| |
Abstract |
There has been an increase in the flow of refugees, migrants, immigrants, and asylum seekers into Europe from the Middle East and Africa, which has meant that their integration into societies has become an important topic. The Nordic countries have received a higher number of migrants per capita basis over the past few years than other European countries (Pitkänen et al.2017; Gentin et al., 2019). In 2015, about 163,000 people sought asylum in Sweden and the integration of these people into Swedish society has become an important focus for the government (Swedish Institute 2015-2018). Nature-based solutions have been defined by the European Commission as solutions that are inspired and supported by nature (European Commission, 2015 p5), and nature-based interventions can be used as solutions for a variety of purposes and with different groups within society. Pitkänen et al. (2017) found there is increasing interest in nature-based solutions which are seen as having the potential to be a cost-effective and efficient means of integrating migrants into host societies. A number of nature-based integration projects have been created in Nordic countries; they are mainly voluntary for migrants but can combine integration or labour market training or vocational and medical rehabilitation. |
|
