Sociocultural barriers to information and integration of women refugees
| Date | 22 December 2021 |
| Pages | 1131-1148 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2021-0107 |
| Published date | 22 December 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Khadijah Kainat,Eeva-Liisa Eskola,Gunilla Widén |
Sociocultural barriers to
information and integration of
women refugees
Khadijah Kainat, Eeva-Liisa Eskola and Gunilla Wid
en
Information Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Economics,
Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
Abstract
Purpose –This study focuses on s pecifically women refugees’experiences of accessing information and
how sociocultural bar riers impact these experie nces aiming to broaden the L IS literature of women refug ees’
information problems f rom sociocultural aspects. The sociocu lturally formed roles of a woman can impact
the information pract ices of women refugees or cause certain information problem s during the integration
process. Hence, the resear ch questions that drive this study are: What kind of inform ation problems might
women refugees face in a ne w host country? What kind of sociocul tural barriers influence their in formation
problems? How do they rea ct toward these information problems?
Design/methodology/approach –The study is designed based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with
eighteen refugee women living in Sweden. The study is a part of a larger study in which authors intend to
explore the information practices and integration challenges of almost 20 or more refugee women living in
Sweden.
Findings –Women refugees face information overload, difficulties in understanding new communication
culture and lack of appro priate sources and netwo rks in a new country. These information problem s are
influenced by sociocul tural barriers such as the ro le of women, national cult ure of “collectivism”,small- world
and lack of information literacy. Women react in certain ways such as, stressing, panicking, quitting the
tasks, wasting time and making wrong decisions whichnegatively impact the integration process.
Research limitations/implications –The research has its limitations as it is conducted with a small group
of women refugees, belong to specific Middle Eastern culture and cannot be generalized. Another limitation is
that the interviews are conducted in English language (with sufficient language skill). However, conducting
interviews in their mother language would have been an advantage.
Practical implications –Practically, the study prov ides awareness for official and private or ganizations,
volunteers and policym akers dealing with refugees. The stakehold ers involved in the societal integration
process of refugees, m ust consider that women r efugees are more prone to informatio n problems due to
certain socioculturalinfluences (i.e. “being awoma n”and national culture) an d need a separate plan than the
male refugees. For inst ance, by increasing and offerin g intercultural opportunitie s at workplaces or schools
can encourage the wider social networking for women refugees. The programs aiming to reduce the
sociocultural diffe rences among women refug ees and the Swedes are need ed to be included in the inte gration
policy.
Social implications –The study intends to help the refugees society and the Swedish society overall by
improving the integration plan.
Originality/value –The findings related to the information experiences of women refugees have potential
implications for research wherethe value of informationin the integration process is explored. The study meets
the gap in previous literature by presenting the gender specific views on information problems from
sociocultural aspects. The study also provides future directions to understand howwomen refugees deal with
potential sociocultural barriers to information in a new country.
Keywords Information problems, Sociocultural barriers, Refugees’integration, Information overload,
Lack of appropriate sources, Communication culture, Information and integration, Women refugees,
Role of women, Culture of collectivism, Small-world, Information literacy
Paper type Research paper
Sociocultural
barriers to
information
1131
The authors would like to thanks to the interview participants for sharing their experiences, the
anonymous reviewers for the valuable and constructive comments and Jubileumsfonden from
Abo
Akademi University, Finland for supporting the main author’s stay in Sweden for conducting this study.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 27 May 2021
Revised 30 November 2021
Accepted 2 December 2021
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 78 No. 5, 2022
pp. 1131-1148
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-05-2021-0107
Introduction
Refugee women are a sizable and growing group in Europe, but their integration challenges
have been focused only during recent years (Albrecht et al., 2021;Liebig and Tronstad, 2018).
It is known that refugee women encounter different integration challenges compared to men,
related to health issues, weak prior links with the host country, and lack of documentation of
their education or work experiences (OECD, 2016). They are considered a particularly
vulnerable migrant group and face “double disadvantage”due to the fact that they generally
have been raised and educated in a very different environment (OECD, 2006). Studies in
library and information science (LIS) have shown that refugees struggle in accessing the
information they need to integrate better into host societies (Oduntan and Ruthven, 2017;
Bronstein, 2019). They experience various information problems such as lack of information,
misinformation, information overload and lack of literacy skills (e.g. Caidi et al., 2010;
Ruokolainen and Wid
en, 2020). Sociocultural barriers for example language, values, cultural
backgrounds or traditional communication patterns are considered obstacles to access or use
the information effectively both in a familiar and an unfamiliar environments (Lloyd et al.,
2013;Savolainen, 2016). On the other hand, complete, timely, right and culturally appropriate
information provision can support their integration into a foreign society (Caidi and Allard,
2005). Although it is acknowledged that women migrants face challenges in accessing, using
and sharing information, which may be different from the men counterparts (Kizhakkethil,
2020), previous studies concerning specifically refugees have often generalized both the
women and men refugees in understanding their information experiences (e.g. Oduntan and
Ruthven, 2017). The existing studies focusing on women refugees point out that they
encounter problems in accessing information generally and health-related information
specifically due to sociocultural and religious norms, lack of institutional linkages, lack of
skills to use new systems, lack of economic resources, geographic isolation, age and gender
(Talhouk et al., 2016;Nekesa and Odong, 2017;Shuva, 2018;Wall et al., 2019).
The body of LIS research focusing on women refugees is growing, but knowledge about
their information problems and specifically sociocultural reasons for these problems is still
scarce. Therefore, this study focuses on specifically women refugees’experiences of
accessing information and how sociocultural barriers impact these experiences aiming to
broaden the LIS literature of women refugees’information problems from sociocultural
aspects. The socioculturally formed roles of a woman can impact the information practices of
women refugees or cause certain information problems during the integration process.
Hence, the research questions that drive this study are the following:
(1) What kind of information problems might women refugees face in a new host
country?
(2) What kind of sociocultural barriers influence their information problems?
(3) How do they react toward these information problems?
The empiricalpart of the study is conducted in Sweden, whichhas a long history in migration,
and has been a destination country for refugees mainly since 1980s from countries such as
Chile, Iran,Iraq, former Yugoslavia, Syria,Afghanistan, Somalia,Eritrea and Palestine (Cetrez
et al.,2020;Swedish MigrationAgency, 2021). Accordingly,Sweden offers a solid environment
to study women refugees’information challenges. So far the LIS research on information
experiencesof refugees particularly in Swedenhas focused for instance, on healthinformation
literacyof refugees, the risks associatedwith lack of literacy(M
artenssonet al.,2020;W
angdahl
et al., 2018;Svensson et al., 2017;Elisabeth et al., 2020), use ofpublic libraries of new refugees
(Pilerot,2018), and the importanceof co-ethnic networks for womenrefugees (Khan and Eskola,
2020) implying thatthe sociocultural barriers to information are less approached.
JD
78,5
1132
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