12.M. Workshop: Health and integration of young refugees in Nordic Welfare countries – an equity perspective
Authors:   Organised by: University of Copenhagen (Denmark),   Chair persons: Allan Krasnik – EUPHA-MIG
Published: October 2020

Objectives

The workshop is based on results from the Nordic project CAGE (Coming of Age in Exile) and aims at creating a better understanding of how health, education and employment jointly play a role in the process of integration among young refugees. Results on patterns and trends regarding education, employment and health across the Nordic countries based on the unique Nordic register data will be presented along with analyses of Nordic health reception policies as well as qualitative studies on educational and labour market policies and practices related to young refugees in Norway and Finland.

The Nordic countries are sharing quite similar general welfare schemes and other cultural and historical roots, but at the same time displaying different integration policies. By comparisons of some of the differences between otherwise similar countries we can identify possible effects of policy decisions and disentangle some of the complex processes forming the health and welfare trajectories of the young refugees that have arrived during recent decades.

Nordic CAGE researchers have collaborated since 2015 in studies on similarities and differences between national health and welfare policies with a focus on their significance for refugee health and integration; these results have served as a framework for generating hypotheses and interpreting findings from studies on the different trajectories of the young refugees. Results from time and cohort analyses of comparable register data from each country have been further explained through the policy studies as well as the qualitative studies focusing on the experiences and perceptions of key actors involved in the integration processes.

The workshop will include 5 short presentations (45 minutes in total) - the first introducing and motivating the focus on the interactive dynamics of health, education and employment followed by 4 presentations based on new evidence from the CAGE project. The participants will be invited to discuss the learnings from the Nordic results in an international perspective and their implications for integration policies for different groups of refugees in Europe (15 minutes).

Presentations: Integration of refugees: the interactive dynamics of health, education and employment - a Nordic project, by Signe S Jervelund, 9 min.Educational trends, patterns of employment and selected health indicators among young refugees: results from a Nordic comparative analysis based on register data, by Andrea Dunlavy, 10 min.A healthy start: A comparative analysis of health reception policies for asylum-seeking and refugee children in the Nordic countries, by Camilla Michaëlis, 8 min.Young refugees' pathways in(to) education - Teacher and student voices: challenges, opportunities and dilemmas, by Ketil Eide and Hans A. Hauge, 9 min.Two-way labour market integration? Perspectives on youth with a refugee background and employers in Finland, by Eveliina Lyytinen, 9 min.

Key messages

Welfare policies related to refugees need to take into account the interrelations between inclusive health care, successful education and entrance into the labour markets. Multidisciplinary, international comparative studies can provide important new evidence on the role of different migration policies for the health and social trajectories of young refugees.