FOCUS podcast on dynamic integration: Episode 3

In the FOCUS podcast we discuss the different aspects of dynamic integration.

Episode 3 – Mental health and psychosocial support in dynamic integration, based on our Living Well Together Forum in June, is out now – enjoy!

The FOCUS Living Well Together Forum #2 ‘Mental health and psychosocial support in dynamic integration’ took place on 21 June 2021. Renowned experts Alison Strang, Guglielmo Schininà and Dean Ajduković discussed why we should not make trauma and vulnerability a passport for integration, how personal interaction erodes stereotypes, and what difference political narratives can make.

In this episode, we discuss how to implement these insights in policymaking and give some practice examples.

In episode 2, we discussed why and how to overcome the vulnerability framework which objectifies migrants and often comes with a political agenda in a society that is itself fractured. We see how community approaches based on a rights and solidarity model are a more holistic, more positive and more sustainable pathway to integration.

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With the kind participation of:

• Guglielmo Schininà, Head of Mental Health, Psychosocial Response and Intercultural Communication, International Organization for Migration (IOM)
• Alison Strang, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Global Health and Development, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh
• Dean Ajduković, Full Professor of Social Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb
• Anouk Boschma, Martha Bird, Advisors, IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support / FOCUS coordination

Participants’ websites:

Mental Health, Psychosocial Response and Intercultural Communication | International Organization for Migration (iom.int)

Dr Alison Strang | Staff Profile | Queen Margaret University (qmu.ac.uk)

Other links and further reading:

for the works of Marjory Harper (University of Aberdeen) on historical perspectives on migration and mental health in the 19th and 20th centuries

for the works of Renos Papadopoulos (University of Essex) on psychosocial support and to integration

UK Home Office Indicators of Integration framework 2019 report

for the works of Anne Maass (University of Padua) on linguistic intergroup bias

Literature review of ” by the FOCUS research team at University of Zagreb (June 2020)

IOM Issue Brief on ” (July 2020) (direct download)