“Will there be music for us?” Mapping the health and well-being potential of participatory music practice with asylum seekers and refugees across contexts of conflict and refuge

Abstract

Background: This paper draws on existing literature across the fields of community music and health promotion to map the potential for participatory music practices to support health and well-being outcomes for asylum seekers and refugees across contexts of conflict, liminality and refuge. As such, the paper provides a foundation for future empirical work in the field of music and health for asylum seekers and refugees. Methods: The paper reports on the outcomes of a “scoping” literature review of the benefits of participatory music-making across three different contexts: “conflict” settings, refugee camps and resettlement settings. Results: The scoping review provided a new synthesis of existing knowledge and empirical work on the health and well-being outcomes of participatory music for asylum seekers and refugees across contexts. In particular, the review highlighted the different roles that music can have in people's lives as they move away from home countries towards resettlement settings. Conclusions: When coupled with broader evidence from the fields of health and well-being research, growing empirical research on music and well-being for asylum seekers provides a strong foundation for both further research and investment in music (and the arts more generally) as a key positive social and cultural determinant of health for this group.

Keywords:

• music
• asylum seekers
• refugees
• health
• well-being
• social and cultural determinants of health

Notes

^1. Asylum seekers, as a distinct category of refugees, are claimants whose application for protection has not yet been processed. We use both terms here to acknowledge the distinction between the two groups.