Making Sense? The Support of Dispersed Asylum Seekers
International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care
ISSN: 1747-9894
Article publication date: 9 November 2009
Abstract
Reforms of the system for the accommodation and support needs of asylum seekers entering the United Kingdom (UK) during the twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries have meant that the support of asylum seekers has largely moved away from mainstream social work to dedicated asylum support teams. This article investigates how the workers engaged as ‘asylum support workers’ understand and make sense of their participation in the support of asylum seekers dispersed across the UK. By drawing on qualitative research with asylum support workers, this paper looks at how such workers make sense of their roles and how the ‘support’ of asylum seekers is conceived. The paper concludes that, by working in this political and controversial area of work, workers are constantly finding ways to negotiate their support role within a dominant framework of control.
Keywords
Citation
Brown, P. and Horrocks, C. (2009), "Making Sense? The Support of Dispersed Asylum Seekers", International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 22-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/17479894200900010
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited