Empowerment in the Red Cross’ Refugee Guide : a qualitative study of empowerment in the Red Cross’ Refugee Guide, Trondheim

Abstract

This dissertation is qualitative study that examines whether the Red Cross’ Refugee Guide in Trondheim is empowering refugees with respect to 1) participation, 2) choices, 3) options and 4), power relations, and how the relationship between guide and refugee affect the Refugee Guide. The Refugee Guide’s goal is to help newly settled refugees with residency permit to integrate into Norwegian society by pairing them up with a Norwegian resident. Through this, the refugee is supposed to learn about Norwegian social codes and society, as well as starting their own Norwegian network. This dissertation uses a theoretical framework based on the four dimensions of empowerment - participation, options, choices and power relations - to analyse the empowering effect of the Refugee Guide. The data was collective through interviewing former and current guides and refugees by using semi-structured interviews. This study found that the Refugee Guide is both disempowering and empowering the refugees; disempowering due to the power relations between guide and refugee, and empowering due to the language skills and knowledge they get about how to reach their ambitions in Norway.