The FAMREUN project researches the psychosocial health and integration unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) who have been reunited with their families in Norway, and on the support services who work with them. 

The aim of the project is threefold: 1. To gain knowledge of these young people’s experiences of family reunification. 2. To gain knowledge of the health and integration services’ experiences of working with URM who have been family-reunited. 3. To optimise the quality, competence, effectiveness, and cooperation between these services.

We work with URM, their families and local healthcare and integration services, including the Refugee Health Service, the Psychosocial Service for UM refugees, the Introductory Program for Immigrants, as well as with Upper Secondary Schools’ Health and Welfare services and local NGOs working with refugees.

The project’s researchers are specialists in public health, social anthropology, social work, education, and gender and migration studies. They include Guro Korsnes Kristensen, Turid Fånes Sætermo, Irmelin Kjelaas, Gjertrud Moe, Borgunn Ytterhus, Borgny Marianne Knudsen and Ketil Eide.

For the project, we are interviewing URMs, their family members, and employees of the service-providers working with them. We are conducting observations at sites where URM meet family and friends, and with representatives from the municipal and county welfare and health care services. The URM we work with are producing video diaries where they share thoughts, situations, and experiences. We are analysing texts produced by the support services.

The project is carried out in collaboration with NTNU Samfunnsforskning. In addition, the project is guided in part by an Advisory User Committee, consisting of representatives with varying backgrounds, including from the URM and research milieus. 

FAMREUN runs from 2023 to 2027 and is funded by the Research Council of Norway, specifically the Project for Scientific Renewal (Health - Diagnostics, treatment, rehabilitation and services for vulnerable groups).