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This study explores how highly educated refugees in the U.K. perceive the relation between their post-migration experiences and their psychosocial well-being. A literature review of the migration and psychological health area and the widely-used stress and coping approach revealed that the “vulnerable” and “passive” images have all too often been assigned to refugees when discussing their psychological health, and that the latter have often been approached as beings detached from their social context. The aim of the research was to explore the participants’ own perceptions (or “lay narratives”) of their experiences and their well-being. These were used to converse with the stress and coping concepts and with the images related to psychological activism, an alternative stress and coping perspective that views people as active agents who try to take control of their life, instead of mere passive recipients of stress. The study is based on constructivism, and accordingly the emphasis is put on the subjective world of experience and the researcher critically reflects on how the social context shapes the participants’ perceptions. The empirical work consists of two studies. In the first one, semi-structured interviews were carried out with fifteen young and highly educated refugees in the U.K. The findings highlight how the participants used the stress and coping concepts and the images related to psychological activism, so the value of such concepts is reconfirmed. But a deeper critical look reveals that the semi-structured interviewing may have strongly directed how the participants discussed their perceptions and that it was unclear how these perceptions are formed in social interaction. Consequently I conducted additional empirical work to carry the emerging issues further. In the second study, autobiographical narrative interviews were carried out with another group of fifteen highly educated refugees in the U.K. The findings reveal that they made sense of their experiences and their well-being through three distinctive stories. The stories of hope and survival presented by two subgroups of participants suggest a more balanced view of refugees, one that is not necessarily “vulnerable” and “passive”. These participants made sense of their experiences and well-being through the elements of “hope, persistence and activism”. But the story of disappointment presented by a third subgroup revealed that some participants did not perceive their experiences and their well-being through a positive lens. It also highlighted the need to further explore how they formed their perceptions in social interaction. Indeed, it was shown how the social context, particularly negative attitudes they received at the community level, was largely responsible for their narrative of disappointment. The theoretical contribution of this research lies in exploring how the participants, through their own narratives, made sense of the concepts of stress and coping. The methodological contribution refers to the bridging of ideas and previous work from other disciplines and to the innovative application of narrative interviewing to this population. A major practical contribution is that this research offered a channel for refugees to talk about their experiences and their well-being in their own words. Furthermore, possible explanations emerge on why some refugee groups can indeed seem “vulnerable” and “passive” and this has important implications for those who design and implement interventions aimed at enhancing the well-being of refugees.

Acknowledgement to Helen Pain This article outlines some of the issues involved in developing partnerships between service users, practitioners and researchers. It discusses these through some experience in Oslo as part of a national level agreement (HUSK) to improve social services in Norway through research and knowledge development. It begins with a review of the main concepts and debates involved in developing collaborative partnerships for practice-based research, particularly in the social services arena. The HUSK program is then described. The article then traces some specific developments and challenges in negotiating partnership relations as discussed by program participants (users, practitioners and researchers) in a series of workshops designed to elicit the issues directly from their experience.

In the last decade there has been a systematic growth in the population of skilled migrants entering the UK health and social care sector. In particular, the numbers of social workers possessing qualifications from overseas who come to work in the UK have been increasing annually (Hussein et al., 2010a). Previous research has examined the profile, motivations, experiences and expectations of ‘international’, ‘overseas’ or ‘migrant’ social workers in the UK. In some of these studies (e.g. McGregor, 2007) the participants were professionals from various fields who entered the care sector out of necessity after their arrival to the UK, while in other studies the participants were qualified social workers who trained in their home countries and then migrated to the UK to join the social care sector (Evans et al., 2006b; Hussein et al., 2010b; Moran et al., 2005; Sale, 2002). Much of this literature focuses on challenges these professionals face as they enter the social work workforce (e.g. difficulties in adapting to the English culture, insufficient induction, limited opportunities for career progression) as well as on adverse experiences at the workplace (e.g. experiences of racism and discrimination). \ud While it is undeniably important to do further research on these challenges and difficulties and suggest effective ways of tackling them, it is also important to explore the resources these professionals activate when faced with such challenges. In particular, it is important to tap into the ways in which they actually utilise their cultural capital both in its formal/institutionalised form (i.e. educational credentials and professional qualifications) but also in its informal/incorporated form (i.e. their own work ethics). In this paper migrant social workers are not perceived as passive employees whose cultural capital is inevitably undermined by institutional and informal forms of exclusion, but as active agents who can shape to a large extent the specific context in which they work. \ud The paper is based on part of a larger original research project, which explored the education and employment-related experiences of three groups of migrant health and social care professionals (doctors, social workers and nurses) before and after migrating to the UK. The presented findings emerged from five in-depth narrative interviews carried out with migrant social workers* who were qualified in their home countries and are currently working full-time as social workers in England. \ud The narrative analysis illustrates certain institutional mechanisms which influence the participants’ experiences (e.g. their informal/incorporated cultural capital, that is, their own work ethics, is often undervalued in which case they feel they do ‘more managerial tasks and less actual work with people’). The analysis also reveals how certain social norms in the field of social work shape the participants’ experiences while interacting with colleagues, employers and service-users (e.g. experiences of bullying or mistreatment). However there are also particular accounts of how they actually utilize their cultural capital both for resolving dilemmas they face at the workplace but also for suggesting general improvements in the services they are employed in. Our analysis therefore highlights not only the employment-related difficulties migrant social workers face but also how individuals themselves effectively deal with professional challenges. \ud \ud *language in this area varies but we use the term ‘migrant’ to describe social workers who have qualified outside the UK -either from the EU or other countries- and have already significant work experience in the UK social work sector.