The 10th Annual Minority Studies Profile Seminar 2025
Wellbeing in Minorities: Sustainability and Disruptions of Health in Non-dominant Groups
9-10 April 2025
Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
The seminar aims at unpacking and exploring the complicated and multidimensional subject of well-being in minorities. It asks what constitutes and contributes to well-being or its deficiency in non-dominant, subordinated, liminal, and marginalised groups, considering their social positioning and resources available to them. The seminar takes up particular macro- and micro-level challenges, barriers, and obstacles that minorities (might) face trying to achieve and maintain their well-being. The seminar encourages critical thinking of how wellbeing deficiency is intertwined with a minority position. It builds on a broad understanding of well-being as a multidimensional phenomenon which entails physical and mental health, tightly bound to variegated social, economic and political factors. Thus, the seminar welcomes not only the perspectives and experiences of minorities but also actors and institutions playing an active role (or possibly failing in it) in the creation and maintain of wellbeing of others.
Day 1. 09.04.2025
aud. Argentum, Aurum building
12:00 Registration
12:30 Welcome speech
12:45–14:00 Keynote 1: Dr. Laura Kemppainen, University of Helsinki:
The migration-ageing nexus: exploring the diversity of ageing experiences and well-being
14:00–14:15 Coffee-break
14:15–15:45 Panel 1. Health predictors and health factors in Minorities
1. The Impact of Digitalisation in Healthcare on Minority Migrants: A Qualitative Case Study of Nepalis in Finland by Shrwan Khanal, University of Helsinki
2. Socioeconomic status, maternal risk factors, and gestational diabetes mellitus by Zahra Roustaei University of Helsinki
15:45–16:00 Coffee-Break
16:00–17:00 Panel 2. Migrants and labor
1. Ethnic differences in health-related labor market outcomes: A comparative longitudinal investigation of disability pension, sickness absence and earnings by Waseem Haider, University of Turku/INVEST Flagship center
2. Wellbeing perceptions of Russian-speaking care workers employed in the Finnish elderly care services provided in Swedish by Anna Sjödal, Åbo Akademi
Day 2. 10.04.2025
Lilla Auditoriet, ASA building
09:30–10:45 Keynote 2: Professor Hannele Harjunen, University of Jyväskylä: Gendered body norms, weight stigma and health
10:45–11:00 Coffee break
11:00–12:00 Panel 3. Structural and institutional barriers for minorities’ wellbeing
1. Barriers to Care for Trafficking Victims in Finland by Lotta Mäkipää, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare
2. Racism against migrants in German healthcare by Ksenia Meshkova, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Germany
12:00–13:00 Lunch
13:00–14:15 Keynote 3: Dr. Elena Bogdanova, University of Helsinki:
A subjectivist perspective on health and well-being research among displaced persons in Finland
14:14–14:30 Coffee-break
14:30–15:30 Panel 4. Mental health and wellbeing in Minorities
1. Staff perspectives on mental health support in Finnish reception centers by Katariina Mankinen, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Åbo Akademi
2. Beyond the ‘talking cure’: Suicide, silence and Inuit mental health in the context of Greenland by Daria Schwalbe Centre for Culture and the Mind, University of Copenhagen, Centre for Patient Communication, Department of Clinical Studies, University of Southern Denmark.
3. Exploring well-being of Muslim women caregivers in elderly care in Finland by Shahnaj Begum, University of Lappland
15:45 Conclusion
Register here:
Keynote Abstracts
Dr. Laura Kemppainen, University of Helsinki
The migration-ageing nexus: exploring the diversity of ageing experiences and well-being
With an increasing number of people ageing outside their countries of origin, the experiences of older migrants remain understudied, highlighting a significant gap in our understanding of ageing and well-being. Life course trajectories—shaped by migration histories, socio-economic conditions, and experiences in both the country of origin and the country of residence—position individuals unequally in terms of resources, health, service access, and social participation. This talk explores the intersection of ageing and migration, emphasising the experiences of those ageing ‘in-place’ but ‘out-of-place.’ Drawing on research from the Migration and Ageing (MICA) group at the University of Helsinki, this presentation examines the ‘healthy migrant effect’ in later life and the role of transnational lifestyles in shaping the well-being of older migrants. It highlights findings from population register studies on mortality, survey and interview data on older Russian speakers in Finland, alongside some new insights from interviews with Vietnamese and East African older adults. By addressing these themes, the talk aims to deepen our understanding of how migration and life course experiences influence ageing and well-being in increasingly diverse ageing populations.
Professor Hannele Harjunen, University of Jyväskylä
Gendered body norms, weight stigma and health
Research has well established that fatness is a strongly stigmatising characteristic and fatphobia is prevalent in society. The so-called fat stigma indicates that there are powerful negative stereotypes and prejudices concerning fatness and fat people. Since fatness is always intersectional, the experience of being fat often intersects also with other aspects of identity, such as gender, skin color, sexuality, and disability. The effects of the fat stigma can be, and often are, multi-layered and significant. Although fatness is stigmatizing for all genders, women experience the effects of the fat stigma more intensely and more frequently. Gendered normative expectations concerning women’s bodies are deeply intertwined with the fat stigma. Bearing this in mind, it is not surprising that fat women in particular experience discrimination in a number of spheres including work, health care, and physical activity. Moreover, research has shown that fat stigma can have serious health consequences in itself that affect both physical and mental well-being. In this talk, I will discuss the origins of fat stigma, how it is maintained societally, for example, though diet culture and the dominating neoliberally attuned view on health and healthy bodies, and argue for a better understanding and awareness of the multi-layered nature of the fat stigma and its health effects. I will ask what we can do to address the fat stigma in society.
Dr. Elena Bogdanova, University of Helsinki
A subjectivist perspective on health and well-being research among displaced persons in Finland
This presentation explores the potential of a subjectivist perspective in health and well-being research among refugees in contemporary settings. The importance of subjectivist approaches is growing due to the increasing demands for refugee adaptation in the new environment. Objectively-oriented research often fails to capture the crucial components of what constitutes contemporary understandings of subjective well-being, while algorithms for working with refugees are becoming increasingly digitized. The subjectivist perspective focuses on studying displacement as a subjective and traumatic experience, one that is biographically, situationally, and culturally conditioned. This presentation examines what information we can glean from studying aspects of refugees’ biographies, bodily experiences, sensuality, and emotionality, and how this information can contribute to the integration of refugees. This presentation is inspired by the project “Sensing as a refugee: Vulnerable bodies on the move” (Kone Foundation), which studied the refugee experience of individuals with chronic illnesses from Ukraine as a subjective bodily experience.