Newly arrived migrants meet street-level bureaucrats in Jordan, Sweden, and Turkey: Client perceptions of satisfaction–dissatisfaction and response strategies

Abstract The article examines how newly arrived Syrian refugees experience and navigate their encounters with street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) in three urban settings: Adana, Turkey; Gothenburg, Sweden; and Irbid, Jordan. The encounters took place in the context of local government institutions responsible for assisting refugees upon their arrival in the host society. The broader question examined is how refugees respond when experiencing dissatisfaction with their encounters with SLBs in the receiving country. In our analysis, we draw upon the Exit, Voice, Loyalty, Neglect model suggesting different patterns of response to dissatisfaction with public services. We also deploy an additional, understudied response type, Gaming. The degree of satisfaction–dissatisfaction experienced by Syrian refugees and the kind of response strategies they resorted to as a consequence of that experience varied notably from country to country. Syrian refugees in Gothenburg and Adana felt more dissatisfied with and frustrated by their encounters with SLBs than their compatriots in Irbid. The responses of the refugees in Adana were mostly of the Exit and Neglect type. In Gothenburg, on the other hand, interviewees primarily resorted to Neglect and Voice responses, while in Irbid Gaming, Exit, and Loyalty were the most common response strategies opted for to express and act upon one’s dissatisfaction.