title: Stories of pain and health by elderly Pakistani women in Norway.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This ethnographic study investigates the stories of elderly Pakistani women living in Norway. Migration studies indicate that elderly migrant women are passive, ill victims caught in a marginalized position due to age, ethnicity and gender, and thus have little access to opposition and agency. To broaden the picture it is necessary to develop an innovative approach to understand what is implicated in the process of migration. The importance of considering life conditions that surrounds potential health promotion behaviors of immigrants is stressed by several researchers. However, up to now limited research guided by this perspective has been done in Norway. Therefore, this study explored how elderly Pakistani women in Norway promote their health and well-being through some distinct social interactions. The intention is to bring awareness to how health, even by so-called disadvantaged social groups, may take place. These practices are important to take into consideration when developing health-promoting policies for elderly immigrants.
  
  
  METHODS
  An ethnographic study of 15 Pakistani women, aged 53-75, was carried out in a multisided fieldwork in Oslo using participant observation and ethnographic interviews. The analytical approach was inspired by the constructivist theoretical framework of narrative ethnography.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The elderly Pakistani women in Norway construct stories of living in-between cultures and experiences of acculturative stress caused by being elderly, immigrants and women. However, this analysis also suggests that through distinct social relationships, primarily in the context of a voluntary organization, elderly Pakistani women do health by the way they interact and construct a repertoire of social identities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The healing practices taking place among elderly Pakistani women may counteract the negative health outcomes associated with age, migration and gender implications for immigrant health-promoting policy in Norway may be to increase the establishment and allocate funds to sustain voluntary organizations run by and for immigrants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing Science, Buskerud & Vestfold University College, Norway b.l.sverre@studmed.uio.no.
authors.forename: Beate Lie
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Sverre
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Kari Nyheim
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Solbrække
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing Science, Buskerud & Vestfold University College, Norway.
authors.forename: Grethe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Eilertsen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006262:Health; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D009664:Norway; D010146:Pain; D010154:Pakistan / Q000208:ethnology
keywords: Health promotion; Norway; Pakistani; immigration; narrative ethnography