Effect of interventions to facilitate social integration of immigrants and their families
Mapping review
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We conducted this literature search to refine the question for a systematic review.
Key message
The Directorate of Integration and Diversity, the Norwegian Directorate of Health and the Norwegian State Housing Bank commissioned a systematic literature search and mapping of studies on the effect and experiences with interventions to facilitate social integration of immigrants and their families. We conducted this literature search to refine the question for a systematic review.
This project draws on a broad definition of ‘social integration,’ which includes the following indicators: 1) social participation 2) knowledge of and access to public services 3) participation in real-estate and job market. We searched for relevant studies and review articles in 15 health and social science databases, Google, and relevant web-pages.
- A total of 8 992 unique references were identified; among these we identified in total 160 possibly relevant references. Among those, 81 were categorized as quantitative studies (coded as effect or evaluation studies) and 43 were categorized as qualitative studies.
- Included references were coded according to year of publication, country, type of publication, study purpose, population characteristics and type of intervention.
- We categorized 73 studies as program to increase second language acquisition or cultural competence, 13 as tutoring or mentoring programs, 11 as introductory programs, 11 as programs to facilitate knowledge on how to access public services and 10 to facilitate regular employment.
- Only three studies explicitly aimed at social integrations as an outcome, while only one study did evaluate a ‘social integration program’.
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The following topics areas are potential PICO-questions for systematic reviews:
- Effect of interventions to increase language and cultural competency
- Effect of interventions to increase employment of immigrants.
In this report, we have neither read nor assessed the corresponding articles in full text.