BACKGROUND This article discusses the design of a study on the prevalence of health problems (both physical and mental) and the utilisation of health care services among asylum seekers and refugees in the Netherlands, including factors that may be related to their health and their utilisation of these services. METHODS/DESIGN The study will include random samples of adult asylum seekers and r...

Recourse to a purported ideal of societal homogeneity has become common in the context of the refugee reception crisis - not only in Japan, as Leppold et al report, but also throughout Europe. Calls for societal homogeneity in Europe originate from populist movements as well as from some governments. Often, they go along with reduced social support for refugees and asylum seekers, for example i...

BACKGROUND There are concerns about negative effects of relocations between asylum-seeker centres on the mental health of asylum-seeking children. However, empirical evidence comes from cross-sectional studies only. In this longitudinal medical record study, we aimed to assess: (i) whether relocations during the asylum process are associated with the incidence of newly recorded mental distress ...

BACKGROUND Late disclosure or non-disclosure during Home Office interviews is commonly cited as a reason to doubt an asylum seeker's credibility, but disclosure may be affected by other factors. AIMS To determine whether and how sexual violence affects asylum seekers' disclosure of personal information during Home Office interviews. METHOD Twenty-seven refugees and asylum seekers were inter...

Refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Europe during the 2015/2016 wave of migration have been exposed to war conditions in their country of origin, survived a dangerous journey, and often struggled with negative reception in transit and host countries. The mental health consequence of such forced migration experiences is named the Ulysses syndrome. Policies regarding the right to residency ca...

Whether through traditional law or modern torture, the body has always been a privileged site on which to demonstrate the evidence of power. But for immigrants, the poor, and, more generally, the dominated—all of whom have to prove their eligibility to certain social rights—it has also become the place that displays the evidence of truth. In France, as immigration control increases, asylum seek...

This study explores the results of a survey conducted in some reception centers for refugees in Italy to assess the perceptions of asylum seekers about the administrative procedures following their application and the general conditions of reception. Our findings are also corroborated by the views of social workers, managers of the centers, officials of Italian Agencies for refugees and UNHCR r...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles, motivations and experiences of volunteers who work to support asylum seekers (AS), refugees and refused asylum seekers (RAS) in Glasgow. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight volunteer participants who worked to support migrants in Glasgow, two of which were AS. Purposeful and t...

BACKGROUND Asylum procedures are known to be protracted, stretching to over ten years in many host countries. International research shows high levels of distress for asylum seekers. Little is known about actual psychiatric morbidity in this population, especially during the first few years postmigration. METHODS The mental health status of two groups of asylum seekers was assessed: Group 1 (...