Unusually many refugees have arrived in Sweden during the 2010s, only in 2015 did 163,000 refugees seeking for asylum. Many came because of the war in Syria that has been taking place since 2011, but during the period many people have been forced to flee war, violence and natural disasters from a number of other countries as well. A large part of the newly arrived were placed in refugee facilities while waiting for decision of residence permit. Restad Gård, just outside the city Vänersborg, in the west part of Sweden, is one of the biggest refugee facilities in the country. This study is about the situation for the newly arrived refugees at the facility, and especially about the self-organization a group of refugees started under the name Support Group. Initially, the reason for the self-organization was to solve several acute needs and problems at the facility, later on it was developed to a new model for including refugees into the new community, and to involve themselves in the process.
The purpose of the study was to investigate how self-organization among asylum-seekers in the asylum facility was experienced to affect the inclusion process in the new country. Through group interviews and individual interviews we have mainly focused on the asylum-seekers' own experiences of how their activities influenced the inclusion process and relationships with other residents and actors with which they interacted. The asylum-seekers own stories, which are rarely heard, are here given a necessary space. We have also asked for experience among other involved actors, and we highlight relevant media submissions as well as authorities' actions on the matter. It was also our ambition to provide a relatively detailed description of the process during the period in question, 2013-2017, in order to document it. Other topics discussed during the interviews were how the asylum-seekers were received in the new country; how they experienced their time at the facility; how the self-organization started and developed; how collaborations with other actors arose and worked; which their goals with the self-organization were; and if they think they succeed to achieve these. The media material partly reflects how the group communicated its activities outwardly, and partly how local press represented and commented on them. Material from the authorities depicts some of the more formal conditions for the asylum seekers work and how this partially changed over time.
The study shows that work on self-organization has made a difference for the situation of asylum-seekers in several ways; they have created many activities at the asylum facility, which reduced the risk of insomnia, passivation and mental ill health during the often long waiting period; opportunities for preparing and qualifying for an inclusion process have been improved; found methods to quickly bring people into internship and work; people's identities, solidarity and control of their own situation have been strengthened; the image of refugees as passive victims and aid recipients has been partially challenged; many constructive collaborations withother actors have been established and they have created a common voice for the group capable to claim their own needs and wishes.
At the same time, it appears that perceived differences between groups of asylum-seekers sometimes prevent the possibility of reaching all asylum-seekers, and they often have difficulties with being recognised as equal, competent and full-fledged partners as conceptions about "the other" as dependent, passive and beneficiaries dominate, which tend to worsen when they, by other actors, are perceived as competitors for the money that is searchable for inclusion work.
If self-organization among asylum seekers will have the opportunity to continue to develop into new inclusion methods, it might contribute to mobilizing the group's resources and thereby a faster and smoother inclusion process. Central to this is that practical aspects of inclusion - such as work and living, housing, language and education – should be related to ideas about identification and inhesion if newcomers social and cultural position are about to change. Crucial for success is also how authorities and other citizens will respond to, providing space for and utilize the constructive power created by the self-organization.