Health and meaning through "doings": A qualitative study with young unaccompanied refugees in Norway

Young unaccompanied refugees who settle in a new country are at substantial risk of developing health problems while striving to uphold a meaningful, new life. We lack knowledge about how they use their personal agency to self-care in the context of their local communities. This article examines how young unaccompanied refugees create healthy identities and looks into the social structures that promote health in their everyday life.

Nineteen in-depth interviews were conducted with young unaccompanied refugees settled in Norway, originating from Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Syria. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used. Our theoretical framework combined Antonovsky's (1987) theory of health, Honneth's (2005) philosophy of recognition, and Prilleltensky's (2020) social psychological concept of mattering.

Young unaccompanied refugees create healthy identities through "doings", i.e. meaningful activities that provide recognition and the feeling of adding value. They confirm health as a relational phenomenon, including horizontal relations at, for example, school, work, gym, and other leisure activities in the local community. Vertical relations involving legal status, residence permits, and community values, were also highly important. The participants' relation to parents/families in their country of origin was often complex, associated both with burdensome obligations to provide and a potential to care and matter.

Young unaccompanied refugees are dependent on inclusive, supportive policies and structures which enable them to develop healthy identities. These findings should encourage policymakers and society to strengthen and expand arenas for "doings" and meaning for young unaccompanied refugees.