Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the challenges refugees faced in their migration journey, and how that journey continued to be structured by bureaucratic hurdles and conditions of liminality in their everyday lives, with a focus on healthcare related challenges that refugees face in their liminal spaces.

Paper long abstract:

In Switzerland, the migrant experience is characterised by a series of discrepancies between expectations and reality, which deepen the condition of liminality. Refugees and asylum-seekers travel to the Canton of Geneva with high expectations of legal protection, safe accommodation, financial stability, free education, and state-sponsored health care. However, once they enter the Canton, they face a set of challenges that limit their ability to work, access care, or even secure legal protections.

Between August 2021 and October 2022, we conducted participant observation in refugee residences and non-governmental organisations that provide services for refugees and asylum-seekers; focus groups (2); and in-depth interviews (35) with refugees and asylum-seekers of various origins, mainly Syria, Afghanistan, and Iran.

This paper discusses the challenges refugees faced in their migration journey, and how that journey continued to be structured by bureaucratic hurdles and conditions of liminality in their everyday lives, with a focus on healthcare related challenges that refugees face in their liminal spaces, as they are neither in their home country nor are they fully integrated into the new country’s society. As our data demonstrates, refugees expressed a deep sense of marginalisation, driven by a set of structural challenges that limit their present possibilities and hopes for the future. To overcome mental health challenges, the paper discusses how refugees use drugs as a tool to overcome issues of loneliness, isolation, and living on the margins.