SPACE, AGENCY AND SUFFERING: Unveiling the experiences of non-Western women in asylum reception centres in Northern Norway

Abstract

The experiences of women in asylum reception centres remain largely unheard. Few researchers have been focusing on the lived experiences of women in asylum accommodations. Even fewer have investigated the interaction between spatial conditions of asylum accommodation and women’s agency in Northern Norway. This thesis involves an interdisciplinary conceptual framework to explore the interaction between space, agency and suffering from a micro-perspective to understand how spatial conditions can affect asylum seekers’ agency in asylum reception centres and interfere with their motives and interests and satisfaction of their basic needs, provoking suffering. The thesis is a qualitative study, which applies a narrative research design. It is based on a series of interviews with asylum seekers in the region and on the analysis of relevant documents concerning the standard requirements for asylum accommodations. In order to build the argument, I firstly investigate the respondents’ perspectives on shared common spaces, such as kitchen and bathrooms, and shared private spaces, such as the bedroom. Despite the peculiarities of their stories, the analysis revealed diverse conditions for both these categories. Particularly, common spaces are experienced in relation to accessibility and availability, showing significant differences in men’s and women’s experiences. Afterwards, I move to a deeper analysis of the experiences of women because of some relevant differences with the experiences of the male participants, and unexpected findings emerged. Especially concerning ‘women’ and who these women are. Analysing spatial conditions from women’s perspectives revealed how social norms and administrative norms organise spaces where they lived, and that particularly affected them during their stay in asylum reception centres.