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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.

This paper examines the strategies that volunteers use when supporting asylum seekers with their information challenges to be able to develop services for asylum seekers and promote their access to reliable information in the most suitable way.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven volunteers who help asylum seekers with their asylum cases in two cities in Finland. The interview data was thematically coded and analysed.

Six types of information-related strategies were identified: information mediatory, language adjustment, spatial and non-verbal communicative, inclusive, and supervisory strategies, as well as strategies with shifting roles. These strategies holistically support asylum seekers' information practices, considering the challenges of their situation and emotional needs.

This study creates new knowledge about volunteers' role in the information practices of asylum seekers, highlighting their unique position both in and outside the asylum system. Information-related strategies are a novel way of examining the ways to holistically support other people's information practices, by understanding that information is intertwined in all kinds of everyday actions and interactions.

This paper identifies the major relevant legislation and procedures which affect health and social care provision for asylum‐seeking children in the UK. It discusses some of the dilemmas asylum‐seeking children may experience, as well as issues that practitioners may need to consider to ensure that services are appropriate, accessible and non‐stigmatising. The paper also identifies the different ‘categories’ of asylum‐seeking children who are supported under different sections of the Children Act and how they can result in unequal levels of social care, and identifies some positive practice examples for children who have been trafficked.

This paper discusses findings from qualitative research exploring young asylum seekers' (aged 18‐25) definitions and experiences of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ at a time of transition to adulthood and adjustment to life in a new country. Previous research on refugees and asylum seekers has focused largely on either children or adults, often failing to highlight the particular experiences of those in young adulthood. It will be argued that young asylum seekers of this age have specific needs and experiences associated with the dual transition they face, in both adapting to life in the UK and becoming adults, and the changing support network and entitlements available to them as they go through this process.

The purpose of this paper is to share research findings on the lived experiences of asylum seekers in Bristol (UK), with a particular focus on psychological needs and sources of resilience.

The study was designed following the principles of action research and was carried out in three phases involving nine co-researchers. Thematic analysis was used to interpret the resulting data, collected through semi-structured interviews.

The findings highlight challenges which are faced by asylum seekers after migrating to the UK and indicate how these do not allow for psychological needs to be met, undermining resilience. Co-researchers indicated that aspects of the asylum system were perceived as unfair, adding to existing losses and promoting fear. Strength was found through engaging with communities and religious practices.

The research suggests that asylum seekers feel misrepresented and misunderstood within the public realm and raises serious questions around the current asylum legislation. It offers practitioners insight into key determinants for psychological well-being from the perspective of asylum seekers, providing suggestions for sensitive and appropriate interventions.

The study offers original insights into asylum seekers’ experiences, with a specific focus on Bristol. The use of action research and the involvement of asylum seekers as co-researchers are also noteworthy, as collaborative research is scarce in this field.

Over the past 30 years asylum has become an issue of great political significance, public interest and media coverage in most “Western” countries. Policies and laws designed to deal with asylum seekers have proliferated, as have the resources required to manage them. These developments have come as a result of the rise of asylum as a social, political and economic “problem” which is seen to necessitate urgent action. Within this context, some countries, such as Britain, have sought to limit asylum seekers’ social and economic rights. In Britain specifically this has involved making paid employment illegal for asylum seekers, and in the process making the government liable for the living costs of such individuals – creating a situation of forced welfare dependency. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper provides a review of research into work and welfare policy relating to asylum seekers in Britain. The paper focuses particularly on three key issues which are affected by asylum policies relating to work and welfare. These have all received particular scholarly attention in recent years: destitution, illegal working and forced labour, and the impact on integration outcomes.

In the final section the author proposes some directions for future research.

The review is, of course, not exhaustive, but does provide an overview of key themes in the literature and should be of interest to scholars interested in the politics, sociology and social policy of asylum.

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.

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight volunteer participants who worked to support migrants in Glasgow, two of which were AS. Purposeful and theoretical sampling was used and data were analysed using the framework approach.

The roles of participants were broad included providing “destitution relief” (providing shelter and food for destitute asylum seekers (DAS)) and acting as advocates for AS to help them access services. The most common reported motivation of participants was a humanitarian interest in the situation of migrants in Glasgow and the UK. In contrast, participants who were AS, volunteered because they could not work and it helped to improve their mental well-being. The complexity of the circumstances of some migrants was seen as the most challenging aspect of volunteering. Participants were involved first hand in the difficulties migrants had in accessing health and social services.

This exploratory study confirmed the vital role voluntary organisations have in supporting migrants in Glasgow. It highlights the essential role volunteers have in supporting DAS and sets out some volunteer support needs. This has important implications for this context in Glasgow. Further work in other dispersal settings in the UK would help elucidate if this is replicable across the UK.

Volunteer's role as lay advocates should be recognised and then supported by statutory services such as primary care and social services.

The overall view was that the system of claiming asylum poses numerous challenges for both migrants and the volunteers working to support them. AS can become completely reliant on the volunteers and the services they provide.

This is the first research study examining the roles, motivations and experiences of volunteers who support migrants.

The UK has long heralded itself as ‘beacon of hope’ for those who need it most: people seeking sanctuary from persecution. Recently, this mythology has been exposed as just that – a myth – replaced by the reality that the UK is in fact a hostile environment for people seeking asylum. Although this is increasingly publicly acknowledged, interventions and support are generally maintained by grassroots organisations, struggling law firms and dedicated activists – many of whom themselves receive limited or no support. This chapter charts the development of an activist strategy on which the authors collaborated to counteract the harms of the British asylum system. The Right to Remain Asylum Navigation Board was produced to ensure consistent, accurate information about the process of seeking asylum, but also as a means to bring together people who often experience internalised feelings of failure when asylum claims are rejected. A form of consciousness raising (CR), and developed from working with people seeking asylum, the authors aimed to create a tool that supports people to recognise they are not failures: they are embedded in a system which is set up for people to fail. Here, the authors outline how and why we did so, and address the value of moving criminological research into activist intervention to support groups who are most structurally disenfranchised.

The literature tends to use ‘asylum seeker’ and ‘refugee’ interchangeably, creating uncertainty about the mental health of asylum seekers. However, asylum seekers occupy a unique position in British society which differentiates them from people with refugee status and which may have implications for their mental health. For example, ‘asylum seekers’ are supported and accommodated in dispersal areas under the National Asylum Support Service and they are not entitled to work. This mixed‐methods study investigated asylum seekers' symptoms of psychological distress, using mental health screening questionnaires (N = 29) and asylum seekers' subjective experiences of the asylum process, its potential impacts on their mental health, and participants' suggestions for tackling mental health needs, using in‐depth interviews (N = 8). Asylum seekers, refugees and practitioners working with asylum seekers were consulted from the outset regarding the cultural sensitivity of the measures used. Given the potential limitations of using ‘idioms of distress’ across cultures, interview data provided rich descriptive accounts which helped locate the mental health needs that the asylum seekers experienced in the specificities of each participant's social context. Asylum seekers originated from 13 countries. The results revealed that psychological distress is common among asylum seekers (for example anxiety and post‐traumatic stress), but so are post‐migratory living difficulties (for example accommodation, discrimination, worry about family back home, not being allowed to work). They also report mixed experiences of health and social care services. These results suggest that asylum seekers' unique social position may affect their mental health. Implications for practice are presented and potential limitations highlighted.

This paper aims to raise awareness of the vulnerability of some refugees to various forms of abuse. It will relate the forms of abuse described in No Secrets to the situation of refugees and asylum seekers in general and will then focus on three groups of refugees who may be especially vulnerable. Recommendations to reduce the vulnerability of refugees are included.