Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 04/2011

Coping with Destitution: Survival and livelihood strategies of refused asylum seekers living in the UK

Heaven Crawley, Joanne Hemmings, Neil Price

February 2011

Oxfam Publishing

Abstract

Coping with Destitution uncovers how the hundreds of thousands of refused asylum seekers currently living in the UK, with no access to legitimate means of securing a livelihood, survive on a day-to-day and longer-term basis. The strategies adopted by destitute asylum seekers have been analysed within a sustainable livelihoods framework, to ensure a systematic understanding of the different types of resources to which asylum seekers do – and do not – have access, and the impact this has on their lives. This approach also helped to identify changes to government policy that could help prevent destitution among refused asylum seekers. Fundamentally, the need to remain hidden and to avoid any risk of being deported affects every decision made by destitute asylum seekers, and in turn the coping strategies which they adopt.