Rationale: Scholars in occupational therapy and occupational science have explored various forms of occupational injustice, including occupational deprivation, occupational alienation, and occupational marginalisation, along with their detrimental effects on the health and well-being of individuals who experience these injustices. Although some of these concepts address certain aspects of the occupational experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, it seems essential to explore the notion of ‘occupational othering’ as a new dimension, considering the complexities of their experiences. Occupational othering refers to the process of marginalising individuals in their occupational choices due to systemic discrimination, internalised oppression, and misrepresentation.
Objectives: To introduce the concept of occupational othering within occupational science. To highlight the experiences of occupational othering faced by refugees and asylum seekers in the UK as a case study.
Method: Discourse analysis will be employed as a method to analyse political discussions in the UK concerning refugees and asylum seekers, demonstrating how these discourses result in occupational othering.
Results: An analysis of the political discourse surrounding forced immigration reveals how these narratives can lead to occupational othering through marginalisation, misrepresentation, and internalised oppression of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.
Conclusion: Asylum seekers and refugees in the UK experience occupational othering. While this research employed the concept of occupational othering to illustrate the experiences of forced migration, it also has the potential for further study in other case studies on occupational injustices.