Refugee Integration
Who is an asylum seeker?
- An asylum seeker is a person who has made a claim for asylum and is awaiting a decision from the Home Office about their application.
Who is a refugee?
- When an asylum seeker’s claim is accepted by the Home Office they are given refugee status. To be accepted for refugee status a person must have a "well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unwilling to avail himself or the protection of that country" 1951 Refugee Convention.
What is refugee integration?
There are many definitions on what refugee integration means.
- The UK Border Agency (UKBA) describe it as: "The process that takes place when refugees are empowered to achieve their full potential as members of British society, to contribute to the community, and to become fully able to exercise the rights and responsibilities that they share with other residents."
- The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) describe it similarly as: "a long-term, two-way process of change that relates to both the conditions for and the actual participation of refugees in all aspects of life of the country of durable asylum as well as to the refugees' own sense of belonging and membership of European societies. The objective of integration programmes and policies should be the establishment of a mutual and responsible relationship between individual refugees, civil society and host states which promotes equality, self-determination and sustainable self-sufficiency and acceptance and positive action in favour of refugees by European governments and societies."
