Diversity as discourse and diversity as practice: critical reflections on migrant women's experiences of accessing mental health support in London
Abstract
The paper critically examines the way diversity is conceptualised as a dominant discourse and as a paradigm for understanding the present, which has gradually replaced multiculturalism in academic and policy discourse. Using our interviews with third sector practitioners providing mental health support to a wealth of migrant populations in London, the paper offers key examples of how TSOs (Third Sector Organisations) address migrant women's diverse needs, showing how diversity is practised in the everyday of community groups.
This paper's novelty consists in exposing overlaps and divergences between diversity discourses and diversity practices and its added value lays in the combination of academic and practitioner perspectives in the study of TSOs supporting migrant, refugee and asylum seeker women in London.