FAMREUN Family Reunification and Unaccompanied Refugee Minors: Psychosocial Health, Integration and Support Services

The FAMREUN project will research the psychosocial health and integration of unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) who have been reunited with their families in Norway, and on the support services who work with them. Since 2015, nearly 2000 URMs have been granted family reunification in Norway. Family reunification has been recognized as an important aspect of psychosocial health. Reuniting family members in a safe and secure environment improves the wellbeing of former refugees and benefits their integration and contribution to society. The aim of the project is to gain knowledge of these young people’s experiences of family reunification, and of the health and integration services’ experiences of working with URM who have been family-reunited. This knowledge will be used to optimise the quality, competence, effectiveness, and cooperation between these services. The project is based on a user-centred approach and qualitative approach. We will interview URMs, their family members, and employees of the service-providers working with them. We will also conduct observations at sites where URM meet family and friends, support and school services. The URM we work with will produce video diaries where they share thoughts, situations, and experiences. We will also analyse texts produced by the support services. The project’s researchers are specialists in public health, social anthropology, social work, education, and gender and migration studies.

The project investigates how family reunification affects the psychosocial health and integration of unaccompanied refugee minors (URM), and the role of support healthcare and integration services in this process. The project’s starting point is the proven links between health and integration, and health and family relations. Research show that refugees are more vulnerable for drivers of ill health than the native-born population across the health continuum, while experiencing more barriers to accessing health services. Tackling health vulnerabilities and providing equal access to health care is therefore essential both for public health and to ensure inclusive societies. URM is a particularly vulnerable group with regards to psychosocial health, and family reunification is seen as potentially improving their wellbeing but also posing challenges. By producing new and actionable knowledge about 1) URM’s experiences related to family reunification, and 2) health and integration services’ experiences of working with URM who have been family-reunited, the project will contribute to make services better adapted to their needs, thereby improving health and integration outcomes for this group, in the interests of a more inclusive society. FAMREUN takes an interdisciplinary approach, encompassing public health, social anthropology, social work, education, gender and migration studies. It adopts qualitative, user-centred research and practice involving close collaboration with URM, their families and local healthcare and integration services as well as with nationally and internationally renowned researchers in the health and integration fields. By anchoring its research in the salutogenetic model of health the project will adopt a holistic approach which will facilitate the investigation of the complex interplay between individual, relational and social factors, and relevant public service provision.