Uncertainty, Existential Immobility and Well-Being: Experiences of Women Seeking Asylum in Norway

In recent years, European countries have made their asylum systems increasingly stricter. Norway has been no exception, taking additional measures to tighten its asylum system to make it less attractive to seek asylum. How does the asylum procedure and living in asylum centres influence psychosocial well-being and, in turn, the prospects of incorporation into a new society? This article identifies the main challenges that a group of women face while seeking asylum and living in asylum centres in Norway, and it explores the influence that these challenges have on their mental health and well-being. To do this, it draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted during approximately one year (2017–2018) with nine women—of different nationalities, ages and backgrounds—living in asylum centres in Norway. The analysis shows five main elements of the Norwegian asylum and reception system that result in the main challenges that the women deal with during their wait in the asylum centres. These elements are the wait and uncertainty around their asylum application coupled with the inability to influence their circumstances, the limitations to engage in meaningful activities as well as the financial and mobility limitations imposed by the Norwegian authorities. The interconnections of these five elements make the women often feel powerless, unable to influence their circumstances and feel stuck in the present, unable to plan their future, thus, experiencing high levels of uncertainty and existential immobility (Hage 2009). This, in turn, leads to frustration, apathy and even depression in the women, which can have a negative effect on their future incorporation into the Norwegian society.