How do newly arrived refugees experience resettlement? An ethnographic study on refugees’ mental health needs and the public system’s effort to meet these needs

The mental health of people from refugee backgrounds is remarkably poorer than non-refugee populations in Denmark and globally. This is not only caused by traumatic events prior to or during the flee, but also by post-migration experiences and living conditions in the host country. These post-migration experiences involve housing situation, financial situation, communication problems, barriers to employment, separation from friends and family, lack of social support, and racism and discrimination.

Purpose
In my PhD project, I explore the resettlement experiences of people who have recently come to Denmark as refugees. The project examines the diverse needs of people from refugee backgrounds in terms of mental health and well-being in the initial period after resettling in a Danish municipality. Furthermore, the project explores how they experience the various encounters with the Danish welfare state, primarily focusing on the encounters with caseworkers working in municipal Job Centers. Finally, the project examines the ways in which caseworkers in Job Centers understand, detect, consider, and follow up on mental health needs of newly arrived people and how they collaborate with the healthcare system.
The knowledge obtained through this project aims at contributing to the strengthening of the reception of people from refugee backgrounds in Denmark and to reduce inequality in mental health.

Method
The project is an ethnographic study that follows 8 people from refugee backgrounds in two different municipalities over a period of one and a half years applying methods of in-depth interviews, photovoice, and participant observations of encounters between people from refugee backgrounds and caseworkers. Moreover, I conduct qualitative interviews with municipal caseworkers working in Job Centers.