The quest for health and the unhealthy ‘others’. A critical case study of Syrian women newcomers’ meeting with health promotion and civic integration discourses upon arrival in Denmark

ABSTRACT Increasingly restrictive immigration policies and political attention to newcomers’ civic integration currently intersect with the individualisation of the responsibility for health care and health promotion in Western societies. We aim to examine how such policies shape women newcomers’ perceptions of health and experiences of civic health promoting activities in the first years after granted asylum and temporary residence permit in Denmark. Drawing on conceptualisations of healthism as a super-value for the individual in Western societies, we analyse 29–50 year old Syrian women newcomers’ experiences of meeting an all-encompassing and individualised concept of health that is promoted by various societal institutions in Denmark (including schools and leisure sites). While the women describe their everyday lives in Syria as unconsciously healthy, in the receiving context, they came to appear as consciously unhealthy. Further through individual and focus group interviews, the women characterise white Danish women as a healthy and active group, while describing themselves as the ‘unhealthy others’. The Syrian women take on feelings of blame and individual responsibility for promoting their health, despite also describing a number of structural barriers for their healthy and active living. However, the Syrian women newcomers also deliver an implicit critique of the individual quest for health in Western societies and showcase more collective approaches to health care.