Symbolic violence and disempowerment as factors in the adverse impact of immigration detention on adult asylum seekers’ mental health

Cleveland, Janet; Kronick, Rachel; Gros, Hanna; Rousseau, Cécile

doi:10.1007/s00038-018-1121-7

Cited by 38 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Overall, the goal of our ethnographic study was to elucidate the texture of detention centers as contemporary total institutions, and to unravel the mechanisms of oppression and injustice that they perpetuate. To do so, we conducted a case study of Rome's Ponte Galeria detention center, the largest Italian migration‐related detention facility, placing an emphasis on the voices and experiences of those most directly affected by this form of structural violence (Cleveland et al., ), namely, detainees. The ecological framework we adopted, complemented by the concept of power and its wider structures and dynamics (cf.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, the length of detention was a crucial factor in determining detainees’ well‐being, with studies finding that people who were detained for longer suffered the effects of detention more severely and for longer periods of time (e.g., Robjant, Robbins, & Senior, ; Steel et al., ). Nevertheless, pre‐existing physical and mental health issues, poor healthcare services in detention, uncertainty, feeling powerless and abandoned, criminalization, prison‐like surveillance, communication and information problems, a lack of activity, a loss of liberty, and dehumanizing treatment also emerged as key contributors to detainees’ suffering (Cleveland, Kronick, Gros, & Rousseau, ; Coffey, Kaplan, Sampson, & Tucci, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecology of Sites of Confinement: Everyday Life in a Detention Center for Illegalized Non‐citizens

Esposito

Ornelas

Briozzo

et al. 2019

American J of Comm Psychol

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Highlights• In spite of concerns about migration-related detention, research inside these sites of confinement is scarce.• We present an ethnographic exploration into the detention of illegalized non-citizens in Italy.• Transcending individual-centered analysis, we adopt an ecological framework with a focus on justice.• We contribute to create knowledge on the psychosocial and cultural world behind the walls of detention.• We discuss the oppressive qualities of detention and avenues for research and action for community psychologists.Abstract Drawing on almost 3 years of fieldwork, comprising qualitative interviews and ethnographic observations, this study provides an exploration into the detention of illegalized non-citizens in Italy. Taking the largest detention center as a case study, the fabric of everyday life and the lived experiences of people, both detainees and professional actors, are the focus of examination. An ecological community psychology framework, with a focus on justice, guided the data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Findings highlight the oppressive qualities of detention, and its ripple effects on people's life spaces. Scarcity of resources, activities, and information created a very distressing environment for detainees, also enhancing feelings of powerlessness and frustration in professionals willing to assist them. Uncertainty and instability, rather than coercion or discipline, emerged as modes of governing and dominating. Bound in a different space and time, detainees were turned into unwanted and expendable others, their confinement becoming a means to extract profit from them. Yet, people languishing in these sites displayed an extraordinary ability to cope with, resist, and challenge the persisting conditions of injustice they endured. We conclude by highlighting the potential of the proposed framework, and discussing broader implications of our findings and avenues for research and action.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecology of Sites of Confinement: Everyday Life in a Detention Center for Illegalized Non‐citizens

Esposito

Ornelas

Briozzo

et al. 2019

American J of Comm Psychol

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“…Thus the majority of claimants are subject to lengthy waits for a decision. Similar forms of waiting with associated uncertainty about the future are part of asylum processes across the Global North (Dupont et al, 2005;Laban et al, 2008;Lauritzen et al, 2012;Ingvarsson et al, 2016;Bjertrup et al, 2018;Cleveland et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The violence of uncertainty: Empirical evidence on how asylum waiting time undermines refugee health

Phillimore

Cheung

2021

Social Science & Medicine

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The idea of violent uncertainty was first introduced in the New England Journal of Medicine ( 2018) making claims about the deleterious impacts of insecure immigration status on the health of migrants. Policies of uncertainty are said to directly and indirectly create harm by impacting on individual's health via detention and public degradation and undermining healthcare services. We offer original empirical evidence indicating an association with uncertainty, in the form of asylum waiting times, on refugees' self-reported health. We devise four hypotheses that: long waiting time for asylum decisions increases likelihood of self-reported health problems and the effect persists overtime, that female refugees report higher levels of health problems and religion moderates the association between health and uncertainty. We use data from the UK longitudinal Survey of New Refugees wherein all new refugees were sent a baseline survey immediately after receiving refugee status and then follow-up surveys 21 months later. The findings show longer asylum waiting time is associated with poor health. Female refugees were more likely to report poor emotional and physical health. The negative effect of asylum waiting time on emotional health persists 21 months post settlement and is worse for women. The hypothesis about the ameliorating effect of religion is only partially supported. Our findings supports existing theory and qualitative studies on the deleterious effects of using policies of waiting-related uncertainty for managing migration. Given the wide use of such policies in the Global North, our work is suggestive of likely generalisability. Thus, countries with large refugee populations might want to consider our findings when developing asylum policy which minimises impact on refugee health.

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“…The majority of these asylum seekers come from the Caribbean, Latin American and African countries (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, 2018), fleeing traumatic situations related to war, political persecution, community violence, precariousness, hunger, etc. (Cleveland et al, 2018;Nair, 2019). The largest group of these asylum seekers walked from Brazil to California through Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Tijuana-Mexico (Cénat et al, 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Asylum seekers working in Quebec (Canada) during the COVID-19 pandemic: Risk of deportation, and threats to physical and mental health

Dalexis

Cénat

2020

Psychiatry Research

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Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

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Symbolic violence and disempowerment as factors in the adverse impact of immigration detention on adult asylum seekers’ mental health

Abstract: Detention, even for brief periods in relatively adequate conditions, was found to be detrimental to asylum seekers' mental health. This adverse impact appears to be largely attributable to the combined effect of two factors: symbolic violence and disempowerment.

Cited by 38 publications

References 16 publications

Ecology of Sites of Confinement: Everyday Life in a Detention Center for Illegalized Non‐citizens

Ecology of Sites of Confinement: Everyday Life in a Detention Center for Illegalized Non‐citizens

The violence of uncertainty: Empirical evidence on how asylum waiting time undermines refugee health

Asylum seekers working in Quebec (Canada) during the COVID-19 pandemic: Risk of deportation, and threats to physical and mental health

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