A multi‐level process perspective on refugee workplace integration

This article looks into differences and similarities between former labour migrants' and today's refugees' workplace integration and asks what role German industrial relations play in integration processes. Drawing on more than 150 interviews, document analysis and three employee attitude surveys, conducted in the course of three research projects, a crucial finding is that despite some differences between labour migrants and refugees in terms of labour market access, education and support programmes, in both cases, workplace integration often works better than integration in German society in general. The integration of both groups is fostered by ‘pragmatic cooperation’ of workers, which is based on everyday encounters and promotes collegiality, and by universal rules for all workers, including the active and passive right to elect works councils. German industrial relations provide the institutional frame for this ‘workplace universalism’. However, workplace integration is under pressure due to polarized societal discourses and eroding industrial relations.

Employment underpins the successful resettlement and integration of refugees, and human resource (HR) professionals are integral to successful employee–employer relationships. Until recently, research has largely overlooked the role of HR professionals in the recruitment and integration of employees at work. Reviewing the literature on refugee employment through an HR lens, this review offers insights and practical solutions that contribute to the effective recruitment and workplace integration of refugees. We identify strategies such as onboarding programs, job enrichment and internships that offer realistic job previews, and the opportunity for people from a refugee background to validate and demonstrate their credentials. In addition, we describe the benefits of organisations’ engagement in external relationship management to champion changes in industrial relations and foster cross‐sector partnerships that aid refugee employment. In the discussion, we describe the practical implications of our review, and highlight directions for future research that addresses different stakeholder needs and priorities.

Decentralization of collective bargaining has become widespread in developed economies, and EU policies have pushed this trend further. We use process-tracing methodology to explore the consequences of decentralization for the reproduction of partnership bargaining relations at company level. We compare two cases of decentralized bargaining in manufacturing, one in Denmark and one in Australia. Agreement-based decentralization seems to offer better process conditions for reproduction of local partnership compared to decentralization regulated by law. This implies that future decentralization measures should be negotiated rather than imposed.

The arrival of refugee claimants in Canada generates interest, controversy and heated debates from the Canadian body politic. Oftentimes, the voices of the refugees are absent from the debates about them and the policies and practices developed to deal with them. Through qualitative interviews, this study examines the experiences of refugees who fled persecution in their countries and came to Canada where they made successful applications for refugee protection. By documenting refugees experiences and their perceptions of these experiences, the study seeks to contribute to the debate on refugees by presenting their perspectives on Canada's inland refugee claim process. The study shows that apart from enduring the pains of persecution from which they fled, refugees also face serious challenges on their journeys to seek refugee protection in Canada. One of the main challenge[s] facing refugees when they arrive in Canada is the complex process of refugee determination and settlement that they have to go through. This paper takes the position that documenting the experiences of successful refugee claimants in Canada can be a good starting point from where to revisit our debates, polices and practices on refugees in a bid to establish a refugee protection system that adequately adheres to national and international refugee legislation while at the same time promoting a more responsive and humane approach to the needs of people fleeing persecution in their respective countries.

Background and aims: Recent decades have seen material shifts in global migration flows. Migrants now come to the UK for an increasing number of reasons and from an increasing number of countries. This presents a challenge for health services that must provide care to individuals with a broad range of needs. In particular, there is concern that asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs) are at heightened risk of poor wellbeing and of receiving suboptimal healthcare. Concurrent with these shifts in migration, increasing attention is being paid to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which are now the most significant drivers of morbidity and mortality in most regions of the world. In the UK, the burden of NCDs is not evenly distributed, with inequalities related to ethnicity and socioeconomic status shaping an individual’s risk of ill health. Little is known, however, about how diverse migrant groups, including ASRs, conceptualise health and respond to health prevention messaging. Against this backdrop, this thesis aims to understand the health-related experiences of one such group – asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs) from Sub Saharan Africa living in Glasgow Scotland. Specifically, it explores: a) perceptions of health, wellbeing, and illness causation, b) experiences of accessing primary and preventive healthcare, and c) the factors influencing these perceptions and experiences. It also seeks to elucidate professional perspectives on ASR health. Methods: To gain an in depth understanding of ASR health perceptions and experiences, as well as professional perspectives, a focused ethnography was undertaken. This approach utilised four qualitative methods: community engagement, participatory focus groups, semistructured interviews, and go- along interviews. In total 12 primary care and public health professionals were interviewed, and 27 ASRs took part in either a focus group, an interview, or both. The thesis took a theoretically informed approach, seeking to determine whether and how two theories – ‘candidacy’ (Dixon-Woods et al 2005) and ‘structural vulnerability’ (Quesada et al 2011) – might deepen our understanding of ASR health. Results: Candidacy enhanced understanding of how ASRs identified and responded to messages about ‘healthy lifestyles’. ASR participants considered keeping healthy to be an individual responsibility, with diet and exercise highlighted as especially important. At the same time, however, perceptions and experiences of health and wellbeing were shaped by a number of structural influences, which limited the capacity of ASRs to engage in health practices. Therefore, while ASRs considered health to be an individual choice in theory, they did not necessarily feel they had the ability to be healthy in practice. The theory of structural vulnerability proved useful in identifying the wider structural determinants that impacted on an individual’s capacity to respond. There were several important structural influences, including poverty, racism, discrimination, and language barriers. The greatest negative influence, however, and one that compounded all the others, was the asylum process. This diminished individuals’ capacity to identify as candidates for prevention messages, engage in preventive health practices, and/ or access care in an optimal fashion. Conclusions: Efforts to engage ASRs in preventive health programmes and practices must take into account the ways in which the immigration and asylum system acts as a determinant of health, affecting both what it means to be healthy and what capacity individuals have to engage. The NHS, together with non statutory bodies, has a role to play in mitigating some of the vulnerabilities to which ASRs are subject.

BackgroundGender-based violence (GBV) is an internationally widespread human rights and public health issue, known to be exacerbated and underreported in humanitarian settings and among conflict-affected populations. A combination of factors including increased vulnerability, lack of protection and marginalization are believed to increase the risk for GBV in settings such as displacement and refugee camps. An increased understanding of GBV in these populations is needed to inform and improve future policy changes and interventions. This qualitative study sought to explore women’s perceptions and experiences of GBV in a refugee camp setting in Uganda to increase the understanding of the dynamics and risk contexts of GBV in the context of displacement and refugee camps.MethodsThis was a qualitative study based on individual semi-structured interviews and content analysis. The interviews were conducted during October 2023 with women living in a refugee camp setting in Western Uganda. The participants (N = 13) included female refugees, residing in the refugee camp, above eighteen years of age and who were survivors of GBV.ResultsFindings showed no easy escape route from gender-based violence, with a high exposure to GBV throughout the refugee experience. The nature of GBV, the perpetrators and risk contexts however seemed to shift throughout the process from conflict to the refugee camp. Increased marginalization and lack of resources compounded by a shift in gender roles in the refugee camp where women seemed to assume the role of the primary provider increased the risk of violence in pursuit of basic needs. Women described extensive intimate partner violence (IPV) in the camp often connected to new gendered power dynamics and the control of resources. Faced with the struggles of migration, marginalization, and GBV, women displayed various coping mechanisms including rebuilding networks and support systems.ConclusionsOur study showed the complexity of GBV in settings such as refugee camps, where various structural and individual changes involved in migration and life in a refugee camp seemed to create new risk contexts for GBV both inside and outside of the household. Interventions across various dimensions including addressing underlying conditions of marginalization and gendered power dynamics are therefore warranted to address GBV in refugee camps. Further research is essential to better understand this complex issue, as well as the perception and effectiveness of services and interventions in place.

Children’s mental health services research is both challenged and enriched by the complex environment of services and supports that exist for children and their families. It is a context in which the structures and processes that define children’s mental health are diffused across multiple sectors and the pathways to care are unclear, unavailable, and often inappropriate for the children and families most in need of services and support. 1,2 This context presents a challenging research environment because it requires the development of knowledge and understanding within diffused service settings, across multiple and often multifaceted funding and service structures, and in collaboration with multiple stakeholders and an array of public and private agencies. The complexity of the research environment in which children’s mental health research is conducted creates methodological challenges that make it difficult for researchers to study phenomena objectively and independently of the natural service delivery settings. How do we understand the functioning of children’s service systems when they are composed of so many individual and dynamic parts? How do we understand the individual components of systems when we cannot isolate them from their multiple influences and interconnections? Either way, this makes for a research environment in which there are no clear starting points, it is difficult to isolate an intervention or create a control group, and researchers cannot assume that any variables are truly independent. Yet, these issues are faced daily in children’s mental health services research. This complex research environment also offers advantages. It is rich in opportunities to build knowledge that is based on experience and context, to build evidence of what works, and provide understanding of how successful service delivery models can be adapted to meet local needs. This special issue of the Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research (JBHS&R) on qualitative methods explores that opportunity. The goal of this special issue is to examine the process of conducting research in the real-world settings of children’s mental health and to learn more about those settings from the people who are part of them. The use of qualitative methods to build the knowledge base in children’s mental health services research is growing. Qualitative research methods are valued in developing knowledge through experience and context, in understanding multiple perspectives on an issue or topic, and in understanding the complexity in which phenomena exist. 3–5 Because child-serving environments

In 2016, based on a qualitative study in nine universities, we published findings and policy recommendations on programs for refugees in the German higher education system. Since then many public and private efforts have been made and a significant amount of federal funds has been spent in order to support refugees in pursuing their academic aspirations. However, in spite of all those ambitious programs on different levels, there is reason to believe that some crucial barriers remain the same. In our contribution we shed light on those remaining challenges by comparing selected findings from 2016 with recent findings from desk research and participant observations. Taking into account tendencies and shifts in the debate on asylum in Germany, we argue that meritocratic and restrictive logics converge in both higher education and refugee politics.

With a significant increase in the obesity epidemic in China, addressing adolescent obesity should be highlighted as a priority. The current qualitative study aims to explore the perspectives of key stakeholders regarding adolescent obesity, providing guidance for developing effective obesity interventions for Chinese adolescents. A total of 12 focus group discussions were convened with a range of representative stakeholders including adolescents (n = 37), parents (n = 28), and school staff (n = 21) from sample schools. Semi-structured topic guides were used for data collection. All data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. From multiple stakeholder perspectives, we finally identified 3 overarching themes (Understanding adolescent obesity, Key healthy lifestyles, and Barriers to obesity prevention practices) and 8 sub-themes. While participants had mixed perceptions of status and prevalence of adolescent obesity, all acknowledged the serious health consequences associated with it. As significant modifiable risk factors, unhealthy diet and physical activity were identified to be prevalent among Chinese teenagers and lead to excessive weight gain. However, a variety of individual, environmental and sociocultural factors hindered the implementation of healthy lifestyles, affecting adolescent obesity prevention and control. Given adolescent obesity is a complex, multifactorial and multilevel public issue, comprehensive lifestyle interventions are recommended that synergistically engage multiple stakeholders across key communities to fight the ongoing obesity epidemic.

For many decades travel and learning have been closely linked, as activities carried out in close interaction with the host are claimed to broaden the horizon of the traveler. This concept is brought into education in the form of school trips. In-class curriculum can be enhanced by making trips to specific places outdoors to obtain hands-on experiences and learning based-on-context. Furthermore, school trips are often justified through their appeal because of their potential for multiple learning purposes and significant learning outcomes outdoors. However, research to date regarding educational trips and their outcomes are mostly ignored in the context of developing countries such as Indonesia. Much of the research on school trips often focused on technical aspects and neglected the curriculum as the core elements of experiential learning and seemed to ignore the voices of students as the subject in school trips. Moreover, these studies have also focused on teaching effectiveness with an limited understanding of how other parties such as school teachers and related stakeholders involved make sense of school trips based on their experience. This thesis addresses this lack of research by exploring how experiential learning via school trips in the outdoor education setting is perceived and contributes to students’ learning in the Papua, Indonesia context. The current qualitative study was conducted in Jayapura, Papua province of Indonesia. School trips were linked to in class curriculum through lessons on Papuan arts and culture, and Papuan local content, and organized to two cultural venues (cultural museum of Cenderawasih University and Abar cultural village). Three groups of participants were involved in the research namely secondary level students in two schools, secondary level teachers and what the researcher considered as multiple stakeholders in school trips (local government staff, academicians, and people in charge in the venues). Data was collected through reflective diaries and interviews and grounded theory was used to analyze the data. From student’ lenses, school trips have seen to mediate abstract concepts of concrete action, enriching interpersonal skills, promoting actual cultural issues, provide engagement and novelty. It is also found that teachers articulated school trips as a means to integrate experiential learning through motivating active learning for students and covering their weaknesses in presenting Papuan cultural arts and local lesson content. Teachers also indicated the major concepts of how the trips can enrich classroom learning, escaping students’ boredom through excitement, enabling multidisciplinary learning-combined impact, and contributing to students’ cultural and environmental values. Learning from multiple stakeholders’ lenses, the main contributions are three-fold: shaping cultural values and identity of learners; curriculum demand; and a strategy to attract students’ enthusiasm. Elaborating the barriers, students mostly stressed on learning commitment and this can also be affected by teachers’ role in managing students during experiential learning sessions. Apart from the density of materials students noted to carry out the topic, facilities and human resource capacity were also claimed to be constraints. Meanwhile, teachers and stakeholders shared similar barriers such as funding and bureaucracy. Teachers also suggested the internal barriers from schools such as lack of support and adjustment in teaching timetable; while an overlapping hierarchy was identified by multiple stakeholders questioning responsibility and regulation. This work is significant in addressing the questions of proximal relations among the parties involved (students, teachers and multiple stakeholders) to understand the research problem. It brought together the voices derived from different perspectives to generate the findings and add to discussion. This research provides a holistic model of experiential learning perceived through school trips in relation to Papuan arts and culture and Papuan local content. It contributes to the body of knowledge and enhance conversations on methods, theory and practice, in particular in the context of developing countries. Further research from an educational perspective could seek to examine the effect of how the experiential learning within school trips can be stored and recalled as a memorable experience. Another issue of further consideration in tourism and travel studies which can be implied from this study is that of the cultural venues’ impact on student visitors’ cross-cultural understanding based on different cultural backgrounds.

Provision of health services to urban refugees is challenging given wide dispersal and tenuous legal status, particularly in regions where host population urban residents also face limited access to health care. This study aims to understand Burmese refugee and asylum-seeker experiences accessing health care in New Delhi, India. During March 2012, investigators from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative in collaboration with the Chin Human Rights Organization conducted focus group discussions and key informant interviews in New Delhi. Qualitative analysis identified the following three overlapping categories with regard to health care access: discrimination, poor quality health services, and financial barriers to obtaining health care. Of these, discrimination is the most prominent. Efforts to provide health services to urban refugees in New Delhi must address discrimination, in addition to advocating for access to national health systems and reduction of financial barriers, in order to be acceptable to the urban refugee community.

BackgroundNursing education programs are designed to decrease the gap between theory and practice. It is believed that internship programs can decrease this gap. An internship program has newly been implemented in Kermanshah Nursing School. However, the efficiency of this program has not been assessed. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore the challenges related to the internship education of nursing students.MethodsThe study was conducted as qualitative research. The participants were eight nursing students who had at least one semester of experience in internship. They were selected through purposive sampling. Data gathering was done through semi-structured interviews, which were recorded and analyzed through a three-stage content analysis approach. For data management, MAXQDA-10 was used.ResultsOut of the eight participants, three were male, and all were in the final year of their education. In total, 423 primary codes emerged after analyses, which were placed in seven categories, including: education before internship, lack of support, planning difficulties, interaction with staff, invisible evaluation, welfare defects, and professional identity.ConclusionThe study revealed the challenges of the internship program for nursing students in Iran. Some of the problems were related to educational background, others were associated with the shortcomings of the cultural aspects of the context. Therefore, it is recommended to optimize the clinical training of nursing students in the internship program by addressing these challenges.

Emotional literacy (EL) provides a basis for understanding how relationships between teachers and students contribute to effective learning. This facet of schooling is central to the growing interest in positive education and the place of positive psychology in schooling. As schools are relational organisations, EL provides a cornerstone for building pro-social values and social-emotional skills that can help make schools more satisfying places to work and learn. The thesis comprises two interrelated studies of multiple stakeholders’ perspectives of EL in a case study school (school executive (n=4), school counsellors (n=2), teachers (n=89), students (n=509)). An ecological systems view provided the theoretical underpinning for utilising a participatory action research (PAR) approach. Study 1 examined the status of EL to determine strengths, barriers, and areas that would benefit from school-derived EL interventions. Multiple stakeholders (n=215): leading teachers (n=3), School Counsellor (n=1), teachers (n=33), and students (n=178) participated in Study 1 by completing a survey and participating in focus groups (n=2) and interviews (n=4). Study 2 explicated and implemented school-derived EL interventions through PAR and elucidated the impact of the EL interventions on EL. Study 2 aimed to identify the features of an emotionally literate school. Multiple stakeholders (n=396: School Executive (n=3), School Counsellors (n=2), teachers (n=56), and students (n=331)) participated in Study 2 by completing the survey utilised in Study 1 in two waves of data. Teachers (n=6), students (n=4), and school counsellors (n=2) participated in focus groups or an interview after the EL interventions were implemented to determine the impact of the interventions and how their views about EL evolved. Using qualitative analysis methods the research findings informed school-derived EL intervention strategies. Research data was coded against the research questions and ascribed meaning. On this basis patterns and themes emerged, enabling understanding and insight about the research findings. The ecological framework used in this research informed my thinking about the data and the way I derived meaning from the data. Study 1 found stakeholders’ views about EL were influenced by school social environment perceptions. Students confirmed their positive view about the role of socialemotional skills and relational quality for academic outcomes, as found in other research (Dix, Slee, Lawson, & Keeves, 2011; Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnick, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Study 2 found that emotionally literate school leadership played a key role in how teachers feel about their roles and contributions to school. The findings suggested that activating teacher and student voices adds to a positive school ambience and builds teacher self-efficacy. In Study 2, the PAR approach elucidated that while quality implementation of EL is the ideal, EL change could be promoted through a ‘ripple effect’, if embedded in the school culture through teacher ownership. A teacher EL development model using teacher professional practice, knowledge of self and others, and positive education approaches is another outcome of the research. Using pedagogical approaches akin to EL, teachers can model pro-social values, EL skills, and grit, enabling students to develop EL. The research findings imply that teacher well-being provides a foundation for building EL through value-laden approaches embedded in the school philosophy.

Student-organized activism and obfuscation respond to intrusive surveillance in digital assessment within higher education. This article explores privacy surveillance disconnects and the emergence of protests against antinormative practices. Employing qualitative and quantitative methods, including content analysis of subreddits focused on higher education, student privacy, and specific university campus communities, the study considers multiple stakeholders’ perspectives. The findings illustrate the creative avenues students have adopted to counter online assessment tools. Emphasizing the significance of privacy and autonomy in higher education, this work sheds light on the challenges faced by students and provides insights into their strategies for addressing privacy concerns.

Microteaching is one of the core courses required by English Language Education students before undertaking an internship program. To be a professional teacher, a teacher must have 4 competencies those are pedagogical competence, personality competence, social competence, and professional competence. Thus, microteaching is needed for students-teachers to help them improve their teaching skills. The purpose of this study is to highlight the students’ perception of microteaching courses on specific topics such as students’ experiences in improving their teaching skills through feedback given by their lecturer and friends, the importance of microteaching for students, and students' need during the process of the microteaching class. The research subjects were 35 undergraduate English Language Education students (2018 cohort) who have taken microteaching courses and internship programs. This research used a qualitative descriptive method using explorative case study. The instruments for the data collection were questionnaires and interviews. The result showed positive attitudes towards the microteaching course. This research discovers the usefulness of microteaching classes in 3 aspects which are enriching students' knowledge before they teach in a real situation in an internship program, improving teaching skills to be implemented in their internship program, and helping students get the basic knowledge from the lecturer for developing lesson plans and learning media. Moreover, it builds student-teachers’ self-confidence and increases teaching skills in peer-teaching.