Man promenerar i dimma - En studie av flyktingars berättelser om asylprocessen
This essay is based on seven lifestoryinterviews with people who are undergoing orhave undergone a long asylum process. Four women and three men have contributedwith their stories about their experiences of waiting for a determination of theirapplication for residence permit. The main aim of the essay is to give betterunderstanding of how to be a refugee and a long asylum process affects people's abilityto narrate and thus examine their opportunities to be active in the construction of theirown identity.The questions that are debated and discussed are:? What can it mean for an individual's identity to escape her country and for a longtime wait for decision of asylum?? What stories can be told?? What reality are highlighted as central in the stories?? How do they handle their situation and give meaning to their lives?The analysis is based on two main theoretical perspectives: narrative theory and identitytheory. The approach is that people create meaning of events through storytelling andthat they through this process of narrating construct (and reconstruct) their identities -the self image as one have and wants to present to others.In the analysis three different types of stories are distinguished, stories that arerepresented in the empirical material: the story that can not be told, the story that mustbe told and the story that are gladly told. The study shows that my intervieweesexperiences of the asylum process for most of them can not be told. The stories depict areality marked by uncertainty, a feeling of being mistrusted, and powerlessness. A clearresult is that the asylum process affects people's stories, identity and self image.Managing the conditions of waiting occupy my interwiewees stories and the possiobilityto reflect over ones own identity becomes therefore completely engulfed of uncertainty.The title of the paper summarizes the results of the study well - waiting forasylum is like walking in fog. As asylum seekers are living with the constant questionof what will happen tomorrow and what will happen after the asylum process. Notknowing anything about the future makes it very difficult, not to say impossible, tocreate a coherent story and self image.