Layered Confinement in Reception Centers—A Study of Asylum Seekers’ Experiences in Finland

Abstract

The control function of reception centers hinders asylum seekers’ settlement to their host communities. Even though open accommodation centers compose the majority of the European reception system, few studies have comprehensively analyzed their controlling aspects from the asylum seeker perspective. In this article, we examine asylum seekers’ experiences of confinement in Finnish reception centers by using semi-structured and individual interviews (n = 28). We identified three “layers” of confinement in asylum seekers’ accounts: spatial, service-based, and communicative. Together, these permeable but overlapping and accumulative layers define asylum seekers’ experiences by hampering their efforts to participate in local communities and reducing their autonomy.

Keywords:

• Reception center
• asylum seekers
• qualitative interviews
• confinement
• inductive approach

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Interviewees are referred to by random initials.

2 The program of the current Finnish government states: “Integration of asylum seekers must commence at an earlier stage, even at reception centres” (Finnish Government, 2019, p. 148).

3 Finnish word vastaanottokeskus, translates as a reception center. While reception centers in Finland are mostly open accommodation centers, we use terms reception center and accommodation center interchangeably.

4 After the 1990s, the annual average number of asylum applicants has been approximately 3,000, while the number peaked in 2015 at over 30,000 (Finnish Immigration Service, 2018). Most applicants have been young men from countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, and Russia (Finnish Immigration Service, 2019).

5 This study is a part of a RAISD-project (reshaping attention and inclusion strategies for distinctively vulnerable people among the forcibly displaced, 2019–2022) funded by the European Commission’s Horizon2020 program.

6 In 2019, FRC administered 21 reception centers for adults and families (out of 41) and two units for minors (out of six).

7 The study was accepted by the Research Ethics Committee in the Humanities and Social and Behavioural Sciences of the University of Helsinki.

8 Antti Kivijärvi, Pargol Miraftabi, Fairuz Muthana, and Martta Myllylä.

9 In 2019, asylum seekers’ right to work began either three (for those with a verified travel document) or six months (for those with no travel document) after lodging an asylum application. Waiting periods were repeated if a re-application was lodged.

10 A project by Finnish Immigration Service focused on developing asylum seekers’ work and study activities and skills assessment (OSAKA, 2018-2020).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Horizon 2020.