Risk factors and dangerous classes in a European context

Abstract

The chapter is introduced by exploring the concept of dangerous classes in a European context. Next, it moves on to study the construction of ‘being Turkish’, the consequences of perceived negative framing in the Turkish community (because of drug use), in society (i.e. as ‘Turkish’ or ‘Muslim’) and its relation to drug treatment and help seeking. The meaning and lived experience of drug use and ethnicity are identified by enquiring into individual and collective strategies as well as responses to perceived framing among self-described recreational and problem drug users with a Turkish migration background in Ghent. These lived experiences and constructs are compared with frames among mental health workers who work with Muslim clients in Ghent and with the cultural competence literature. The analysis is based on interviews with 47 individuals aged 18–65 with a Turkish migration background living in Ghent, Belgium. Before discussing the ethnicity-related findings, the following questions are addressed: (1) problem users’ experiences in treatment and their experience with alternative treatment; (2) the frames applied by mental health providers as studied by Rondelez and colleagues (2018);(3) a literature review of the concept of cultural competence (CC) in drug treatment (De Kock et al., 2019). This integrated eco-social analysis allows a description of how ethnicity interacts with problem use and treatment and an identification of how provider views and CC discourse align with these needs and/or serve to frame the populations ‘as risky’.