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Options and the Centre for Migration Policy Research (based at Swansea University)
conducted a PEER study part-funded by Oxfam investigating destitution among failed asylum seekers. Although the existing body of research tells us much about the impact of destitution, it tells us rather less about how people cope with destitution, the livelihood strategies they pursue and the agency that they exert in situations of extreme poverty and marginalisation. Relatively little is known about how the many thousands of people in the UK with no access to legitimate means of securing a livelihood actually survive. This PEER study involved working with volunteers from the local refugee and asylum seeker community – at various stages of the asylum process themselves – to gather data on this very sensitive subject from this particularly hard to research group. Findings were published in February 2011and
are being used to influence changes to government policy that could help
prevent destitution among refused asylum seekers.
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