Abstract
Although the world’s forcibly displaced population reached 79.5 million in 2019, their difficult situations and the issues they struggle with remain practically invisible in Spanish society. Therefore, it seems necessary to provide greater insight into an invisible reality to improve the refugees’ situation. The present cross-sectional study aims to draw a general profile of refugees’ and asylum seekers’ main characteristics in Spain and their well-being. A total of 186 refugees living in Spain participated. An ad-hoc questionnaire was administered to obtain data regarding sociodemographic profile, language skills, and social and institutional support. A standardized instrument, SPANE, was used to measure well-being. It can be seen that healthcare, followed by legal aid, are the easiest to access. On the other hand, finding a job, having money, and finding housing are the most difficult. In general, it seems possible to say that the refugees present more positive feelings than negative ones, which implies a positive emotional balance, although the average score obtained for emotional balance is quite far from the highest possible score. We consider this to be a pivotal first step which can provide useful information for the further design of aid strategies to improve this vulnerable group’s situation.
Highlights
The world’s forcibly displaced population grows every year worldwide [1]
In order to define the profile of the refugees included in our study, we focused on their sociodemographic characteristics, their linguistic knowledge and the social and institutional support they had received
If we look into the places of origin of the asylum-seekers and refugees surveyed, it can be seen that most of them come from Syria, which accounts for 26.9% of the sample, followed by Mali, which accounts for 10.8%, and Palestine, which accounts for 7%; 8.1%
Summary
The difficulties faced by this group once they arrive in their host country remain practically invisible to general society (their lived reality and the issues they struggle with just to live are barely present in the media and political debates). This situation is so even though the group comprised of refugees is probably one of the most vulnerable among all migrant and minority groups [2], and that Article. Public Health 2020, 17, 8365; doi:10.3390/ijerph17228365 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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