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Informal care and the precariousness of migration experience
Informal care and the precariousness of migration experience: An ethnographic study on welfare and migrants' care, help and support within and because of the migration process
Speakers: Marcus Herz (Associate Professor in Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden); Frida Andréasson (Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Linnaeus University, Sweden); Jesper Andreasson (Professor in Sport Science, Linnaeus University, Sweden).
Hosted by the CareVisions research project & Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century, UCC.
Abstract
In the field of informal care, voices of those with migration experiences are often excluded in research, being labelled a "difficult to reach"-group. Asylum-seekers often lack full access to the public care system, which may lead to a higher risk of social exclusion. The aim of this project is to describe and analyse how care, help and support provided within families with migration experiences can be understood in terms of informal care and how such care intersects with the Swedish migration and welfare context. The project will focus on both phenomenological aspects – how informal care is experienced and practised – and on sociological aspects of informal care, that is, how it, for example, affects family life and the possibility of integration into Swedish society. The project will employ an ethnographic approach to the research, and engage in interviews and observations with primary informal carers, co-informal carers, and care recipients.
Speaker biographies
Marcus Herz, PhD, is an associate professor in social work at the University of Gothenburg. His main research interests concern social work related to power issues and how social work theoretically and practically can develop, mainly inspired by critical and radical social work. Other research interests concern migration, racism, gender, masculinity and youth culture. Herz's latest international publications are Social Work, Young Migrants and the Act of Listening (with Philip Lalander) on Routledge and Youth Studies in Transition: Culture, Generation and New Learning Processes (with Thomas Johansson) on Springer.
Frida Andréasson has a PhD in Health Science and is a senior lecturer in social work at Linnaeus University situated on the south coast of Sweden. Andréasson´s research focus is on informal care and how it impacts on identity, couplehood, social health and intersects with migration experiences. Other research interests are technology-based support to informal carers and patients, and how heart disease impact on family life and parenthood.
Jesper Andreasson holds a PhD in Sociology and is professor in sport science at the Department of sport science, Linnaeus University, Sweden. Andreasson has extensive experience of working with ethnography and different internet methods. His research can mainly be positioned within health, gender studies and cultural sociology, and he has published extensively within the area of gym/fitness culture, embodiment, family life and more. Andreasson is in charge of a Linnaeus university´s PhD programme in sport science, teaches at the graduate and postgraduate levels, mainly in the areas of research methods, sport science and social theory.
For more on this story contact:
Dr Claire Edwards. Email: claire.edwards@ucc.ie