First, we investigate the experiences and reasons of health-related travel among Russian-speaking immigrants, who have moved to Finland from Russia and the former Soviet Union countries. Second, we explore tourists form Finland, Russia, and Estonia, who look for health and wellness services in their neighbouring country.
Together these two approaches, immigrant health and health and wellness tourism, create a research setting, which allows for detailed examination of variety of health-seeking strategies and wellness enhancing lifestyles of people with different cultural and sociodemographic backgrounds. The project seeks to increase understanding of cultural conceptions of health and well-being, transnational patients’ and tourists’ experiences, barriers of access to services of different customer groups, as well as national and transnational inequalities and intersecting power relations related to health.
Our project is built on mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative viewpoints, methods and data.