Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Associate Professor Sarah Willen, University of Connecticut,
- Second opponent: Professor Halvard Vike, USN - University of South-Eastern Norway,
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Astrid Klopstad Wahl, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor emeritus Ole Rikard Haavet, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Senior Researcher Per Kristian Hilden, NKVTS - Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies
Summary
The starting point for this study was a concern among non-governmental organizations in Oslo involved in the provision of services to persons in various marginalized or precarious situations. They were seeing forms of distress and poverty that appeared to be increasing in scope and gravity among groups they encountered. Specifically, the organizations raised worries about adversity brought about by cases of labor exploitation of a magnitude the organizations experienced as extraordinary in recent Norwegian history, in situations that appeared decisively determined in harmful ways by the affected persons’ sociolegal migration status. These were inadequately protected by labor protection law; endured poverty and destitution; and had limited access to welfare and health services, with the detrimental effects on health and well-being this process entails.
This current thesis is a medical anthropological exploration of how the health, well-being, and psychosocial experiences of this diverse group of non-Norwegian citizens are impacted by material poverty, exclusion from welfare protection, and the ensuing vulnerability to labor exploitation. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted over the course of 14 months in Oslo. Observations and prolonged presence at different NGO-services led to encounters with more than 200 people in precarious situations of life and labor. 164 ethnographic interviews were conducted, and prolonged contact with a core group of eighteen participants was established, allowing for research beyond the services—at workplaces, in everyday activities, and in interactions with authorities and state bureaucracy.
The project was developed in collaboration with The Church City Mission and in dialogue with other organizations that presently provide services to the target population, notably Caritas Norway, the Norwegian Red Cross, and LO-Oslo.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.