Project leader: Ravi KS Kohli, University of Bedforshire, United Kingdom
Project duration: 2020-2024
Participating countries: Scotland, Finland and Norway
Funding from NordForsk: 12,990,172 NOK
Project website: Drawing Together Project
The project team consisting of researchers, art therapists and artists explored how
unaccompanied young refugees build new lives after settling in Finland, Norway, and
Scotland. By mapping their networks and relationships as well as interviewing “value
persons,” the study examined mutuality, hospitality, and reciprocity in everyday life.
Through a series of art workshops and interviews, young refugees depicted relational
wellbeing across past, present, and future. The project highlights their journey from
asylum’s volatility to everyday vitality within diverse national communities.
Key Findings
- In Finland, research highlighted the importance of family-like relationships for young refugees. With the absence of families of origin, young people relied on creating trusted, reciprocal networks to meet daily needs. Friendships formed in refugee group homes remained significant into adulthood. Findings also showed that encounters with nature fostered belonging through restoration in the present, reconnection with the past, and aspirations for the future. Exhibitions in Finland attracted large audiences.
- In Scotland, the project team produced a policy brief on refugee integration and engaged in two podcasts with the UNESCO Chair on Refugee Integration Through Education, Language and Arts. Art exhibitions and films gave young participants opportunities to communicate their experiences publicly, including at anti-racism events and professional development seminars. These activities showed how art can serve as both a research method and a platform for young refugees’ voices in policy and public life.
- In Norway, case studies demonstrated how positive relationships within formal networks, particularly with professionals offering time, care, and understanding, contributed to coping and wellbeing. Community participation through sports, schools, religious spaces, and voluntary organisations also emerged as key arenas for reciprocity, mutual care, and support.
- Across all sites, the use of art-based research methods proved essential in enabling young people to articulate complex emotions and experiences that were difficult to capture in conventional interviews. Art offered a non-confrontational medium to explore sensitive issues.
- The Nordic collaboration added significant value by enabling shared exhibitions, coauthored articles, and direct exchanges between young participants across countries.
- The shared outputs, including a special issue of Social Sciences, strengthened the evidence base on relational wellbeing in refugee lives.
Key outputs
Kohli R, Fylkesnes M, Kaukko M, White S. (2024). Forced Migration: A Relational Wellbeing Approach. Social Sciences, (1), doi: 10.3390/socsci13010052
Tiilikainen M, Fylkesnes M, McGregor S. (2023). Family-like Relationships and Wellbeing
of Young Refugees in Finland, Norway, and Scotland. Social Sciences, (12), doi: 10.3390/ socsci12120667
Haswell, N. Friends from the Past, Friends for the Future: Exploring How Young Refugees’ Friendship Practices Change and Endure Through Life Transitions. YOUNG. https://doi. org/10.1177/11033088251325025
Documentaries
Korkman. P (2025) Introduction to the Drawing Together project
Korkman. P (2025) Life in 4 chapters: the views and experiences of young refugees
Podcast