‘I'm Not Happy, but I'm Ok’

Abstract

Title: "I'm not happy, but I'm ok": How asylum seekers manage talk about difficulties in their host country

“It's ok if it's hidden”: The discursive construction of everyday racism for refugees and asylum seekers in Wales

“…In both of the extracts discussed thus far, I have demonstrated that, in line with previous work (Goodman et al, 2014;Kirkwood et al, 2013), when accusations of discrimination are made by asylum seekers and refugees in Wales, they are made to appear trivial which avoids making general negative evaluations of the host society. In the next section, however, I present another way in which participants oriented to questions about discrimination, questioning whether incidents of discrimination they had experienced could be attributed to "race.…”

“…Indeed, the complaints raised in Extracts 1 and 2 pursue this strategy in order to put the experience of discrimination in play whilst avoiding the negative consequences of making accusations of racism (Kirkwood et al, 2013). It is suggested that such strategies also allow the speaker to avoid complaining about the society and appearing ungrateful for the protection which they have received, in line with the findings of Goodman et al (2014) and Kirkwood et al (2013).…”

“…Previous discursive research with asylum seekers and refugees in the United Kingdom (Goodman et al, 2014;Kirkwood et al, 2013) has pointed to the ways in which participants may downplay incidents of discrimination when giving personal accounts of their experiences of living in their new communities. Notably, although the data in the current study come from interviews that asked questions about a range of integration topics (based upon Ager & Strang's, 2004, Indicators of Integration model), examples of discussing discrimination were not limited to when participants were asked direct questions about whether they had experienced discrimination.…”

“…In situations where the speaker did attribute violence to racism, a "delicate" strategy had to be employed once more, with speakers using strategies such as attributing the violence to the ignorance of the attacker, so as not to appear "… overly sensitive to racism" or be seen to be making complaints (Kirkwood et al, 2013, p. 758). Similarly, Goodman, Burke, Liebling, and Zasada (2014) found that whilst participants criticised the U.K. asylum system and said that they were unhappy in the United Kingdom, a dilemma was created for them that risked undermining the reason they were claiming asylum in the United Kingdom and appearing ungrateful. Goodman et al therefore report a downplaying of not being happy as a means of resolving this dilemma, much like the downplaying of "racism" seen in Kirkwood et al's (2013) study.…”

The European Union and the refugee “crisis”: Inclusion, challenges, and responses

“…following Reeves (1983). In addition to denials of racism and disclaimers such as "I'm not a racist, but …" (van Dijk, 1992), deracialisation involves attributing issues with refugee presence in their nations to other factors such as economy (Goodman, Burke, Liebling, & Zasada, 2014), thereby mitigating implications of being against the presence of refugees or asylum seekers in their nations.…”