Utan given hemvist: barnperspektiv i den svenska asylprocessen

År: 2016

Typ av text: Doktorsavhandling

Publicerad av:  Stockholms universitet

Språk: Svenska

Författare: Lisa Ottosson

Antal sidor: 100

Tillgänglig på: http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:898728/FULLTEXT01.pdf

***Artikel baserad på doktorsavhandlingens del om barnhandläggare inom mottagningen finns***

Ottosson, Lisa (2010). ”Barntänk” ur ett tjänstemannaperspektiv: En intervjustudie med barnhandläggare vid Migrationsverket. Mellan det förflutna och framtiden. Asylsökande barns välfärd, hälsa och välbefinnande. https://www.cergu.gu.se/digitalAssets/1319/1319551_mellan-det-forflutna-och-framtiden.pdf

Se även:

Ottosson, Lisa; Eastmond, Marita & Schierenbeck, Isabell (2013) Safeguarding a Child Perspective in Asylum Reception: Dilemmas of Children’s Case Workers in Sweden. Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 26, No. 2

Vad texten handlar om 

Doktorsavhandling som bygger på tre delstudier med fokus på förhållandena för asylsökande barn med föräldrar i asylprocessen, både vad gäller mottagning och undersökning av asylskäl, utifrån barns egna erfarenheter. Studierna inkluderar även information om handläggare på migrationsverket samt juridiska ombud. 

Viktigaste resultat

– ‘Study 1 shows that children’s caseworkers experienced their discretion as limited which was partly due to lack of time and financial resources. Another aspect was their low status in the organisation and colleagues’ lack of knowledge about the child perspective. Furthermore, the caseworkers themselves contributed to this limited scope for action which was partly due to their reluctance to challenge existing standards and collegial expectations’ (p. 83). 

– ‘Study II that, due to a number of circumstances, children are often overlooked in their representative’s investigation. The representatives encountered practical limitations such as lack of time (corresponding to low remuneration, reportedly) and a lack of suitable facilities for interviewing children. In addition, children in families were rarely considered to have grounds for asylum other than their parents’. The legal representatives had also experienced that the child perspective and children’s best interests were seldom given consideration by the Migration Board. This made them focus on other aspects of the family’s situation’ (p. 83-4). 

– ‘Study III illustrates how the children developed a number of ways for dealing with the particularities of their situation; housing, schooling, and financial resources. Tactics varied from being silent and fantasizing about their future to actively trying to change things. Some ways of coping primarily served to evade difficulties, others gave the children opportunities to focus on their “personal projects”, which were often connected to school, and aimed to create a sense of belonging. All this leads to the conclusion that the children themselves primarily embodied the child perspective in the asylum process – not least through their quest for a life “like that of other children” ‘ (p. 84). 

– ‘An important principle in the field of migration policy, rooted in children’s rights, is the child perspective, focusing on children’s best interests and the child’s right to participate. There is, however, another principle to which this one is subordinated, namely the state’s interest in maintaining a regulated immigration. The field of migration policy is thus characterised by contradictory principles. This thesis shows how these principles are managed and applied in practice as separate stakeholders – Migration Board officials and legal representatives, amongst others – try to “resolve” the contradictions (thereby forming policy). This thesis posits that the prevailing political and organisational conditions lead to the child perspective being cast in a particular mould in the context of the Migration Board’s operations. The concept of children’s best interests, for example, tends to acquire a predominantly rhetorical function, and may be used to legitimize practices which, in the context of another rationality, may seem to run counter to children’s interests. The existing framework also means that the “normality”, which is supposed to be offered to asylum-seeking children, becomes conditional, formally as well as informally. Moreover, the thesis indicates that asylum-seeking children can be perceived as “particularly vulnerable,” which may further undermine their rights to participate in processes that affect their lives’ (p. 84). 

Perspektiv/teoretiska begrepp

New childhood sociology, practice theory, “liminality” (Turner 1967). 

Metoden för studien

Etnografiska fältstudier 2008-2010 bland asylsökande barn och deras familjer (20 barn från 10 familjer, i olika åldrar och med jämn könsfördelning) i ett av Migrationsverket upptagningsområden, samt intervjuer med och observationer av en rad olika aktörer som verkar inom Migrationsverket, såsom barnhandläggare, samt juridiska ombud. 

Sammanfattad av: Alva Nissen