Muslim Women Caregivers in the Elderly Care sector in Finland

With a focus on understand discrimination against Muslim caregivers and the implications of cultural diversity in the care workforce, this study queries question: What religious and cultural considerations affect Muslim care professionals in delivering practical care to elderly people in care homes? What forms of discrimination do Muslim care professionals face in this sector? and How do immigrant caregivers engage in negotiating their cultural and religious norms in their working place? These are addressed by applying cultural competence theory with religious and cultural values as an analytical framework. The data were collected through interviews of both Muslim and non-Muslim care professionals from different areas in Finland. The research concludes that care professionals should increase their cultural and religious awareness.

With Shahnaj Begum, University Researcher at the Unit for Gender Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Lapland, shahnaj.begum@ulapland.fi

Shahnaj Begum is a University Researcher at the Unit for Gender Studies in the University of Lapland. Her research interests lie in the disciplines of law and the social sciences, spanning Arctic Studies, human rights, ageing, gender and ethnicity in the North.  She is Vice-Lead of the U-Arctic Thematic Network on “Ageing & Gender in the Arctic” and a member of the University of the Arctic Thematic Network of Health and Wellbeing in the Arctic. Recently, she has received Finnish Academy’s Postdoctoral position for three years (September, 2022 – August, 2025) which is prestigious. She is a lead and vice-lead of projects named a) AGE-Immigrant, funded by Academy of Finland, Research Council for Culture and Society; and b) Gender inequality among care givers in aging sector in Nordic Countries; c) Understanding Ageing, gender and ethnicity (AGE-Arctic) both funded by Nordic Council of Ministers.

Join the meeting via Teams on 20 September 2023, 12 noon.