Felder, Alexandra <br/><br/>
The Role of Asylum Seekers’ Activities in Resisting Attribution Processes 

 -  2009.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 20 
<br/><br/> This paper studies the role of social activities and examines disengagement and resistance in a particular context: the multidimensional environment of the process of asylum seeking characterized by institutional care that assigns a place and an identity to persons subjected to this procedure. In this context, the concept of resistance is understood as a means of action and reaction in a situation of social and identity attribution and even of objectification by the institutional treatment. The activities are an essential element of the resistance process. The confrontation with the environment through activity constitutes an arena of experimentation and a space for negotiation and for resisting the adversity of asylum seekers’ situations. Two methods have been adopted to identify this process of disengagement: (i) the direct observation of asylum seekers’ activities, and (ii) observations based on clinical interviews. Through the activity, the subject takes a place in society. However, for asylum seekers, this place remains fragile and must constantly be renegotiated. The activities of asylum seekers are located midway between “making do” with their situation and attempts to free themselves of the identity assigned to them.