Study title

This data comes from a survey completed with refugees resettled to the UK and resident (at the time of the survey) in Manchester, Sheffield, Norwich or Brighton and Hove. Refugees arrived in the UK in 2010 or earlier and data was collected at three time points approximately one year apart in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The first survey involved 280 refugees and the same individuals completed subsequent surveys in slightly smaller numbers with 180 individuals completing the third survey. The questionnaire concerns measures of long term integration and wellbeing. Refugees originate from Ethiopia, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Refugee resettlement is one of the most radical of all voluntary international migrations in terms of its impact on individual migrants. Resettlement is a very different way of becoming a refugee from the asylum system since refugees do not have to reach the territory of the destination state. Refugees are selected for resettlement by potential host states, in their country of first asylum, which is usually a neighbouring country to their own. Arrangements are made for their settlement and ongoing support, paid for either by the government of their new state, or by a sponsoring organisation. Refugees have social rights equivalent to citizens on arrival. Unlike the long, uncertain journeys undertaken by asylum seekers, the transition for resettled refugees is sudden and, given the contexts where they have been living previously, dramatic. In the UK, refugees are selected for resettlement specifically on the basis of their vulnerability, making adaptation even more challenging. The UK manages resettlement through the Gateway Protection Programme, which relies on local council implementation, sometimes in collaboration with civil society. The aim of this programme is to achieve the integration of refugees along several different life domains (e.g. employment, housing, education, health, language and cultural knowledge, well-being and...