Layered Confinement in Reception Centers—A Study of Asylum Seekers’ Experiences in Finland

Abstract

The control function of reception centers hinders asylum seekers’ settlement to their host communities. Even though open accommodation centers compose the majority of the European reception system, few studies have comprehensively analyzed their controlling aspects from the asylum seeker perspective. In this article, we examine asylum seekers’ experiences of confinement in Finnish reception centers by using semi-structured and individual interviews (n = 28). We identified three “layers” of confinement in asylum seekers’ accounts: spatial, service-based, and communicative. Together, these permeable but overlapping and accumulative layers define asylum seekers’ experiences by hampering their efforts to participate in local communities and reducing their autonomy.