The Iraqi women in this study have made Australia their ‘home’ in the years following the Gulf War in 1991, and are the first generation to move to a small rural town in Australia. The experiences documented in this thesis are based on 15 months of ethnographic research, between March 2003 and June 2004, with twenty-six Iraqi women, sixteen service providers and members of the communities of which they are a part. The focus of the study is on Iraqi women’s experiences of resettlement, their sense of emotional wellbeing and belonging. By and large, studies of refugee mental health attribute ‘refugee suffering’ to pre-migration experiences, rooted to the cultures of peoples’ home countries, principally through war, persecution and trauma, and how this legacy impacts upon women’s emotional wellbeing and ability to belong in resettlement. In many ways, it is convenient for host countries to ascribe refugee mental health problems to pre-migration experiences because the power dynamics of integration, the complex micro politics and the consequences of encounters with the Australian system are made indiscernible. The emergent discourse not only obscures the economic, historical and social conditions that lie at the heart of processes of displacement, but also ignores, silences and speaks on behalf of refugees. / This thesis demonstrates that Iraqi women’s articulations of their experiences of displacement and resettlement are anchored in and deeply affected by the material, legal and cultural circumstances of the local and national places they inhabit. Accordingly, their accounts of emotional suffering are in part framed within the experiences of war and persecution, both past and present, but they are also entangled and embedded in their contemporary realities resulting from multiple social barriers in resettlement, including cultural and religious racism, social invisibility, exclusion and being ‘othered’ in their daily lives, which impacts upon their wellbeing and sense of belonging in Australia. The experiences documented in this thesis not only privileges Iraqi women’s own understandings of displacement and resettlement and the ways in which they frame the reality of their lives, but also implicates the Australian system and structural axes of inequality in their resettlement experiences, in an attempt to move beyond western epistemological explanations that define the form and content of refugee lives as well as their illness and wellbeing.

The Iraqi women in this study have made Australia their ‘home’ in the years following the Gulf War in 1991, and are the first generation to move to a small rural town in Australia. The experiences documented in this thesis are based on 15 months of ethnographic research, between March 2003 and June 2004, with twenty-six Iraqi women, sixteen service providers and members of the communities of which they are a part. The focus of the study is on Iraqi women’s experiences of resettlement, their sense of emotional wellbeing and belonging. By and large, studies of refugee mental health attribute ‘refugee suffering’ to pre-migration experiences, rooted to the cultures of peoples’ home countries, principally through war, persecution and trauma, and how this legacy impacts upon women’s emotional wellbeing and ability to belong in resettlement. In many ways, it is convenient for host countries to ascribe refugee mental health problems to pre-migration experiences because the power dynamics of integration, the complex micro politics and the consequences of encounters with the Australian system are made indiscernible. The emergent discourse not only obscures the economic, historical and social conditions that lie at the heart of processes of displacement, but also ignores, silences and speaks on behalf of refugees. / This thesis demonstrates that Iraqi women’s articulations of their experiences of displacement and resettlement are anchored in and deeply affected by the material, legal and cultural circumstances of the local and national places they inhabit. Accordingly, their accounts of emotional suffering are in part framed within the experiences of war and persecution, both past and present, but they are also entangled and embedded in their contemporary realities resulting from multiple social barriers in resettlement, including cultural and religious racism, social invisibility, exclusion and being ‘othered’ in their daily lives, which impacts upon their wellbeing and sense of belonging in Australia. The experiences documented in this thesis not only privileges Iraqi women’s own understandings of displacement and resettlement and the ways in which they frame the reality of their lives, but also implicates the Australian system and structural axes of inequality in their resettlement experiences, in an attempt to move beyond western epistemological explanations that define the form and content of refugee lives as well as their illness and wellbeing.

Tobaksbruket hos ungdomar har minskat senaste tiden men är fortfarande på höga nivåer. Under tidiga tonåren sker oftast tobaksdebuten som ger indikationer på att det bör implementeras hälsofrämjande arbeten under skoltiden. Speciellt då ett tobaksbruk har såväl kortsiktiga- som långsiktiga skadliga effekter på såväl individens fysiska som psykiska mående. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om hälsoundervisning har gett några positiva effekter. Studien undersöker om hälsoundervisning kring tobak och tobaksbruk har en påverkan på tobaksbruk hos elever, samt om hälsoundervisning och tobaksbruket har en påverkan på elevernas psykiska välmående. Studien använde en kvantitativ metod som bestod av ett enkätutskick till elever tre år efter genomförd hälsoundervisning om tobak och tobaksbruk. De jämfördes sedan med en kontrollgrupp som inte erhållit samma hälsoundervisning. Resultatet gav indikationer på att hälsoundervisningen inte gett en effekt på antalet som börjar med ett tobaksbruk. Däremot har det gett effekt kring vad som brukas och vilken ålder tobaksdebuten inträffat. Studien fann inget samband mellan att hälsoundervisningen gav effekt på ungdomars psykiska välmående jämfört med kontrollgruppen. Hos de elever med ett tobaksbruk fann studien klara indikationer på att de upplever ett nedsatt psykiskt välmående. Studiens slutsatser indikerar att tobaken är en riskfaktor för psykisk ohälsa samt att hälsoundervisning har en påverkan på vad som brukas. Hos de som fått hälsoundervisning kring tobak och tobaksbruk kan en förskjutning i tobaksdebuten observeras. Däremot fanns inga belägg för att hälsoundervisning har en påverkan på ungas hälsa och välmående. / Tobacco use among adolescents has declined recently but is still at high levels. During the early teens, the onset of tobacco usually occurs, which gives indications that health-promoting work should be implemented in school. Especially when tobacco use has both short-term and long-term harmful effects on both the individual’s physical and mental health. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether health education has the desired effects. The study examines whether health education about tobacco and tobacco use has an impact on tobacco use among students in year nine, and whether health education and tobacco use has an impact on students’ mental wellbeing. The study uses a quantitative method that consisted of a questionnaire sent to students three years after receiving health education about tobacco and tobacco use. They were then compared with the control group which did not receive the same health education. The results gave no indication that health education influenced the amount that started tobacco use. However, it has influenced what is consumed and the age at which the tobacco debut occured. The study found no connection between that the health education influenced the adolescent’s mental wellbeing compared to the control group. The students that had acquired tobacco use, the study found clear indications that they had a decrease in mental wellbeing in both negative symptoms and the positive feeling that was observed. The study's conclusion indicates that tobacco use is a risk factor for mental illness, and that health education influences what is consumed. Among those students who have received health education about tobacco and tobacco use a shift in the onset of tobacco can be observed. However, there was no evidence that health education has an impact on adolescents' health and well-being.