‘Between heaven and hell’: Subjective well-being of asylum seekers

Abstract

Nearly 1.4 million asylum seekers arrived in Europe in 2015. With an unprecedented 822% increase in the number of asylum applicants, Finland experienced the largest increase in applicants than any other European country that year. In this study, we investigated asylum seekers’ experienced subjective well-being (ExSWB) construct in comparison with their evaluated subjective well-being (EvSWB) construct. A mixed methods approach with convergent design was adopted for the study, which combined quantitative data on asylum seekers’ (n = 181) ExSWB and EvSWB with qualitative data on the elements of ExSWB and EvSWB. The findings point at a limbus phase in asylum seekers’ livelihood transition between the borders for international protection in Finland. The Cantril self-anchoring striving scale was used by the participants to describe this passage ritual of ambiguity. Furthermore, we also found gender differences related to coping and subjective well-being, which supports previous findings on asylum seekers’ well-being. Key Practitioner Message: • The concept of the limbus phase of the asylum seeker livelihood transition is useful for describing asylum seekers’ experiences while waiting for an asylum decision; • Asylum seeker SWB is closely related to status dissonance, separation and capitals, causing anxiety, worry and fear, and inflicting cognitive disruption; • Equal, institutional-level functions should be organised in the reception centre for easing the anxiety related to the asylum-seeking process.