This thesis is an analysis of the integration of dispersed asylum seekers in Glasgow. It is a qualitative case study that uses data from participant observation with community groups, interviews with asylum seekers and those involved in service provision and policy, and documentary analysis. It examines the impact of policy within a local context, and the difficulties of defining and promoting integration for asylum seekers. The research makes both an empirical and theoretical contribution, building on the knowledge of the impact of dispersal and asylum policy, with a Scottish perspective analysing the issues when implementing reserved asylum policy within a devolved context. The research contributes to debates on integration with an analysis of the conceptual and practical difficulties of promoting integration for asylum seekers. The research findings are structured around three key analytic themes, the impact of policy on asylum seekers and other stakeholders, defining and promoting integration, and challenges. The research indicates tensions between devolved and reserved responsibilities in relation to asylum. The different approaches to integration create difficulties for those working within devolved services, but implementing a reserved policy. Promoting integration for asylum seekers is seen as beneficial for both asylum seekers and host communities in Scotland, but there are both conceptual and practical challenges. There are difficulties of how far and in what ways temporary integration can be measured, which are analysed in relation to existing frameworks for integration. Practice related debates have formed the basis of a shift to a more strategic platform for integration work. Contexts and procedures continue to change, however, bringing fresh challenges. The concept of social capital has been influential in the structures that have been set up to facilitate the processes of integration and dispersal within Glasgow. Yet there are difficulties with the usage of a social capital based framework. Whilst social capital is a useful concept, there is a risk that its usage may mask issues of inequality and exclusion, and the fundamental difficulties of the asylum process remain.

This thesis explores the experiences of applicants for Refugee Status in the United Kingdom who had, at the time of the research, waited for between two and nine years for the conclusion of the asylum process. Despite extensive lamentation of the delays endured by asylum applicants in having their claims assessed, little social scientific scholarship has substantively and critically engaged with this phenomenon, or even with waiting as a universal condition. The present study fills this gap in knowledge, conceptualising waiting as an informative, consequential phase in the quest for protection, hope and security. The study is based on twelve months of participant observation among asylum seekers living in Glasgow under the dispersal regime. Narratives and tacit aspects of everyday life are presented to both draw a multi-dimensional ethnographic picture and acknowledge the asylum seekers’ agency. Their waiting entails a focus on negative and positive, concrete and symbolic objects, which are located in the future. However, their inability to affect or predict the arrival of these objects produces uncertainty and passivity. Asylum seekers narrate overwhelmingly negative experiences of asylum policies, such as dishonouring encounters with immigration authorities; social dislocation; enforced poverty; interrupted life cycles; and an inability to settle and belong in the UK. Yet despite the mutually reinforcing effects of UK policy and of waiting, asylum seekers have benefited from formal support structures provided under Scottish policy. Individuals have been able to re-construct social ties; pursue educational opportunities; enhance personal security; gain greater control over their ‘cases’; and undertake selective socio-cultural adaptation. They have also utilised a discourse of ‘integration’ circulating in Scotland to garner public support for their struggles for recognition and the right to remain. The thesis concludes by reflecting on changes occurring after a form of Leave to Remain was granted, and assesses the extent to which people were able to realise the ‘normal lives’ for which they had been waiting.

1.1 Background: Despite growing recognition of the negative impact of ever stringent asylum employed by western governments, psychological conceptualisations of distress in these populations remains dominated by traumamodels. 1.2 Literature Review: A systematic literature review was conducted to collate and critique findings from studies relating postmigratory stress to asylum seeker distress. The 44 reviewed studies suggested asylum seekers endure a range of postmigratory stressors relating to acculturative challenges, social isolation, material deprivation and restrictive asylum legislation. Difficulties associated with conducting research with these populations are acknowledged. It is concluded that restrictive asylum policies greatly inhibit asylum seekers’ abilities to negotiate challenges resulting from displacement. Smail’s (2005) social materialist perspective is suggested as a framework for findings. 1.3 Research Report: No known British empirical research has focused on exploring relationships between postmigratory-stress and asylum seeker mental health. Based on established methodologies (e.g. Silove et al.,1997) a cross-sectional study was undertaken to explore the relative relationship with distress of postmigratory-stressors and premigratory-trauma exposure. An opportunity sample of 98 asylum seekers completed measures of postmigratory-stress (the PLDC: Silove et al., 1997); premigratory-trauma exposure (HTQ-TE; Mollica et al.,1992) and distress (HTQ-PTSD: Mollica et al.,1992; HSCL-25: Hesbacher et al.,1980; Winokur et al.,1984). High levels of exposure to premigratory-traumatic events, postmigratory stress, and distress were reported. Regression analyses revealed ‘Feeling a burden to others’ and being denied asylum to be the strongest predictors of distress. It is concluded that a range of postmigratory stressors impact negatively on asylum seeker wellbeing. Those denied asylum experience more restrictions and poorer mental health. Limitations are acknowledged. 1.4 Implications: The literature review and research report conclude that present asylum determination processes are damaging to those seeking refuge. Psychotherapeutic interventions directed at the intra-psychic level may be of limited effectiveness given the more primary social and material needs of these clients. 1.5 Critical Appraisal: Reflections on the research process are presented alongside key learning points.

De senaste åren har allt fler människor flytt till Europa. Folk tvingas på flykt på grund av krig, katastrofer och elände. Detta kan knappast vara positivt för deras psykiska hälsa. Allmänsjuksköterskans roll kommer att prövas av detta och det är därför viktigt att sjuksköterskan är medveten om olika tankesätt och omvårdnadsstrategier för att behandla den psykiska ohälsan. Inte minst när det visar att psykisk ohälsa har blivit en ökad trend för sjukskrivning bland den svenska befolkningen. Tio vetenskapliga artiklar och en rapport som behandlade psykisk ohälsa hos människor på flykt analyserades för att ingå i resultatet. Den första delen av resultatet beskriver förekomsten av psykisk ohälsa medan den andra delen redovisar upplevelser i tre teman och sju underteman. Resultatet visar att psykisk ohälsa bland människor på flykt är utbredd, även om det förekommer tydliga skillnader gällande psykiska diagnoser hos dem. Deras upplevelser handlar i stor utsträckning om faktorer som förstärker deras psykiska ohälsa och sätter dem i utanförskap. Det gör att de försöker värna om sig själva genom försvarsmekanismer som inte alltid är till det bättre, samtidigt som de upplever att det finns stöd i deras nya omgivning. Hos människorna själva finns en drivkraft om att kunna acklimatisera sig i det nya samhället även om hinder upplevs, såväl inom dem som runt om kring. Det är därför önskvärt att sjuksköterskan, med hjälp av kunskap om förekomst och upplevelser hos människor på flykt, utför en mellanmänsklig, god och förtroendeingivande vård som behandling för de människor som lider av psykisk ohälsa till följd av flykt. / Background: There has been an increasing prevalence of mental illness among Swedes; in addition a lot more people have fled their home countries due to war and disaster. With them they carried traumatic experiences. What have these effects and occurrences had on their mental status? Aim: This study aims to investigate the prevalence and experience of mental illness among fleeing people. Method: A literature overview was performed to gather and analyse data from both qualitative and quantitative studies. A search for prevalence in quantitative data was used. Prevalence of mental illness is first presented in a compilation and then three themes with seven subthemes describing similarities and differences emerged in the analysis of qualitative and quantitative studies. Results: Prevalence of mental illness was more common among displaced people than the non-displaced with depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress as the most common diagnosis. Traumatic experiences were also a factor that could hinder the individuals from adopt in the new country. It also showed that there were effects that fortified the mental illness as well as their own defence mechanisms. However, the individuals also experienced support from people with similar experience as well as people in the society they now belong to. They also felt that they wanted to be acclimatized into their new country in order to create a new life. Conclusions: The nurse's role is of importance to create an interpersonal relationship and thus provide safety and trustworthiness to give patients’, persons who have fled, understanding and confidence in health care regarding their mental health.

Over the years, the issue of migrants seeking asylum in the United Kingdom has been the subject of increasing media and political attention. The need to provide asylum seekers with culturally sensitive services is widely acknowledged within social work. However, the social work profession continues to draw heavily on outdated views and definitions of racism mainly based on skin colour and biological categorisation. This is in spite of the fact that the late 20th century has witnessed the emergence of “new racism” (Barker, 1981) and xenoracism (Sivanandan, 2001). This thesis uses the concept of xenoracism as a framework for understanding the ever-shifting parameters of exclusionary discourses, and seeks to provide a more in-depth understanding of current social policy for asylum seekers. It achieves this through an analysis of media, governmental and parliamentary discourses on the issues of immigration and asylum. This approach is based on an understanding of how asylum seekers as a social group are constructed and how this process – underpinned by xenoracism – plays a pivotal role in influencing the ways in which social policies relating to asylum seekers are formulated. The study argues that the construction of social policies relating to asylum seekers is inherently racist and as such is in direct conflict with social work’s value system. The study utilises discursive social psychology (Taylor, 2001, Potter and Wetherell, 1987)), as a methodology for understanding the various ways in which asylum seekers are constructed. This strand of discourse analysis is employed to examine the ways in which society talks and writes about asylum seekers, the social cognition that is the basis of the existing discourses, the socio-political and cultural functions of such discourses and their specific roles in the reproduction of social inequalities. The thesis explores the ways in which asylum seekers are constructed in social work professionals’ discourses. The study identifies a number of interpretative repertoires and linguistic resources that are deployed by social work professionals in their attempts to construct asylum seekers as objects of knowledge. The study illustrates that in addition to their professional discourses and repertoires social work professionals also draw on media and parliamentary discourses as discursive resources in their constructions of asylum seekers. These social work professionals’ discourses are shown to be argumentatively organised and oriented to these macro discourses. In this respect, this thesis establishes an understanding of how asylum seekers are constructed by social work professionals as it pays particular attention to the ideological basis of such constructs. The thesis also explores the everyday practices of social work professionals with asylum seeking service users and the specific ways in which these professionals explain and legitimate their practice with asylum seekers. Through paying attention to practitioners’ accounting practices, this study provides an insight into some of the ways in which social work professionals produce accounts of competent social work practice and how this is an integral part of a defensive social work discourse. This thesis highlights the fact that language is one of the central vehicles through which social work takes place. As such, the analysis of social work discourse in its own right as a topic of analysis is a legitimate area of social work research which can lead to an in-depth and enhanced understanding of social work practice. By using discourse analysis as a methodology, this thesis provides a new perspective for understanding not only social work practice with asylum seekers but also some of the concerns regarding the profession’s complicity in racist and oppressive practice.

This thesis interrogates immigration detention as a space of intricate ambivalence - one which seeks to exclude, but which is also entreated to protect. The focus is so-called ‘unauthorised’ asylum seekers detained both within Australia and offshore on the Pacific island of Nauru between 1999 and 2003 - when the numbers of detained asylum seekers reached its maximum and the government introduced offshore processing centres. Australia’s immigration detention regime sits awkwardly with the discourse of universal human rights and brings into sharp conflict two robust political values: the right of endangered people to seek refuge and the right of the nation to determine who will enter. Focusing on the experiences of detainees reveals immigration detention as a complex regime through which the state’s dominating power targets the stateless, non-white, male body. This targeting is intentional, serving to secure sovereign borders and to rearticulate the naturalised ties between the national population and the modern state. Immigration detention holds the seeker in a limbo that sets parameters for the seeker’s experience of ongoing and intensifying insecurity. It specifically and intentionally fractures the identity of detainees: masochistic actions and collective protests, from hunger strikes to breakouts, reflect the common currency of anxiety and violence. The creation of offshore camps was, in part, a response to ongoing protests within onshore detention and the failure of onshore detention to stop boat arrivals. My chief focus here is the largest Pacific camp, ‘Topside’, on the island of Nauru. Unlike the onshore detention centres where publicised protests and breakouts screamed of continuing detention of asylum seekers, those on Nauru were effectively silenced. The thesis explores purpose as inscribed within the body of the exile. To give up hope for asylum is to face the possibility of endless wandering and death. Mechanisms of resistance, whether explicit protest or more passive waiting, are parts of the continuing struggle by the detained against mechanisms of exclusion and exception. The detained carve out small openings to contest their exclusion and to reassert an identity as survivors. There is a complex and fluid interplay between such resistance and government policies aiming to silence protest and limit identity – and ultimately to deter all unauthorised boat arrivals.

The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate how societal mechanisms can impact on asylum seekers and influence their individual identity. The information for this case study was collected through comprehensive interviews with a group of asylum seekers from Söderhamn whereby the individuals expressed their perception of their current situation. From the gathered material we could see a pattern emerge which gave us the framework and the foundation for our theoretical approach. The similarity we discovered when analyzing the material was the powerlessness the individuals experienced e.g. the individuals had no possibility to influence their current situation and worse, it was impossible for the individuals to enter society even when they had the willpower to do so. According to the asylum seekers the authority’s unwillingness to assist in language development worsens the chances for the individuals to integrate into the society. Through our case study we have discovered that social exclusion and alienation are common identity experiences the asylum seekers have been through which will be our theoretical framework.

This thesis interrogates immigration detention as a space of intricate ambivalence - one which seeks to exclude, but which is also entreated to protect. The focus is so-called ‘unauthorised’ asylum seekers detained both within Australia and offshore on the Pacific island of Nauru between 1999 and 2003 - when the numbers of detained asylum seekers reached its maximum and the government introduced offshore processing centres. Australia’s immigration detention regime sits awkwardly with the discourse of universal human rights and brings into sharp conflict two robust political values: the right of endangered people to seek refuge and the right of the nation to determine who will enter. Focusing on the experiences of detainees reveals immigration detention as a complex regime through which the state’s dominating power targets the stateless, non-white, male body. This targeting is intentional, serving to secure sovereign borders and to rearticulate the naturalised ties between the national population and the modern state. Immigration detention holds the seeker in a limbo that sets parameters for the seeker’s experience of ongoing and intensifying insecurity. It specifically and intentionally fractures the identity of detainees: masochistic actions and collective protests, from hunger strikes to breakouts, reflect the common currency of anxiety and violence. The creation of offshore camps was, in part, a response to ongoing protests within onshore detention and the failure of onshore detention to stop boat arrivals. My chief focus here is the largest Pacific camp, ‘Topside’, on the island of Nauru. Unlike the onshore detention centres where publicised protests and breakouts screamed of continuing detention of asylum seekers, those on Nauru were effectively silenced. The thesis explores purpose as inscribed within the body of the exile. To give up hope for asylum is to face the possibility of endless wandering and death. Mechanisms of resistance, whether explicit protest or more passive waiting, are parts of the continuing struggle by the detained against mechanisms of exclusion and exception. The detained carve out small openings to contest their exclusion and to reassert an identity as survivors. There is a complex and fluid interplay between such resistance and government policies aiming to silence protest and limit identity – and ultimately to deter all unauthorised boat arrivals.

Miljontals människor i världen har tvingats fly från sina hemländer undan krig, förföljelser och förtryck för att söka skydd i andra länder. Dessa människor blir asylsökande i mottagarlandet och som asylsökande är tillgången till sjukvård begränsad av lagstiftning. Asylsökande personer har dock ett komplext vårdbehov och många av dem kommer i kontakt med sjukvården. Syftet med studien var att beskriva sjuksköterskors upplevelser av att möta asylsökande personer. Studien genomfördes som en litteraturstudie där nio vetenskapliga artiklar grundlade resultatet. Efter analys av artiklarna kunde två kategorier urskiljas: Organisationens påverkan i mötet med asylsökande och Samspelet mellan sjuksköterskor och asylsökande. Resultatet visade att sjuksköterskor upplevde att asylsökande personer hade svårt att förstå mottagarlandets hälso- och sjukvårdssystem och att det var viktigt att förklara hälso- och sjukvårdssystemet. Sjuksköterskor upplevde sig sakna tillräcklig kunskap om asylsökande personers vårdbehov och om olika kulturer. Sjuksköterskor upplevde kommunikationsproblem och svårigheter med att skapa en god vårdrelation med asylsökande personer. Ytterligare forskning behövs för att bättre kunna möta asylsökande personers vårdbehov och kunna överbrygga de svårigheter sjuksköterskor upplevde i mötet med asylsökande personer. / Millions of people have been forced to flee their native countries in order to seek protection from war, persecution and oppression. These people become asylum seekers in the host country and as asylum seekers they are only entitled to limited healthcare that is regulated by law. In fact, asylum seekers have a complex need of healthcare and many of them get in contact with the healthcare. The aim of this study was to describe nurses’ experiences of meeting asylum seekers. A literature review was conducted and nine scientific research articles were included in the study. After analyzing the articles two categories emerged: Organizational influence in the meeting with asylum seekers and Interaction between nurses and asylum seekers. The result showed that nurses experienced asylum seekers having a hard time understanding the healthcare system in the host country and that it was important to explain it to them. Nurses reported a lack of knowledge concerning the need of healthcare regarding asylum seekers and concerning different cultures. Nurses experienced difficulties in communicating and in building a good relationship with asylum seekers. The field is in need of further research in order to better meet the need of healthcare regarding asylum seekers and to overcome the difficulties experienced by nurses.

Background: According to Stockholm’s Public Health report refugees have lowest selfreported health and there are indicators of inadequate access to health care. All asylum seekers are offered a health assessment opportunity which less than half of them utilize. To address health problems within the group Stockholm County decided to extend an educational program for those who receive residence permit, with 12 hours health communication. Uppsala University was given the responsibility to evaluation the initiative.   Purpose: The purpose of this study was to illustrate the experiences of the involved officials of the initiative, the pros and cons of the initiative and areas of improvement.   Method: The data for this study was collect through semi-structured interviews with three different categories of officials. The collected data was analyzed using content analysis.   Results: One of the key benefits of the initiative was that it helped participants use health care. The partnership was perceived as successful because of the good communication. The officials expressed challenges regarding the length of the health communication and the struggle to meet the participant’s needs.    Conclusion: This study shows that the initiative addressed some of the barriers migrants face regarding utilizing health care. The partnership was success due to factors similar to those for other successful health promotion projects and partnerships. The challenges related to the length of the programme, which can be attributed to poor initial analysis of the problem, is together with linkage of the initiative areas of improvement. / Bakgrund: Enligt folkhälsorapporten Stockholm lider gruppen flyktingar av ohälsa och det finns indikatorer för bristande tillgång till vården. Hälsoundersökningar erbjuds till alla asylsökande men mindre än hälften av dem utnyttjar det. I Stockholms län har man beslutat att utöka samhällsorinteringen, som är obligatoriskt för de som har fått upphållstillstånd, med 12 timmar hälsokommunikation för att behandla ohälsa. Uppsala Universitet har fått ansvar för utvärderingen.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att belysa genomförandet av den utökade samhällsorienteringeni Stockholms län, för- och nackdelar samt förbättringsområden ur tjänstemännens perspektiv.   Metod: Studien har en kvalitativ design där semi-strukturerade intervjuer med tre olika grupper av tjänstemän i samverkansprojektet användes för att samla in data. Den insamlade data analyserades med hjälp av innehållsanalys.  Resultat: En av de upplevda fördelarna med insatsen är att man har lyckats hjälpa deltagarna att använda sig av hälso- och sjukvården. Samverkan upplevs ha varit framgångsrikt tack vara bland annat bra kommunikation. Hälsokommunikationens längd är en av utmaningarna man har haft i projektet, där man har haft svårigheter att tillgodose deltagarnas behov inom tidsramen.    Slutsats: Enligt studien upplever tjänstemännen att man med insatsen behandlat en del barriärer som nyanlända möter. Samverkan upplevs ha varit framgångsrik tack vare faktorer så som bra kommunikation som även varit framgångsfaktorer för likande samverkan. Problemet med hälsokommunikationens längd kan bero på en bristfällig initial analys vilket är tillsammans med förankringsarbetet förbättringsområden för samverkan.