- Forced migration and refugee health
Health, education and labor market integration in refugees (HEaL)
HEaL will investigate how mental health is linked to labor market participation among refugees in the years following resettlement. The study will have a mixed-methods approach, combining survey and register data on work, health and migration-related stress with qualitative interviews with refugee women from Ukraine and Syria. The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway.
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Facts about the project
Period
2024-2028
Category
Partners
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Swedish Red Cross University, UNSW, Weill Cornell Medical College
Financing
The Research Council of Norway
Background
An abundance of international studies shows that refugees have an elevated burden of mental health problems and persistently lower employment rates than other migrant groups. Good health is a prerequisite for participating in society (Meld. St. 5, 2022–2023) and given Norway’s ambition of a sustainable and inclusive welfare state, it is important to understand the significance of refugees’ mental health for their labor market participation.
Recent research suggests that mental health in particular may play a central role in long-term exclusion from working life, possibly by disrupting the acquisition of skills and the establishment of social networks in a critical early phase. Refugees often carry with them traumatic experiences from before and during flight, and additionally face strains after arrival, such as language barriers, economic insecurity and discrimination.
Although the elevated burden of mental health problems among refugees is well documented, few studies have examined how mental health and labor market participation are interconnected over time. HEaL aims to help fill this knowledge gap.
Project description
The overall goal of HEaL is to contribute new and important evidence that can strengthen the knowledge base for policy development and practice. The project will produce knowledge across the health, welfare and labor sectors that can help promote refugees’ long-term integration and labor market participation.
HEaL is one of the first studies internationally to link individual-level survey data on trauma, migration-related stress and mental health with longitudinal registry data on work participation/sick-leave, while also exploring women’s own experiences through qualitative interviews.
In one part of the project, data from Sweden is also included. This comparative perspective on Norway and Sweden offers a novel international contribution.
The project will adopt a holistic perspective and, in its analytical approach, incorporate several of the factors believed to be important for refugees’ integration in a new country. This will include potentially traumatic experiences prior to arrival in Norway, and post-migration stressors such as perceived discrimination and economic hardship. Gender-specific patterns and relationships will be central in all parts of the project.
HEaL employs a mixed-methods design and includes three work packages (WPs) that complement each other. In WP1, registry data are used for all refugees who came to Norway in the period 2008–18 (N > 50,000). The focus of WP1 is to examine whether the use of mental health services in an early phase is associated with later participation in work and education. This includes use of mental health services during the Introduction Programme.
In WP2, survey data on trauma, post-migration stressors and mental health are linked to registry data on work and healthcare service utilization among Syrian refugees in Norway and Sweden. The project examines how these factors, individually and in combination, are associated with long-term labor market participation, and whether the associations vary by gender and between the two countries.
In WP3, at least 20 Ukrainian and 20 Syrian refugee women who are currently employed or seeking employment will be interviewed to explore what they themselves experience as barriers and facilitating factors for labor market participation. The interviews will particularly examine how mental health and gender roles come into play, and which measures the women themselves believe could increase refugee women’s participation in working life.
The project is a collaboration between the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS), the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and international research groups in Sweden (Red Cross University College), Australia (University of New South Wales) and the USA (Weill Cornell Medical College).