Occupational participation in transitional spaces: Influences of hotel accommodation on asylum-seeking people in Wales

Introduction The United Kingdom government increasingly provides shelter to asylum-seeking people in the form of hotel rooms. As research suggests that they face barriers to occupational participation, this study explored whether and how hotel accommodation in a large Welsh city facilitates or restricts their occupational participation.Method This interpretivist study employed qualitative research methods to generate and analyse data from four people with recent or current lived experience of hotel accommodation and the asylum-seeking process, plus a staff member from a relevant third sector organisation. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and organised into four main themes.Findings Hotel accommodation was identified as a contributor to occupational deprivation, characterised by environmental restrictions, loss of agency, and barriers to integration. Third sector organisations and friendships emerged as key to overcoming some aspects of occupational deprivation and facilitating occupational participation. Discussion of themes was grounded in the occupational dimensions of doing, being, becoming, and belonging.Conclusion Hotel accommodation contributes to occupational deprivation among asylum-seeking people in Wales, with implications for mental and physical health, agency, and integration prospects. Third sector organisations provide invaluable but precarious pathways to occupational participation, thereby promoting well-being within this population.