| dc.description.abstract | This master’s thesis aims to closely examine the challenges that people without legal status who are living on the margins of society face when accessing dental health services. Irregular migrants go almost unnoticed, without any entitlements to rights and protection in a well established society like Norway. This paper places the focus on critical issues by voicing the barriers and challenges this group faces in situations when they desperately need dental help. Due to ethical considerations and limitations, their insights are collected through the experiences of dentists working with this vulnerable group, many of whom do so on a voluntary basis. In order to gather valuable information addressing the research question, “Exploring the barriers and strategies for increasing access to oral health services among irregular migrants in Norway'', qualitative research is being used with a semi-structured interview guide. This method allows for in depth clarification and discussion of the insights and experiences of the healthcare professionals. Furthermore, thematic analysis has been implemented in order to analyze the findings, which eventually were categorized into three different thematic fields as a result of the analysis. The findings are discussed in the context of Nancy Fraser’s theory of social justice and the concept of citizenship. This provides a more comprehensive understanding of the situation and challenges irregular migrants are facing and contributes to raising awareness about changes that should occur in already established norms, political policies, rules and recommendations. Nevertheless, both Norwegian and international laws and regulations are being looked at closely and contrasted in order to get a better understanding of their disparities and ways of implementation.
In the end, the paper provides discussion and clear recommendations for further steps and considerations that need to be taken seriously in order to make progress towards achieving social justice and dignifying life for all the members of the society, regardless of their status. | en_US |
