‘Good life is first of all security, not to live in fear’: a qualitative exploration of female refugees’ quality of life in the United Kingdom

There is growing interest in using Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) as a framework to assess the quality of life and well-being. The aim of the current paper was to use an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach using the CA framework to explore what constitutes a ‘good life’ for female refugees post-resettlement in the UK. Four focus groups with 16 women were conducted in Liverpool. Data was analysed using an IPA. The women’s experiences revealed three highly interconnected superordinate themes necessary to achieve a ‘good life’; (i) legal security, (ii) social cohesion and (iii) personal agency. The personal agency was the most prominent theme. The women described a ‘good life’ to be dependent on gaining a refugee status, suggesting this may constitute a basic capability for refugee women in the UK. After which, higher-order capabilities can be pursued such as exploring one’s agency, gaining a sense of belonging in the UK, developing a future and building and sustaining a sense of connectedness with others. Studies such as this one can inform the development of more nuanced approaches to assessing and measuring quality of life and well-being of female refugees in high-income countries such as the UK.