Narratives of service provision: a dialogical perspective on the 'support' of asylum seekers

Aims

To investigate the narratives of housing and ‘support’ service provision under dispersal.

Methodology

The chapter draws upon the interviews with members of a local authority asylum support team.

Key issues

The role of professionals required to fulfil a range of often seemingly conflictual and contradictory roles of care and control is examined, and the possibilities of a dialogical, ‘polyphonic’ approach to narratives discussed. The research identifies varying notions of ‘support’ and how these are talked about within the asylum system in relation to ‘support’ as control, dilemmas of ‘support’ and integration, and encouraging acceptance into local ‘communities’.

Conclusions

By adopting ideas of dialogism workers can be seen as negotiating apparently contradictory roles of being carer and controller simultaneously.