The theoretical engine of the study is a framework borrowed from philosophy and migration studies: the tactic–strategy continuum, developed by De Certeau and elaborated for migrant populations by Sereke and Drzewiecka. Strategies, in this account, belong to the powerful—migration offices, welfare agencies, employers, refugee centres—institutions that set the terms of access to housing, work, healthcare and language education. Tactics belong to those who must build their lives within frameworks designed by others. The researchers treat tactics and strategies not as a binary but as points on a continuum of action, and they ask what everyday ‘techniques’ women deploy to overcome or sidestep barriers, negotiate state integration requirements, and counter racist exclusions. The answer, they find, is written into the smallest details of daily life.

The study’s second analytical lens is intersectionality, understood through the work of postcolonial feminist scholar Chandra Talpade Mohanty. Rather than treating gender, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, education and legal status as separate variables, the researchers examined how these dimensions overlap and compound one another in concrete situations. A highly educated physician from a conflict zone, for instance, faces a very different set of barriers than a woman with limited literacy, even when both hold the same temporary residence permit. The framework also foregrounds solidarity among women as a form of resistance, a theme that turned out to be central to the findings.

Between August 2021 and October 2025, the team conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews lasting 45 to 90 minutes, in German, English, Swedish, Dari and Farsi, with interpreters and trained cultural brokers supporting some sessions. Participants ranged from 21 to 49 years old and lived in cities, where access to language courses, public transport and jobs is better than in rural areas but where bureaucracy and competition for housing and work are fiercer. The interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, with intersectionality applied as a critical reflexivity tool across all six analytical steps. The researchers were explicit about their own positionality: the first author is a migratised occupational therapist with roots in Pakistan, and several co-authors have personal histories of exile and voluntary migration, including one who grew up during Chile’s dictatorship and later worked with survivors of human rights violations.

The analysis produced four themes, and the first captures the emotional terrain on which everything else unfolds: moving between uncertainty and hope. Participants described waiting years for residence permits and language courses, living in a liminal state one woman called being ‘lost in the woods’, torn between countries, ‘not there and not here at the same time – like a ghost’. One participant, Amira, waited more than three years for a permit and access to a German course while experiencing severe depression: ‘No place to live, no work, no language.’ The researchers interpret this enforced waiting as a strategic exercise of power—what other scholars call slow violence and necropolitics, the bureaucratic machinery that makes some lives wait indefinitely. Against this, the women’s tactics were strikingly concrete. One participant, Naima, denied language classes in 2016, wrote new German words on her wall to memorise them and raised her hand declaring ‘I want, I want’ whenever anyone at the refugee centre mentioned work. Another summed up her survival philosophy in five words: ‘Information is more than money.’

The second theme, disrupted narratives, documents how migration severs the story a person tells about her own life. Amira, a former specialist physician, described needing to ‘wear my white coat’ but being unable to practise medicine in Germany, working instead as a nursing assistant and feeling ‘like a small human’. Professional validation processes took years, and the researchers note that high qualifications can paradoxically make labour market re-entry harder, because the gap between previous status and available work is so wide. Other participants described precariousness rooted in family structure: financial dependence on partners, full responsibility for childcare, and no personal time or independent social network. One woman relied on her partner for housing and finances while unable to work as a midwife, describing herself as feeling like a ‘small child’—a metaphor the researchers read as infantilisation produced by oppressive living conditions.

The third theme is the study’s most vivid: nature-based occupations as tactics of freedom. Bicycling emerged as far more than transport. For women who had been barred from cycling in their countries of origin by gender restrictions, learning to ride in Germany or Sweden carried symbolic weight connected to gender equality, independence and health—one participant said she had to bicycle every day ‘because of bad thoughts. I have nightmares.’ The researchers situate this within a long history: the bicycle has been a ‘tool for liberty’ in women’s rights movements since the late nineteenth century. Gardening played a parallel role. One participant rented an allotment where her family could simply be together in peace; another claimed a patch of green in her neighbourhood to plant a vegetable from home, creating a living link between her past and present. The researchers interpret these cultivated spaces as ‘gaining territory’—small, physical reversals of the power imbalance that otherwise defines displaced women’s lives.

Solidarity, the fourth theme, operates at a different scale. Participants volunteered in NGOs supporting refugee women, counselled peers on breast cancer screening and contraception, explained how the German and Swedish systems work, and taught other women to ride bicycles. Naima, who lives with a disability herself, declared: ‘No matter if I get money or not, I want to help the women.’ Her volunteering made her more independent and strengthened her position within dominant social structures, even though it brought no economic stability. Another participant recalled the moment her sense of self shifted on arriving in Europe: ‘I am in Europe, I am not just a housewife anymore.’ Drawing on Mohanty’s account of cross-cultural feminist solidarity, the researchers argue that these practices are not merely mutual aid but forms of resistance to structural violence—collective occupations that counteract the absence of state and institutional initiatives enabling a good life for displaced women.

The methodological choices deserve attention because they shape what the study can claim. The team used information power rather than saturation to justify the sample size, conducted analysis meetings guided by critical reflexivity, and evaluated quality against Tracy’s eight criteria for excellent qualitative research, including sincerity, resonance and meaningful coherence. Interpreters were matched to participants by sex and ethnic background, and every participant received a follow-up phone call days after her interview, along with contact details for psychosocial support networks—a safeguard reflecting the interviewers’ therapeutic experience with trauma. The long data collection window, stretching across election cycles, pandemic restrictions and shifting migration policies, is framed as a strength, because it captured how political change altered participants’ everyday conditions in real time.

The implications reach beyond academia. The authors argue that occupational therapists—health professionals who specialise in enabling meaningful daily activity—are uniquely positioned to support displaced women, but only if they understand everyday life as tactics and strategies in motion, shaped by intersecting power dynamics. Rather than treating a client’s difficulty attending a language course as an individual deficit, a therapist applying this lens would ask which structural barriers, gendered expectations and legal constraints are at play, and might work with the tactics women already use: cycling groups, gardening projects, solidarity networks. The researchers go further, insisting that practitioners must become allies and advocates rather than reproducing existing power imbalances in clinical settings. In a European policy climate marked by stricter border controls and the new EU Asylum and Migration Pact, the study is a reminder that integration is not something that happens to people—it is something people actively, ingeniously do, one bicycle ride, one planted seed and one act of solidarity at a time.

Subject of Research: Intersectional power dynamics and everyday occupations among women with experiences of forced migration in urban Sweden and Germany

Article Title: Tactics and Strategies Operating in Everyday Life Among Women with Experiences of Forced Migration

Article References: Scheer, S., Asaba, E., Buerk, T., Guerrero, M., & Mondaca, M. (2026). Tactics and Strategies Operating in Everyday Life Among Women with Experiences of Forced Migration. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 33(1), Article 9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44474-026-00011-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44474-026-00011-5

Keywords: forced migration, refugee women, intersectionality, occupational therapy, power dynamics, solidarity, bicycling, gardening, social participation, qualitative research, Sweden, Germany

The study was carried out by Harpa Lind Kristjánsdóttir of the Vocational Rehabilitation Center of the Westfjords, Sigrún Siguröardóttir of the University of Akureyri, and Anna María Pálsdóttir of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp. Their goal was practical: to find out which nature-assisted activities participants actually experienced as meaningful and psychologically rewarding, so that the rehabilitation centre could extend and improve the program it offers to clients working toward a return to work or education.

The scientific rationale rests on a substantial body of research showing that nature acts as a salutogenic factor, meaning it actively contributes to health and well-being rather than merely avoiding disease. Both passive exposure to natural environments, such as simply being in a green space, and active engagement, such as gardening or hiking, have been linked to improved mental health. Nature-based interventions have shown particular promise for people with depression, anxiety, and stress-related conditions, and previous Swedish studies have found that longer nature-based rehabilitation may contribute to a faster return to work. Yet, despite this international evidence base, no studies had examined nature-assisted occupations specifically within the Icelandic vocational rehabilitation context, where the landscape, climate, and culture differ markedly from the settings of earlier research.

To fill that gap, the team used a mixed-method convergent longitudinal design over one year. Eleven participants, three men and eight women aged 29 to 53 with an average age of 42, were recruited from the rehabilitation centre and took part in voluntary two-hour nature sessions each week as an add-on to their ongoing rehabilitation. Participation periods ranged from four to eleven months, averaging seven months. The activities fell into five categories: outdoor play, foraging in nature, adventure activities, outdoor gardening, and indoor gardening. Crucially, the sessions were deliberately unstructured. No goals were set for completing work, participants were free to quit mid-task, and they were even encouraged to stop without finishing projects they had started, a design choice intended to relieve the performance pressure that many people with stress-related difficulties find debilitating.

The activity calendar tracked the rhythms of the Icelandic year. In winter, participants built snow sculptures and snowmen, made snow angels, and sledged down mountainsides, carrying their sledges back up repeatedly despite fatigue. In late June they picked herbs that were dried and brewed into tea; in August they gathered bilberries eaten with cream; in October they harvested Icelandic moss, later boiled in milk as a nourishing drink; and in November, timed carefully around low tide, they collected dulse seaweed that was rinsed, baked, and eaten as a snack. Cones, birch branches, heather, and moss gathered in early November became Christmas decorations in December. Spring brought a guided kayak trip from the local sailing club, and autumn a mountain hike along a gentle marked path to a viewpoint. Outdoor gardening ran from May to September in a 300-square-metre garden beside the centre, while indoor gardening, including sowing, repotting, and propagating plants under vegetation lights, continued year-round.

Quantitatively, the researchers used the Meaningful and Psychologically Rewarding Occupation Rating Scale, a validated instrument in which participants rate how well descriptors such as fun, boring, physically stimulating, mentally stimulating, connecting, and isolating apply to each activity on a scale from one to seven. A calculation method converts these ratings into scores for meaningfulness and psychological reward, each ranging from six to 42, with higher numbers indicating greater meaning or reward. The results were striking: every activity category scored above 30, and the two factors showed a strong positive correlation of 0.92, meaning that activities participants found meaningful were almost invariably the ones they found psychologically rewarding. Adventure activities, outdoor gardening, and outdoor play ranked highest, while foraging and indoor gardening, though still rated positively, came in lower.

The qualitative half of the study, based on a focus group interview with six of the eleven participants supported by photographs, videos, and field notes, explained why. Participants described outdoor play as something they had never considered or dared to do alone, with one remarking that it had not occurred to them to go sledging since childhood. The laughter and joy kept people going despite exhaustion, and for some the physical challenge stirred both sadness over their limitations and a sincere desire to improve. Others initially dismissed play as purposeless, only to conclude that perhaps doing something purely fun was exactly what they needed. Foraging, by contrast, produced a state of absorption and mindfulness, as participants learned to see what had been invisible to them, suddenly noticing cones or moss everywhere once they knew where to look.

The adventure activities generated the most dramatic emotional accounts. None of the participants had ever kayaked before, and one capsized after only fifteen to twenty minutes at sea, later describing the experience as passing through all the emotional realms: the excitement of trying the kayak, an indescribable feeling of freedom alone on the still sea, fear at falling into the water, relief at being rescued by the guide, and pleasure at having achieved it all. On the hike, one participant said he had overcome an invisible hurdle and now knew he could hike in the mountains again by himself. Outdoor gardening gave participants the satisfaction of real tasks that mattered and visible results, while indoor gardening offered the best opportunities for social connection and, for several, sparked a lasting interest in growing plants at home, with one participant reporting that she grew basil on her kitchen windowsill the following summer.

The authors interpret the findings through the lens of occupational science and the theory of occupational values, which distinguishes concrete value tied to results, symbolic value tied to personal and cultural meaning, and self-rewarding value found in the pleasure of performing an activity itself. The three highest-rated categories all took place entirely outdoors in natural settings, which the researchers believe acted as a supportive factor throughout the rehabilitation process, consistent with earlier findings that natural environments support clients across all phases of recovery. Equally important was the absence of performance pressure: participants could stop when they had had enough, and the outdoors even allowed them to step back from the group and work independently. The lower ratings for foraging and indoor gardening may reflect their result-oriented structure, since foraging sessions typically ended with a harvest or product, and indoor activities required cleanup and lacked fresh air, daylight, and the sense of freedom outside walls.

The study’s conclusion is that engagement in enjoyable, flexible, nature-based outdoor occupations supports psychological recovery and well-being in vocational rehabilitation settings, and that personally meaningful, low-pressure nature-assisted occupations deserve a permanent place in such programs. The findings also point to long-term effects: many participants continued nature-based activities on their own after the program ended, echoing earlier research showing that people find ways to incorporate nature into their lives and keep doing so after rehabilitation concludes. The authors caution that this was a feasibility study with a small sample, no specific target group, and a possible selection bias toward people already interested in nature, so the results reflect participants’ experiences of the activities rather than measured health outcomes. Even so, the work provides a concrete foundation for building nature-assisted rehabilitation programs in Iceland and for future studies targeting the needs of different user groups in vocational rehabilitation, suggesting that sometimes the most therapeutic prescription is permission to play, explore, and grow in the open air.

Subject of Research: Participants' experiences of meaningful and psychologically rewarding nature-assisted occupations within vocational rehabilitation in Iceland

Article Title: Meaningful and psychologically rewarding nature-assisted occupations – A feasibility study for improving alternatives in vocational rehabilitation in Iceland

Article References: Kristjánsdóttir, H. L., Siguröardóttir, S., & Pálsdóttir, A. M. (2025). Meaningful and psychologically rewarding nature-assisted occupations – A feasibility study for improving alternatives in vocational rehabilitation in Iceland. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 32(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/11038128.2026.2633053

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1080/11038128.2026.2633053

Keywords: nature-assisted activities, vocational rehabilitation, occupational therapy, nature-based interventions, mental health, well-being, Iceland, adventure activities, gardening, stress recovery, meaningful occupation, feasibility study