Louise Meijering

Imagining difference: The experiences of 'transnational' Indian IT-professionals in Germany

In this paper we explore the motivations to migrate and the migration experiences of 22 Indian IT professionals in Germany. When studying skilled migration, Germany is an interesting case as it struggled with waves of extreme right activities whilst trying to attract IT professionals from outside the European Union at the same time. In this context, we are interested in the conflicts that the migrants may experience as a result of their desire or obligation to move, their specific cultural baggage and the way in which they encounter the different sides of German society.

Places that matter: place attachment and wellbeing of older Antillean migrants in the Netherlands

Places that Matter: Place Attachment and Wellbeing of Older Antillean Migrants in the Netherlands It has been argued that attachment to place increases wellbeing in old age (Wiles et al., 2009). Feeling ‘in place’ can increase an older persons wellbeing. For older migrants it can be a challenge to live in-between cultures. The objective of the article is to explore how older Antillean migrants derive a sense of wellbeing from attachment to their everyday places. We do so by drawing on in-depth interviews and a photography project with Antilleans who live in a senior cohousing community in a city in the Northern Netherlands. Based on the study, we conclude that the cohousing community acted as a central setting of experience from which the participants explored their wider surroundings and developed new attachments in the neighbourhood.

Place attachment in stroke rehabilitation: a transdisciplinary encounter between cultural geography, environmental psychology and rehabilitation medicine

Abstract Purpose: To increase understanding of stroke survivor’s needs to successfully re-establish attachment to meaningful places at home and in the community. Methods: Qualitative research methodology including in-depth interviews with stroke survivors in the clinical, post-discharge and reintegration phases of the rehabilitation process. Results: Participants longed for recovery and domestic places in the clinical phase, for pre-stroke activities and roles in the post-discharge phase, and for recognition and a sense of belonging in the reintegration phase. The participants’ selves had changed, while the spatial and social contexts of their homes had remained the same. Their spatial scope became smaller in both a social and a geographical sense. It was difficult to achieve a feeling of being at home in their bodies and own living environments again. The complexities that needed to be dealt with to engage with the outside world, turned participants unintentionally inwards. In particular, family members of participants with cognitive problems, longed for support and recognition in dealing with the changed personality of their spouses. Conclusions: Rehabilitation should put greater effort into supporting stroke survivors and their families in home-making and community reintegration processes, and help them to re-own and renegotiate their disabled bodies and changed identities in real life. Implications for Rehabilitation The experienced self-body split, identity confusion and related mourning process should be foregrounded in the post-discharge phase rather than functional recovery, in order to help stroke survivors understand and come to terms with their changed bodies and selves. In the post-discharge and reintegration phases stroke survivors should be coached in rebuilding meaningful relations to their bodies, home and communities again. This home-making process should start at real-life sites where stroke survivors wish to (inter)act.

Home-making after stroke. : A qualitative study among Dutch stroke survivors

Stroke survivors may suffer from physical limitations as well as cognitive and behavioural difficulties. Many survivors work on their recovery in a rehabilitation clinic with the aim to return to their own home again. Since full recovery is often not feasible, they face the challenge of coming to terms with lasting effects of the stroke and of giving meaning to their home place again. Based on in-depth interviews with stroke survivors, we discuss the meaning of the home with respect to changed post-stroke identities. Our findings show how, for many participants, a formerly comfortable home becomes a space of struggle. Formerly stable bodily routines become time-consuming and demanding, reciprocal relationships with significant others change, often becoming unbalanced dependence. In conclusion, each stroke survivor faces a different struggle to accommodate a changed self in a house that does not feel like home anymore. These findings imply that stroke rehabilitation services need to address the individual and everyday challenges that stroke survivors and their families face at home, to improve their sense of home and well-being.

Food, faith and community : social well-being of Ghanaian migrants in the Netherlands

This article explores how Ghanaian migrants in the Netherlands enhance their gendered social well-being. We provide an in-depth view of gender-specific places and relations that shape the social well-being of migrants, focusing on place-based lived experiences, by conducting in-depth interviews and observations. Our results demonstrate that social well-being is enhanced by social networks, wherein the participants recreate feelings of self-esteem, belonging and recognition. Furthermore, the special meaning of food and faith also contributes to the social well-being of the participants. Food and faith serve as commemorations of traditions in their home country and alleviate the transition to new traditions in the host country. We also found that specific places, such as shops and churches, contribute to the social well-being of participants in the study. Men and women in our study use different strategies to construct their well-being, and they interpret places and social relations differently, but they all showed to be active agents in enhancing their social well-being. Our female participants in particular look for opportunities in the host country to independently enhance their social well-being, for instance through establishing their own small businesses and social groups. Through its focus on the social well-being of migrants, the study contributes to increase understanding between different cultural groups.

Numbers and narratives: Developing a mixed-methods approach to understand mobility in later life.

The aim of this methods-focused article is to explore the potential benefits of integrating GPS, diary and in-depth interview data to gain richer insights into the everyday mobility practices of older adults. Eighteen adults, aged 65-90 years, living in the Netherlands, participated in the study. Our findings illustrate how quantitative (GPS) and qualitative (interviews and diary-based) approaches together can generate different insights and layers of understanding from each individual method in order to enhance the overall study findings. Our findings demonstrate that our methodological approach generates new insights with respect to GPS-measured and self-reported mobility, time-geographies, and micro-geographies of older adults in the Netherlands. In conclusion, our mixed-methods approach contributes to a better understanding of the everyday mobility practices of older adults, and could be used in other demographic groups.

Community-based initiatives improving critical health literacy : a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative evidence

BackgroundCritical health literacy enables older adults to make informed health decisions and take actions for the health and wellbeing of themselves and their community, within their own social and cultural context. A community-based approach has the potential to improve the critical health literacy of older adults and their communities. However, it is not clear how such initiatives consider critical health literacy. Therefore, this study explored how community-based initiatives address the critical health literacy of older adults and their communities.MethodsA systematic literature search was conducted. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts, as well as the quality of the methodological and community-based elements of the studies. In addition, a meta-synthesis was carried out, consisting of a qualitative text analysis of the results sections of the 23 included studies.ResultsWe identified two main themes, which are practices that contribute to the critical health literacy of older adults as well as their communities: 1) collaborative learning, and 2) social support. In these practices we identified reciprocity as a key characteristic of both co-learning and social support.ConclusionsThis study provides the first overview of community-based initiatives that implicitly address the critical health literacy of older adults and their community. Our results demonstrate that in the context of one’s own life collaborative learning and social support could contribute to people’s understanding and ability to judge, sift and use health information. We therefore suggest to add these two practices to the definition of critical health literacy.

Migration and the search for home. Mapping domestic space in migrants' everyday lives

Finally, there was a tendency in this book to read space in a homogenous manner, denying the multiplicity of experiences and understanding of space today, and likely in the ancient past. Doreen Massey’s (1991) seminal work on ‘a global sense of place’, for example, neatly unpacks the contingent and multiple understandings of space, and by extension the contingent way in which culture and symbolism can be read by planners or anyone else. It also helps unpack the multiple claims being made through space about the rights of citizens and what constitutes citizens’ rights. History tells us that citizenship was not given by enlightened individuals; it was taken, reworked, fought over by many and by whole societies (Southall, 1998). The interplay between both context and history, object and subject, is what is missing from Mazza’s analysis. Citizenship is a thoroughly historical and contingent concept, and planning – both in concept and practice – is necessarily shaped by prevailing social, economic and political forces. This was acknowledged at the beginning of the book in Mazza’s discussion of the concept of spatial governance, yet this insight does not inform the analysis in subsequent chapters. This book was a difficult read, but certainly should open an interesting debate on the connections between planning praxis and citizenship.

Developing and pilot testing a comprehensive health literacy communication training for health professionals in three European countries

OBJECTIVE Skills to address different health literacy problems are lacking among health professionals. We sought to develop and pilot test a comprehensive health literacy communication training for various health professionals in Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. METHODS Thirty health professionals participated in the study. A literature review focused on evidence-informed training-components. Focus group discussions (FGDs) explored perspectives from seventeen professionals on a prototype-program, and feedback from thirteen professionals following pilot-training. Pre-post questionnaires assessed self-rated health literacy communication skills. RESULTS The literature review yielded five training-components to address functional, interactive and critical health literacy: health literacy education, gathering and providing information, shared decision-making, enabling self-management, and supporting behaviour change. In FGDs, professionals endorsed the prototype-program and reported that the pilot-training increased knowledge and patient-centred communication skills in addressing health literacy, as shown by self-rated pre-post questionnaires. CONCLUSION A comprehensive training for health professionals in three European countries enhances perceived skills to address functional, interactive and critical health literacy. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS This training has potential for wider application in education and practice in Europe.

Goloka Dhama: a translocal Hare Krishna community

This chapter discussed Goloka Dhama, a Hare Krishna community in Germany, as an example of a translocal rural place. The community is part of a worldwide network of Hare Krishna communities and Goloka Dhama’s members are from various European countries. Most community members are attracted both by the spiritual offerings of the community as well as by its remote location. While living in Goloka Dhama, they are in touch with other Hare Krishna communities throughout the globe. Goloka Dhama is embedded in the local community through contacts with other Hare Krishna followers who live in the region as well as via contact with the local population. Based on in-depth interviews with (former) community members and people living in the neighbouring villages, this chapter illustrates how the religious community of Goloka Dhama contributes to shaping a translocal space, at the international, regional and local levels.