This is tested by analysing the dispersal of asylum seekers across English local authorities before and after the Conservative Party-led privatization of the dispersal system in 2011. The findings suggest that asylum dispersals to Labour Party 'core' constituencies increased following privatization, but that dispersals to 'swing' districts were unchanged. Dispersals to places with high institutional capacity decreased, despite contractors being expected to settle asylum seekers in such areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The landscape for social work is continually changing and working with asylum seekers remains a highly charged and contested area of practice. This paper compares the role of social workers working with asylum seekers in statutory and voluntary-sector settings in the UK. Institutional practices suggest a divide between statutory settings and charitable organisations. However, based on empirical qualitative research and in-depth interviews with thirty-four social workers in Scotland and the south-east of England that explored dominant discourses influencing their practice, we suggest considerable similarities in the different sectors. Austerity measures for local authorities (LA) and voluntary agencies have resulted in the closure of specialist teams and reduced funding for social workers. Findings highlight politicised dominant narratives when working with asylum seekers and we argue for alternatives that promote a more nuanced perspective of entitlement and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Asylum seekers and refugees experience substantial barriers to successful transition to a new society. The purpose of this paper is to explore the value and meaning of a community drop-in service offering social support for refugees and asylum seekers in the northeast of England and to identify the occupational preferences of the service users.Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was conducted with refugees and asylum seekers using a community drop-in service. In total, 18 people participated from ten countries. Data were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis.Findings The value and meaning of the service was expressed through four key areas: the need to experience a sense of community; being able to make an altruistic contribution within the community; the need for societal integration; and having the opportunity to engage in meaningful and productive occupations.Practical implications Community and altruism have profound cultural meaning for asylum seekers and refugees and the need to integrate, belong and contribute is paramount to successful resettlement. Community-based drop-in services can aid this at deep, culturally relevant levels. This study may inform policy and practice development, future service development and highlight potential opportunities for health and social care services provision amongst this growing population.Originality/value To date there are no studies that provide empirical evidence on how community-based drop-in services for refugees and asylum seekers are received. This study provides a cultural insight into the deeper value and meaning of such services, and is particularly relevant for professionals in all sectors who are working with asylum seekers and refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on fieldwork carried out in 2002–2003, this paper reveals the complexity of interactions between asylum seekers in East Anglia as they negotiate the shared experience of place, the British immigration system and a common and competitive goal of attaining refugee status. There is tension and a distrust generated by people who are forced to live in an inter-ethnic community and share the competitive goal of obtaining immigration status. Yet, this forced coexistence forges strong friendships, alliances and collaboration amongst asylum seekers. It is in taking into account these seemingly contradictory interactions that marks the concern of this paper; the more that asylum seekers attempt to distance and differentiate themselves from the collective and shared identity of asylum seekers, the more entangled they become within a collective asylum seeker identity. This struggle tells us that the very contestation of an asylum seeker identity is a form of resistance put forth by asylum seekers to address an identity that is largely imposed by the state and host society. This has broader implications on the extent to which an imposed identity and its resistance impact on the successful integration of asylum seekers and refugees into larger society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilising insights from a qualitative study in the city of Leeds (UK), this paper considers issues related to the housing of dispersed forced migrants. The term 'dispersed forced migrants' is used here as a general label to include four groups of international migrants (i.e. refugees, asylum seekers, those with humanitarian protection status and failed asylum seekers) who have previously been dispersed, on a no choice basis, to a variety of locations across the UK under the requirements of the Immigration and Asylum Act (1999). The tiering of housing entitlement that exists within the generic population of dispersed forced migrants (a consequence of the particular socio-legal status assigned to individuals), and its role in rendering migrants susceptible to homelessness is outlined. The adequacy/standard of accommodation made available to forced migrants is also discussed. It is concluded that current arrangements fail to meet the basic housing needs of many forced migrants. Any future improvement in this situation will require a significant shift in government policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education policies in different countries recognise the needs and abilities of newcomer students in different ways, with consequences for their social inclusion and academic progress at school. We highlight the importance of context to debates around the politics of recognition in newcomer education by drawing on qualitative research in Norwegian and English secondary schools. Taylor's (1994) political theory of "recognition" provides the analytical lens through which we explore how teachers perceive newcomer students to be recognised (or not) in national education policies in each country. We underscore teachers' agency in responding to these policies through their own politics of recognition at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While entitlements are often expressed as universal and linked to the rights citizens should have, young people's access to them is shaped by their social positioning, meaning that whether, and in what sense, they are citizens is pertinent. If citizens have access to universal entitlements, does this position certain young people who do not have such access as 'lesser youth' because their entitlements are reduced and citizenship diminished or non-existent? This paper examines whether and how young, separated migrants wanting refuge may be positioned as 'lesser youth'. It draws on a sample of them and multisector professionals examining qualitative data on accessing health care, sexual exploitation and rebuilding lives. The data suggest that the legislative and institutional framework they face militates against their enjoying the 'universal' entitlements of citizens. This reflects their positioning as 'lesser youth' excluded from the full rights citizens are entitled to. Such a positioning is in large part underpinned by contested notions of nationhood, belonging and entitlement central to communitarian citizenship but which exclude them. We argue that a meaningful citizenship for these youth requires a contestation of restrictive communitarian ideas and practices in ways forwarding a more inclusive and socially just multicultural UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to determine the barriers to effective practice that health visitors experience when working with refugees and asylum seekers. This was a qualitative study based on the analysis of in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 14 health visitors describing their experiences working with refugees and asylum seekers. These were analysed using the Framework process, a thematic matrix-based analytical method. The findings identified that the barriers to effectiveness for health visitors when working with refugees and asylum seekers were underpinned by ineffective use of services and stretched resources. The results imply that commissioners of services need to have an understanding of these barriers to commission effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]