Asylum Seeker's Reflections on the Process of Seeking Asylum

Background: Between 2012-2013, asylum grants in the U.S. dropped nearly 10%. As of June 2016, there were 170,380 asylum cases pending and special cases were backlogged 8-28 months. A community clinic study of asylum seekers found that 35% displayed symptoms of PTSD, while 32.5% exhibited symptoms of major depression. Denial of asylum, prolonged immigration processes and detention, all have the potential to exacerbate theses symptoms. Asylum grants in the U.S are based primarily on medical evaluations that verify alleged abuse. A psychological evaluation can also be included, but is not required. Evaluations are conducted by volunteer healthcare professionals through many organizations including, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). This study evaluates the impact of the inclusion of psychological evaluations on asylum outcomes and whether people who receive and submit psychological evaluations with their asylum applications get granted at higher rates than those who do not submit psychological evaluations with their applications.

Methods: This mixed methods study includes a secondary data analysis of Physicians for Human Right’s records pertaining to asylum grant rates. The quantitative portion of this study will include a Chi Square test comparing actual grant rates against the grant rates for applications accompanied by psychological affidavits to see if they were statistically different. This paper will focus on the qualitative data collection, which will include in-depth interviews and review of documentation for asylees. The in-depth interviews will follow an interview guide consisting of key questions and domains of inquiry. The guides will include a range of questions including questions about; attitude, feelings knowledge, and behavior.  Snowball sampling and purposive sampling will be used to identify and engage asylees.

Results: It is expected that the in-depth interviews will reveal that asylum seeker's desire; better mental health and support services in and outside of detention centers, a better understanding of the legal system, how to enter it and how to manage the process of seeking asylum and a need for psycho-education on trauma and its impact on functioning

Implications: Findings have the potential to support and expand the Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Network’s impact and to help the Network reexamine how it can best support asylum seekers in the process of seeking refuge. Specifically, how the Network can reach detained asylum seekers whose numbers will likely increase under the new administration. New data on the mental health status of asylum seekers could facilitate an understanding of what impedes asylum seekers from meeting the one year deadline for filing; robust dada could be used to propose policy changes around the filing deadline. Finally, implications for practice include using data to educate providers in mainstream social service and community mental health agencies how to better support this vulnerable population.