Volunteers' strategies for supporting asylum seekers with information challenges
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-08-2021-0148 |
| Published date | 16 March 2022 |
| Date | 16 March 2022 |
| Pages | 305-326 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Hilda Ruokolainen |
Volunteers’strategies for
supporting asylum seekers with
information challenges
Hilda Ruokolainen
Department of Information Studies,
Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
Abstract
Purpose –This paper examines the strategies that volunteers use when supporting asylum seekers with their
information challenges to be able to develop services for asylum seekers and promote their access to reliable
information in the most suitable way.
Design/methodology/approach –Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven volunteers who
help asylum seekers with their asylum cases in two cities in Finland. The interview data was thematically
coded and analysed.
Findings –Six types of information-related strategies were identified: information mediatory, language
adjustment, spatial and non-verbal communicative, inclusive, and supervisory strategies, as well as strategies
with shifting roles. These strategies holistically support asylum seekers’information practices, considering the
challenges of their situation and emotional needs.
Originality/value –This study creates new knowledge about volunteers’role in the information practices of
asylum seekers, highlighting their unique position both in and outside the asylum system. Information-related
strategies are a novel way of examining the ways to holistically support other people’s information practices,
by understanding that information is intertwined in all kinds of everyday actions and interactions.
Keywords Information-related strategies, Information challenges, Information practices, Asylum seekers,
Asylum process, Volunteers
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
This paper examines the strategies, which volunteers use when working with asylum seekers
to help them with information challenges. Asylum seekers are individuals who pursue
international protection (UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2006). As in many other
European countries, Finland received an exceptionally high number of asylum seekers in
2015, over 32,000 applications, and although the number of applicants has since fallen to
approximately the same level as before 20 15 (2,545 applications in 2021) (Finni sh
Immigration Service, 2022), the situation in 2015 still has an impact on the asylum system
in Finland today. Since 2015, there have been many changes in the legislation and practices in
Finland. These changes have largely made asylum seekers’situation increasingly difficult,
leading to increased numbers of people falling outside the system, leaving them without
asylum services or a residence permit (Pirjatanniemi et al., 2021). While waiting for their
decision, asylum seekers do not have access to all the services that other immigrants have in
Finland, and the Act on the Promotion of Immigrant Integration (FINLEX, 2011;
Integration.fi, 2021) does not apply to asylum seekers, excluding them from integration
Volunteers’
strategies for
supporting
asylum seekers
305
© Hilda Ruokolainen. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and
create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full
attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://
creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The author would like to thank the interview participants for generously sharing their experiences
and the anonymous reviewers for the valuable and constructive feedback.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 3 August 2021
Revised 22 February 2022
Accepted 26 February 2022
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 78 No. 7, 2022
pp. 305-326
Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-08-2021-0148
services. The asylum processes are long, which may create an almost permanent situation of
liminality and uncertainty for many asylum seekers (Lyytinen, 2019, p. 20).
Asylum seekers have challenges related to information that significantly affect their
asylum processes. The challenges essentially form their information practices, i.e. socially
and culturally established ways to identify information needs, seek, use and share
information (Savolainen, 2008, p. 2). There are multiple stages and levels of information
needs, which are not fixed but flexible (Oduntan and Ruthven, 2019, p. 803). Information
needs are complex, associated with the asylum process (Honkasalo, 2017) and different
services and aid (Merisalo, 2017). People going through the asylum process are not a
homogeneous group and therefore have individual information needs. For this reason,
generic information is not always helpful (Martzoukou and Burnett, 2018), and neither is
simply providing information enough to fulfil asylum seekers’information needs (Oduntan
and Ruthven, 2020, p. 7). Navigating the new information environment is not easy, not least
because of insufficient language skills (Aarnitaival, 2012;Gillespie et al., 2016) and the
system’s bureaucratic language (Caidi et al., 2010;Ikonen, 2013). Different social networks are
an important part of asylum seekers’information practices (Borkert et al., 2018;Dekker and
Engbersen, 2014;Elsner et al., 2018). Social networks are also a question of equality among
asylum seekers, as not all networks are equally good (Lloyd et al., 2013). Access to useful
services, again, help with the asylum processes (Oduntan and Ruthven, 2020, p. 12).
Asylum seekers cannot always trust the credibility of information (Caidi et al., 2010, p. 503)
and they come across various kinds of misinformation, including official information,
outdated information, misinformation via gatekeepers and information intermediaries,
misinformation causing false hope and unrealistic expectations, as well as rumours and
distorted information (Ruokolainen and Wid
en, 2020). Moreover, the timing with information
is often off, i.e. asylum seekers receive too much information at the wrong time and
information is no longer available when they could mentally process it (Lloyd et al., 2013;
Mikal and Woodfield, 2015). Significant factors affecting information practices are diverse
issues related to mental health and well-being, including, trauma, stress and social isolation
(Quirke, 2011), liminality (Dekker et al., 2018;Lloyd, 2017) and uncertainty (Brekke, 2004;
Kooy and Bowman, 2019).
Volunteers’active role in supporting asylum seek ers is generally acknowledged
(Jauhiainen, 2017, p. 9). In Finland, volunteering activities became especially popular in
2015, and volunteers were an immense asset to the more established actors, but they also
needed coordination (G€
avert, 2016, p. 49; Niemi and Siirto, 2017, p. 44). In the past few years,
volunteers have increasingly assumed responsibility for services and activities that
authorities have failed to fulfil (Karakayali and Kleist, 2016, p. 66), and volunteering and
humanitarian action in this context have become widely political (Ahonen and Kallius, 2019,
p. 93). Indeed, volunteers have a distinct role in supporting the asylum seekers (Jauhiainen,
2017, p. 9); they help with asylum applications and appeals, act as support persons in the
asylum interviews, and help with, for example, housing and education [1]. Previous studies
have concluded that volunteers are important sources of everyday information, especially
(Kennan et al., 2011, p. 197; Lloyd et al., 2013). Le Louvier and Innocenti (2021) found that
volunteers and charity workers can bolster asylum seekers’integration in society and
support navigation in the new information environment, but only if asylum seekers recognise
them as important information sources.
Sotkasiira (2018) found that volunteers exercise different kinds of expertise than other
actors in the asylum system. Her five dimensions of expertise, based on Bauman (1987,1992,
1996),Raitakari (2002),Smith (2011) and Garrett (2012), are legislative, interpretative, neutral,
critical and activist. Legislative expertise refers to experts who often follow external rules and
perceive to have the right information, which they disclose to clients. Interpretative expertise
involves understanding asylum seekers’diversity of views and respecting them, and experts
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