THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN WELL-BEING AND INTEGRATION AMONG MIGRANT WOMEN IN FINLAND: A cross-sectional study using Migrant Health and Well-being Study data 2010-2012

Abstract: Background Well-being is one of the pillars of human rights that represent a bio psychological construct including physical, mental and social health. Despite of the significant advances in the thinking of the concept of well-being, there remains a gap between the positive intentions to support migrants to integrate and the concrete actions of practitioners. There fore, it is important to investigate the association between well being factors and integration outcomes in the new hosting society. Aim This study aimed to analyse the association between well-being factors (traumatic experiences, quality of life, loneliness and educational level) and integration outcomes among Russian, Somali and Kurdish migrant women in Finland. Methods The analysed data was used from the Finnish Migrant and Well-being Study (Maamu). The study included 998 women with Russian, Somali and Kurdish background, aged between 18 to 64 years with at least one-year residence in Finland. Logistic regression analysis was applied to study the association for each well being factors with outcome variables, separately for the three research groups. Results Pre-migration traumatic events did not show significant association with integration outcomes. Factors affecting social integration such as good quality of life and education were shown to affect the integration outcomes. Conclusion Social integration and multicultural society are extremely important factors affecting the successful integration of migrant women. Social support decreases the acculturation stress which is strongly related to individual well being. Post-migration well-being factors showed stronger association with integration.