Abstract: Refugee women can encounter a range of challenges in their new countries, including limited access to health services, education, and employment opportunities, factors that significantly shape and limit everyday lives and opportunities for social participation. This study aims to understand health and social participation in everyday life through dialogue with refugee women and the local organizations addressing applying an intersectional lens. Grounded in an intersectional framework, the study utilized a modified story dialogical method for the workshops. The findings are organized into three key themes: a) Importance of trust and solidarity in the women’s everyday, b) Experiencing othering – the pain of not being welcomed and c) “Stand-by mode”. The findings underscore how multiple intersectional dimensions, including legal status, socioeconomic position, ethnicity, and migration trajectories, interplay to determine whether participation in and access to health, work, and education are possible or not. Solidarity practices, emerge as strategies for navigating and resisting structural and systemic barriers.
Citation: Scheer, S. et al. (2026) ‘Living in Stand-by Mode While Constructing Lived Citizenship’, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, pp. 1–17. doi: 10.1080/15562948.2026.2665108.
