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The Institute for Global Health and Development

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/9

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Social Connections

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    Out of Reach: Social Connections and Their Role in Influencing Engagement Between Forcibly Displaced People and Police Scotland
    (MDPI, 2025-05-15) Nisbet, Bryony; Vidal, Nicole L.
    Forcibly displaced people in Scotland face multiple barriers in accessing health, social care, and policing services. This paper explores how social connections shape engagement with these services, particularly the role of police in community safety and wellbeing. Drawing on qualitative interviews and social connections mapping workshops, this study examines how third-sector organisations act as key intermediaries, shaping how people access statutory services. The findings show that while community policing and partnerships with trusted organisations can improve accessibility, concerns about racial discrimination, the underreporting of hate crime, and the lack of language support continue to undermine confidence in policing. Additionally, the growing reliance on police officers to respond to mental health crises reflects wider gaps in specialist service provision. This paper argues for a shift towards a cross-sector approach that strengthens community-led safety strategies, reduces police involvement in non-criminal matters, and improves language and cultural competency within public services. Strengthening institutional accessibility and trust-building initiatives is key to improving engagement with policing and health and social care services for forcibly displaced communities.
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    ‘At some points you feel awful because you are going to start again’: The ambiguous role of education in highly skilled refugee women’s integration experiences
    (SAGE, 2024-09-25) Baillot, Helen; Fernandes, Marcus
    In refugee and migration studies, education has been situated as both a marker of integration and a facilitator of progress in other domains. This paper draws on the accounts of three highly skilled women who have experienced forced migration to highlight some of the ambiguities of education’s role in pathways to social and economic inclusion. A case study approach allows for a detailed and contextual exploration of how intersections of age, caring responsibilities and immigration status influence women’s ability to engage with education. Participants’ accounts confirm that accessing desired and appropriate educational provision can propel people towards their longer-term goals. However, provision that is inaccessible or perceived to be below women’s skill levels can be experienced as exclusionary and demoralising, with attendant impact on women’s perceptions of integration and hopes for the future. Women deploy several strategies to overcome these obstacles, including leveraging existing social connections and re-evaluating their future career pathways. Yet these strategies are not always fully successful. Our findings point towards the need for improved provision for adult refugees and a concerted effort by educational institutions to tackle continuing systemic barriers to education.
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    Help seeking, trust and intimate partner violence: Social connections amongst displaced and non-displaced Yezidi women and men in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq
    (BMC, 2020-08-28) Strang, Alison; O'Brien, Oonagh; Sandilands, Maggie; Horn, Rebecca; Funding for the study was provided by Tearfund UK
    Background: Conflict and displacement impact the social fabric of communities through the disruption of social connections and the erosion of trust. Effective humanitarian assistance requires understanding the social capital that shapes patterns of help seeking in these circumstances - especially with stigmatised issues such as violence against women (VAW) and intimate partner violence (IPV).