Work-integrated learning and health literacy as catalysts for Roma empowerment and social inclusion: A participatory action research

Abstract

Roma people all over the world have often been subject to prejudice, stigma, discrimination and oppression. Many Roma have little or no education, which in combination with other factors often leads to unemployment and marginalization. Based on a case study in Sweden, this paper proposes an approach that can be used in participatory projects aiming at improving the living situation of marginalized people. In such an approach, the Roma themselves would be the leaders in all activities concerning the group. The first aim of this paper is to describe how health literacy and work-integrated learning functioned as empowering tools for a Roma-led inclusion process within a participatory action research framework. The second aim is to discuss and reflect on the use of participatory action research in community work with Roma based on the experiences of the participatory action research participants. The findings indicate that work-integrated learning may be a worthwhile approach for increasing the individual empowerment and self-led social inclusion of vulnerable people. However, the obstacles of structural discriminatory nature hindered the project to reach its full potential in its intended emancipatory goals.

Living in Roma Settlements in Greece: Self-Perceived Health Status, Chronic Diseases and Associated Social Determinants of Health

“…The high percentage of participants reporting they did not know if they had been diagnosed with a chronic disease in our study could be attributed to Roma's low health literacy, and to the consequent lack of prevention culture [49,50]. Paradoxically, more participants from settlements with shacks in comparison to those from settlements with houses and mixed settlements, reported their self-perceived health as good or very good, even after adjusting for possible differences in sociodemographic characteristics; approximately one in every three participants from settlements with shacks who had a chronic condition reported good or very good self-perceived health status.…”

The Nexus Between Health Literacy and Empowerment

“…Critical health literacy might be considered another way to describe empowerment. Hence, health literacy might be regarded as a tool for empowerment (Crondahl, 2015;Crondahl & Eklund Karlsson, 2015;Eklund Karlsson, Crondahl & Ringsberg, 2016). Similar to Schulz and Nakamoto (2013) and Porr et al (2006), we do not consider health literacy to automatically lead to empowerment.…”

Deprived from dignity: Undocumented migrants and ethnic minorities during the pandemic

“…So, there is a group of undocumented migrants who do not speak the language of their hosting country, and there is the Roma population who, in general, have a low level of health literacy [11,12], which raises concerns whether these groups clearly understand the precautionary measures and the question arises whether they are fully able to understand how the virus transmits and how they can protect themselves from it. Another barrier to overcome is that most of these migrants work on the black labor market [13], and even if they are lucky enough not to have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, they do not have the privilege to stay at home and self-isolate due to financial obligations made towards their families back at home.…”