International migration
The "forgotten" asylum seekers from Afghanistan
– A study on inclusion and exclusion processes affecting young Hazara refugees in Sweden.
This project is a collaboration between Martin Joormann (Associate Professor in Social Work at KAU) and Anna Lundberg (Professor in Sociology of Law at LU). The project aims to conduct a joint analysis of previously collected data, supplement it with additional data in the form of public documentation, and publish a scientific article. More specifically, the project focuses on highlighting exclusion and inclusion mechanisms that have affected Afghan refugee youth in Sweden since 2015 when the Swedish government announced a reversal in asylum policy. Thousands of Afghan refugees have been living in Sweden for several years without residence permits after their asylum applications were rejected. Most of them were minors and were categorized as "unaccompanied children" when they applied for asylum. When these young individuals had their age reassessed and subsequently treated as adults, or turned 18 due to long waiting times and were thus issued deportation orders, the health consequences for them became very serious. This is evident not only in Malmö but also in many other places across Sweden. Homelessness, poverty, substance abuse, and suicide attempts are some common issues.
In this project, we aim to investigate the significance of legal regulations – labor law, migration law, and social law – and their interplay to identify and understand the processes of exclusion and inclusion that have led many of these youth to fall outside the welfare system's outer safety net while simultaneously being unable to go to another country to seek protection.
In the project, we will explore various ways in which forms of forgetfulness (Thompson), both calculated and unintended, have unfolded. Furthermore, we will employ a "top-down" and "bottom-up" socio-legal research design (Banakar). This combination allows us to examine and understand how the Swedish asylum process and other legislation relevant to young Afghans in Sweden function in practice, why it functions this way, and what the consequences are. We will examine the law from the perspective of individual experiences (bottom-up) and through the regulations that govern the interaction between individuals and Swedish authorities (top-down). Moreover, we will investigate how different professional groups and civil society actors have handled their encounters with youth from Afghanistan.
Principal Researcher: Martin Joormann
Contributing Researcher: Anna Lundberg
LEGITIMATE REFUGEES – A CRITICAL INVESTIGATION OF LEGITIMACY CLAIMS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF SWEDISH ASYLUM LAW
Lund University, published in 2019.
This study examines how the highest legal instance of the Swedish migration bureaucracy, the Migration Court of Appeal, legitimizes decisions that affect the lives of asylum seekers. Based on critical discourse analysis of precedents and informed by semi-structured interviews with migration judges, the study illustrates the textual construction of last-instance decisions that concern families with children; class, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexuality; and the policy of 'regulated immigration'. Thus, it challenges the institutionalized power imbalance that is built into the asylum system.
Author: Martin Joormann
TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE IN SOCIAL WORK WITH UNACCOMPANIED REFUGEE CHILDREN AND YOUTH
This study explores new global family formations and relationships and how social workers work with the transnational perspective.
Principal Researcher: Caroline Östman
YOUNG MIGRANTS AND BELONGING
Belonging is studied from various perspectives in relation to young migrants in Sweden. Topics include voluntary work for establishment of asylum-seeking youth, as well as unequal boundary drawing and belonging related to place and young migrants.
Principal Researcher: Maria Moberg Stephenson.
FROM YOUNG MIGRANTS TO "GOOD SWEDES": BELONGING AND MANIFESTATIONS OF BORDERS AND BOUNDARIES IN NGO SOCIAL WORK
Örebro University, published in 2021.
The overall aim of this doctoral thesis was to analyze belonging in the context of a mentor program for youth defined as unaccompanied in Sweden. By connecting different dimensions of belonging, this was studied both from the perspective of the young individuals and within the work of the mentor program.
Author: Maria Moberg Stephenson
UNACCOMPANIED REFUGEE CHILDREN AND POLITICAL RESPONSES IN SWEDEN: CHALLENGES FOR SOCIAL WORK
Mittuniversitetet, doctoral thesis published in 2019.
The overall aim of this doctoral thesis was to examine how the Swedish reception system and the institutions of social work meet the needs and ambitions of unaccompanied refugee children and youth. The study is based on analyses of the political debate on migration and integration between the election years 2014–2018, as well as interviews with unaccompanied refugee children/youth and social workers.
Author: Caroline Östman