Description
This research incorporates data from 50 semi-structured interviews conducted with asylum seekers, refugees and service providers in Glasgow alongside participant observation to critique how the current UK immigration system vulnerablises asylum seekers and refugees living in Glasgow. Despite this vulnerablisation, it is argued that asylum seekers and refugees partake in various endeavours to be active members of their host society. Asylum seekers and refugees tend to be be vulnerable individuals who often encounter barriers and challenges when living their lives. Due to various circumstances, particularly conflict and wars, they seek sanctuary in other countries. The influx of asylum seekers and refugees coming into the UK has prompted government to create a hostile environment for them, largely through the imposition of restrictive immigration policies and this is coupled with anti-immigrant sentiment. Already vulnerable owing to the circumstances leading them to seek refuge outside of their countries of origin, and further vulnerable during transit, asylum seekers and refugees are then vulnerablised by the asylum system in the UK and in their new host society. Despite being vulnerablised as migrants moving to the UK, I argue they are not necessarily passive victims of an inhospitable system. Within the hostile environment in the UK, asylum seekers and refugees actively engage in various activities to partake in society and improve their living situations.| Period | 2 Dec 2021 |
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| Event title | Department of Geography and Geology Research Seminar Series |
| Event type | Seminar |
| Degree of Recognition | Local |