ABSTRACT
This paper reports on the collective ideas of the occupational scientists and therapists who attended the “Refugees – Addressing Key Social Issues” think tank at the Occupational Science Conference held in Hildesheim (2017). Forced migration is recognized as a prevalent issue in today’s society. Forced migrants face many occupational challenges, which are being exacerbated by restrictive migration policies. This paper outlines the discussions held during the think tank and presents an occupational perspective of forced migrants’ needs, followed by a desired vision of what an occupationally just world would look like for forced migrants, and future directions to guide occupation-based social transformation.
Acknowledgements
We thank the additional think tank participants: Dr. Anne-Le Morville, Ute Davies, Jordi Tolra (Acsar foundation) and Dr. Volker Paelke for their contributions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Concettina Trimboli http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2490-7876
Natalia Rivas-Quarneti http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9444-4347
Nadine Blankvoort http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2037-7887
Ina Roosen http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8954-1214
Salvador Simó Algado http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0072-6296
Gail Whiteford http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6136-1844