Moving Forward: Working Towards AP(E)L With Refugees and Asylum Seekers

SUMMARY

Refugees and asylum seekers frequently feel an enormous loss of confidence and disillusionment when faced with their situation in the country of refuge. A high proportion of those arriving in the UK have qualifications at degree level or beyond, or have considerable experience in employment. It may be impossible or very difficult for them to continue in their original choice of career, and the prospect of retraining is formidable for those who have already made a great investment. Refugees and asylum seekers will also invariably have been through traumatic experiences such as imprisonment and flight, separation or loss of family and friends. The process of AP(E)L, with its re‐evaluation of past experiences, can, in such a situation, be a healing and reassuring event which encourages people to start anew. It can also lead to disappointment and disillusionment, or be seen by some as too painful to undertake. This paper describes the experience of a group of refugees going through the process of AP(E)L, and how through its ‘creative synthesis’ they achieve a new resolve, a renewed impetus to go forward, and a new confidence. It relates their situation to the ideas of Boud and Walker on the reflection process, the barriers that may present themselves and ways of overcoming them.