| 1. |
- Pelters, Pelle, Ph.D. 1972-, et al.
(author)
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“This Group is Like a Home to Me:” understandings of health of LGBTQ refugees in a Swedish health-related integration intervention: a qualitative study
- 2022
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In: BMC Public Health. - London : Springer Nature. - 1471-2458. ; 22:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: When large numbers of asylum seekers immigrate to a country, civil society is encouraged to contribute to their integration. A subgroup of asylum seekers comprising lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) refugees are specifically deemed vulnerable to developing health and integration problems due to the double stigma of being a sexual/gender minority and a refugee. The Swedish Federation for LGBTQ Rights (RFSL) is a civil societal organization that has established the support group “RFSL Newcomers,” a health-related integration intervention that targets such refugees. The aim of the present study is reconstructing the subjective understanding of health of LGBTQ refugees.Methods: Eleven participants in Newcomers and eight organizers were interviewed about LGBTQ refugees’ experiences of migrating and participating in RFSL Newcomers. Qualitative content analysis was used to reconstruct subjective understandings of health that were constructed in these narratives. As the data did not originally concentrate on exploring understandings of health, a broad theoretical approach was used as a heuristic for the analysis, which focused on the common everyday approach of conceptualizing health as wellbeing.Results: The narratives revealed three interconnected, interdependent categories of understanding health in which tensions occur between wellbeing and ill-being: belonging versus alienation, security and safety versus insecurity, and recognition versus denial. The categories contribute to an overarching theme of health as framed freedom – i.e., freedom framed by conditions of society.Conclusions: For our participants, belonging, recognition, and security/safety are conceptual elements of understanding health, not its social determinants. Thus, these understandings emphasize relational and existential meanings of health (theoretical implication). As for practical implications, the understandings of health were connected to being either inside or outside the Newcomers group and a new society, depending on whether LGBTQ refugees comply with social requirements. As a significant actor that is representative of the cultural majority and a facilitator of LGBTQ refugees’ resettlement process, RFSL provides LGBTQ refugees with crucial orientations for becoming a “good migrant” and a “good LGBTQ person,” yet a “bad bio-citizen.” Generally, organizers of interventions may enhance the effectiveness of their interventions when relational, existential, and biomedical understandings of health are all incorporated.
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| 2. |
- Pelters, Pelle, 1972-, et al.
(author)
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Health-related integration interventions for migrants by civil society organizations: an integrative review
- 2021
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In: International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being. - Abingdon : Informa UK Limited. - 1748-2623 .- 1748-2631. ; 16:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: Migrants are a vulnerable group concerning health and integration. Civil society organizations are deemed important for the integration and health of migrants and have been encouraged to help. This study explored health and acculturation, as expressed in research into health-related integration interventions for migrant groups provided by civil society organizations. Methods: Databases, journal websites and reference lists were searched in an integrative review. Thirteen articles were found and analysed using concepts of health strategies/perspectives and of acculturation with regard to general and health culture. Results: Studies were divided between two primary spectrums: 1) assimilation-integration and 2) integration-separation spectrum. Spectrum 1 interventions tend to promote assimilation into the present host culture and into a Western view of health. They are mostly driven by representatives of the host culture. Spectrum 2 interventions are characterized by a greater openness concerning the home-culture understandings of health, alongside an appreciation of the home culture in general. They are mostly migrant-driven. Conclusions: The different acculturating approaches in migrant and native-driven civil society organizations call for an awareness of their guiding health and acculturation assumptions and their applied perspectives and strategies. This awareness is considered crucial in order to achieve desired health and acculturation outcomes.
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| 3. |
- Bergström-Wuolo, Maya, et al.
(author)
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My heart has no hurt : The health of young immigrants
- 2018
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In: International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care. - Bingley : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1747-9894 .- 2042-8650. ; 14:3, s. 290-304
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore health from the perspective of young immigrants in Sweden.Design/methodology/approach: A total of 25 newly arrived young immigrants attending Swedish language classes in northern Sweden participated by drawing and writing open letters. They continued the open-ended sentence “Now I’ll draw and describe a day when I was feeling good, that was […].”Findings: The phenomenological analysis resulted in three themes: longing to be in control for a better life, searching for power in the good and the bad, and striving for a sense of belonging in the new society. The findings illuminate young immigrants’ perspectives of a health-promoting everyday life consisting of agency, reflection and a sense of community. The findings also highlight the young immigrants’ experiences when health-promoting aspects are lacking, characterized by disillusionment, anxiety and loneliness. The findings are discussed with health promotion, health literacy and young immigrants in mind.Practical implications: According to young immigrants, meeting basic needs such as food, sleep and housing is health promoting but easily taken for granted. Being able to have a say in matters concerning everyday life, social inclusion and finding power in memories – positive and negative – can promote health in young immigrants.Originality/value: The young immigrants were able to communicate via drawings and words to overcome language barriers. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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| 4. |
- Misund Dahl, Berit, et al.
(author)
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The Nordic perspective on migration and empowerment
- 2021
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In: Health Promotion International. - : Oxford University Press. - 0957-4824 .- 1460-2245. ; 36:1, s. 216-222
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- International migration is a complex phenomenon that touches on a multiplicity of economic, social and security aspects affecting our daily lives. In the Nordic countries’ migration is a contentious political topic as the number of migrants has significantly increased in recent decades. The aim of this study is to analyse governmental policy documents on migrants in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and to identify and compare how they are described within an empowerment perspective. A critical discourse analysis was undertaken of each Nordic country. The findings revealed that all four documents placed migrants in a passive position in regard to decision-making and that an empowerment perspective was lacking. Migrants are similarly treated in each Nordic country as a problem to deal with rather than as a possible resource for the society and the approach seeks to protect the welfare state and the culture of the country. The lack of empowerment perspective may be having a negative impact on the health and well-being of migrants and on their integration in the Nordic society. The article concludes by raising several questions in regard to migration and empowerment in the Nordic context.
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| 5. |
- Alerby, Eva, et al.
(author)
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A silent message is also a message
- 2005
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In: A Nordic dimension in education and research - myth or reality?. ; , s. 83-
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- "Dammed taxi cab!" A twelve year old student wrote these words in the margins of a questionnaire in school concerning psychosocial well-being. Within this paper they will serve as a point of departure for the discussion. Can the messages found on the sides of the squares intended for an X in a questionnaire be considered non-messages? Or are these expressions indeed messages that are made silent and therefore can be considered silent messages? Then one might wonder what the meanings of the silent messages are that often occurs in questionnaires? Can, or maybe should, we take notice of these silent messages? According to Polanyi every human being has silent and unexpressed dimensions within themselves, which acknowledge situations where we recognise that we know more than we can explain. This is also stressed by Merleau-Ponty, who argued that something exists beyond what is said, and Bateson emphasised that a non-message is also a message - the silence tells us something. Within this paper we will highlight and discuss the significance of silent messages of communication in general, and especially in questionnaires.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Alerby, Eva, et al.
(author)
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'Dammed taxi cab' : how silent communication in questionnaires can be understood and used to give voice to children's experiences
- 2011
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In: International Journal of Research and Method in Education. - 1743-727X .- 1743-7288. ; 34:2, s. 117-130
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 'Dammed taxi cab' - a 12-year-old boy wrote these words in the margins of a questionnaire, and within this paper they will serve as a point of departure for the discussion of the use of questionnaires as a way to voice children's experiences. The overall aim of this paper is to enable understanding of and discuss the use of questionnaires as a way to voice children's experiences. An analysis in accordance with a life-world approach has provided the lens through which to explore messages that can occur in questionnaires. The key research questions that will be explored in an attempt to answer the overall aim are: (i) how can unanswered questions and notes in the margins of a questionnaire be understood? and (ii) why is a questionnaire not always completed, according to the intention of its creators? To develop an understanding of this we analysed a number of questionnaires with unanswered questions and notes in the margins using a life-world approach. During the analysis two themes emerged: silent messages and messages being silenced. Finally, we discuss the legitimacy of questionnaires in childhood research and possible implications for practice when using this method to give voice to children's experiences.
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| 8. |
- Alerby, Eva, et al.
(author)
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”Det ska vara kul att lära!” : Skolan som den bästa platsen för lärande
- 2012
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In: Forskning om undervisning och lärande. - 2000-9674 .- 2001-6131. ; 8, s. 41-49
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Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Inom ramen för denna artikel diskuterar vi såväl den psykosociala som den fysiska miljön i skolan. Vidare argumenterar vi för att skolans miljö är av betydelse för elevernas möjligheter att lära sig, likväl som för deras upplevelser av lärandesituationerna. Särskilt intressant blir då att lyssna till eleverna. Syftet med denna artikel är därför att synliggöra och diskutera elevers röster i förhållande till hur skolan kan bli den bästa platsen för lärande. Detta görs med utgångspunkt i forskningsprojektet ”Skolan suger” eller?, där drygt 200 elever i åldrarna 11–15 år deltog. Eleverna fick skriftligen reflektera över hur skolan ska bli en riktigt bra lärandemiljö. För att utveckla skolan till den bästa platsen för lärande uttryckte eleverna en önskan att kunna påverka sin lärandemiljö, att uppnå ömsesidighet och samspel, att kunna hantera tidsregleringen i skolan, samt att uppfylla behov för välbefinnande.
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| 9. |
- Alerby, Eva, et al.
(author)
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Lasten hyvinvointi ell – näkökulmia aiheeseen
- 2008
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In: Psykososiaalisen hyvinvoinnin edistäminen opetustyössä. - Rovaniemi : Lapin yliopistokustannus. - 9789524842280 ; , s. 39-46
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
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| 10. |
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