This book presents a state-of-the-art picture of substance use-related phenomena, needs, intervention responses and barriers across varying European contexts and among different displaced populations in Europe. It addresses critical knowledge gaps concerning substance use and interventions targeting the growing refugee population in Europe. The volume advances the growing knowledge base in public health research on substance use among refugees and also identifies ways forward in both policy and interventions from a rights-based perspective. 

This edited collection is pioneering in its effort to solidify and advance this emerging research domain. It is the first-known work that brings together knowledge in the field of substance use-related phenomena and interventions among refugees as a result of the joint effort of over 30 scholars with diverse European backgrounds (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Ukraine). 

The chapters included in this volume collectively illustrate how pre‑, during‑ and post‑migration experiences intersect with social, economic and policy conditions to shape substance use trajectories and related health outcomes. Taken together, the chapters offer a comparative and multi-level perspective on substance use among refugees in Europe, demonstrating the field’s diversity and framing directions for inclusive policy and practice. The volume concludes by outlining clear directions for advancing research and policy making concerned with substance use among refugees in Europe, to be further developed within the European Migration and Substance Use (EUMISU) research network, established alongside this publication and which serves as a platform for knowledge transfer, fostering future research and collaboration. 

Substance Use Among Refugees in Europe: Emerging Research Directions From Social Epidemiology to Structural Prevention is a valuable tool for practitioners and policy makers in the refugee reception domain, prevention and substance use treatment. Moreover, it is a reference for senior and early career scholars in public health, sociology, and criminology with an interest in the migration and substance use nexus.

Charlotte De Kock, PhD is visiting professor and senior researcher in criminology at the Faculty of Law and Criminology, Institute for Social Drug Research (ISD), Ghent University (Belgium). She teaches qualitative methods and critical criminology, and pioneered Belgium’s first ‘Diversity and migration in criminology’ course. Her research covers equitable and evidence-based substance use prevention, early intervention, harm reduction and recovery, research ethics and critical criminology. She maintains frequent prevention and migration-related collaborations with the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA).