This study offers a comprehensive comparative analysis of labour market integration policies for refugees in Sweden and Germany following the 2015 refugee crisis. Adapting an institutional approach that includes new historical institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism and sociological institutionalism, this study analyses the policy changes in both countries. The research design is a most similar design to compare and find differences and similarities in both countries, and the methodology is a qualitative comparative analysis. The research concentrates on the elements of policy change – displacement, layering, conversion and drift- to explain the modifications in response to the crisis. The study reveals significant similarities and differences between the two countries. Both Sweden and Germany implemented strategies to support refugee integration into the labour market, although with different approaches. The historical legacies, societal perspectives, and institutional frameworks of each country influenced the execution of these policies.

By using critical discourse analysis this study aims to understand the asylum process in Sweden through the experiences of the denied asylum seekers as they are expressed in their narratives published online. The study also aims to explore how the applicants influence the asylum process and if the applicants perform any resistance. By adopting the power perspective and presenting the denied applicants‟ experiences of the asylum process through the perspective of discipline power, sovereign power and biopower, the study shows that applicants experience positioning which is imposed on them by Swedish Migration Agency. This research supports findings of the previous studies yet it presents the asylum seekers in a contrasting way, namely as acting subjects who resist and negotiate their position during the asylum process. The denied applicants do not just accept the assigned positions, namely the subject who can be denied, be deported and the unwanted subject, rather negotiate them in various ways including attempt to mobilization through the social medias and digital technologies. The study also shows how the family unit is used as a resource in this negotiation both by the applicants and the Migration Agency.

In the following dissertation, I consider how the legal challenges faced by LGBTI refugees might compel reflection on and revision to traditional conceptions of citizenship in the United States. Specifically, I explore the question of how queer refugees and asylum seekers might alter – or queer – the meaning of “citizenship” in the United States. This project contributes to the conversation about citizenship in the field of rhetoric in multiple ways: (1) It highlights tensions between the cultural construction of citizenship and its legal parameters, (2) It expands rhetorical citizenship scholarship through attention to the intersection of identification, marginalization, and the political imaginary, and (3) It reveals tensions between norms of civic and sexual identity. It does this by tracing rhetorical precedent through a case study of sexual orientation and gender identity asylum in the United States. I argue that LGBTI refugees and asylees can shape a queered discourse of citizenship, but that the discourse produced is limited based on narrow definitions of sexual orientation and identity categories. To make this argument, I analyze the precedent-setting case involving Fidel Armando Toboso-Alfonso, in which I address how the establishment of that case as precedent set in place norms of sexual identity that persist in the adjudication of LGBTI asylum cases today. Next, I look to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration training module for handling LGBTI asylum claims in order to make sense of the ways the norms set forth in the precedent-setting case have become codified and interrogated in current efforts to adjudicate LGBTI asylum claims. Finally, I compare visual representations of LGBTI asylum seekers to other refugees in order to understand how photographs of LGBTI asylum seekers fit within or rupture the genre of refugee photography. Taken together, these case studies provide insight into how citizenship is discursively imagined when access to citizen status is predicated on simultaneous normative and non-normative performances of sexual identity.

This thesis will focus on the recent increase in the number of Mexican nationals applying for asylum in the United States and the disproportionate denial of their claims. It will help clarify national debates regarding asylum, shed light on bi-national socio-political conditions, and raise important questions about the human rights of asylum seekers, including the United States’ obligations regarding those rights. It is also work that adds a rarely considered perspective to the scholarship on Mexican migration by focusing on migrants who are motivated by violence rather than economic factors. / text

This thesis is an analysis of the integration of dispersed asylum seekers in Glasgow. It is a qualitative case study that uses data from participant observation with community groups, interviews with asylum seekers and those involved in service provision and policy, and documentary analysis. It examines the impact of policy within a local context, and the difficulties of defining and promoting integration for asylum seekers. The research makes both an empirical and theoretical contribution, building on the knowledge of the impact of dispersal and asylum policy, with a Scottish perspective analysing the issues when implementing reserved asylum policy within a devolved context. The research contributes to debates on integration with an analysis of the conceptual and practical difficulties of promoting integration for asylum seekers. The research findings are structured around three key analytic themes, the impact of policy on asylum seekers and other stakeholders, defining and promoting integration, and challenges. The research indicates tensions between devolved and reserved responsibilities in relation to asylum. The different approaches to integration create difficulties for those working within devolved services, but implementing a reserved policy. Promoting integration for asylum seekers is seen as beneficial for both asylum seekers and host communities in Scotland, but there are both conceptual and practical challenges. There are difficulties of how far and in what ways temporary integration can be measured, which are analysed in relation to existing frameworks for integration. Practice related debates have formed the basis of a shift to a more strategic platform for integration work. Contexts and procedures continue to change, however, bringing fresh challenges. The concept of social capital has been influential in the structures that have been set up to facilitate the processes of integration and dispersal within Glasgow. Yet there are difficulties with the usage of a social capital based framework. Whilst social capital is a useful concept, there is a risk that its usage may mask issues of inequality and exclusion, and the fundamental difficulties of the asylum process remain.

The aim of this study was to investigate the principles and factors underlying the culturally competent nursing care of asylum applicants. Asylum applicants are a highly vulnerable group, whose health is often severely compromised prior to arrival in the UK due to exposure to torture, violence and rape. Although they are entitled to primary health care services whilst their asylum claim is under consideration, their level of welfare support has been significantly eroded over the last decade. An analysis of the nursing literature revealed mainly US notions of cultural competence, which were based on a private health care insurance system rather than a universal health care system of equitable, accessible and non-discriminatory service provision, such as the NHS. A Five Steps Model of cultural competence (Quickfall 2004) was later revised to provide a theoretical framework for this research study. Data for this ethnographic study were collected during 2005-2007 with asylum applicants and community nurses within one Health Board in Scotland, using participant observation, individual, narrative and group interview methods. The data were analysed for their categorical content. The findings are presented as vignettes to highlight cultural competence issues. Three major themes emerge from the study findings, which highlight the intermediary function of community nursing. The provision of equitable, accessible and non-discriminatory services remains pertinent in the 21st century. Secondly, the cross-cultural promotion of health involves a partnership process to ensure effective communication and the negotiation of person centred care. Thirdly, the delivery of socially inclusive services requires the aiding of asylum applicant adaptation to a new host environment. This study contributes to community nursing knowledge in explaining, through synthesis of the literature and study data, a model of cultural competence for the care of asylum applicants. It also provides a set of best practice statements, which require further investigation.

The topic of this thesis is justice and asylum. The central argument in the thesis is that citizens of all states have a moral right that entitles them to asylum in certain circumstances of deprivation. The right to asylum can be understood as a general derivative right, and it is grounded in the more fundamental entitlement to basic needs. More specifically, I argue that all persons whose basic needs are insufficiently protected in their home states have the right to asylum when they cannot be assisted with other remedial instruments by the international community within a reasonable timeframe. By using the right to asylum as a normative evaluative standard, I also argue that the existing refugee protective institutions are morally unsatisfactory, and that a 'moral refugee regime' should be established to replace the current protective institutions. Then the questions becomes, what specific form these institutions should take. In the thesis I focus primarily on one institutional proposal, 'the tradable quota scheme', and its ethical dimensions. I defend the tradable quota scheme against several lines of criticism, and suggest that the scheme constitutes a normatively viable alternative for the existing institutional framework. Finally, I examine obligations in the protection of the right to asylum in circumstances of partial compliance. I conclude that the citizens of complying states have the obligation to 'pick up the slack' and assist those bearers of the right to asylum who are unjustly denied assistance by the non-complying states.

1.1 Background: Despite growing recognition of the negative impact of ever stringent asylum employed by western governments, psychological conceptualisations of distress in these populations remains dominated by traumamodels. 1.2 Literature Review: A systematic literature review was conducted to collate and critique findings from studies relating postmigratory stress to asylum seeker distress. The 44 reviewed studies suggested asylum seekers endure a range of postmigratory stressors relating to acculturative challenges, social isolation, material deprivation and restrictive asylum legislation. Difficulties associated with conducting research with these populations are acknowledged. It is concluded that restrictive asylum policies greatly inhibit asylum seekers’ abilities to negotiate challenges resulting from displacement. Smail’s (2005) social materialist perspective is suggested as a framework for findings. 1.3 Research Report: No known British empirical research has focused on exploring relationships between postmigratory-stress and asylum seeker mental health. Based on established methodologies (e.g. Silove et al.,1997) a cross-sectional study was undertaken to explore the relative relationship with distress of postmigratory-stressors and premigratory-trauma exposure. An opportunity sample of 98 asylum seekers completed measures of postmigratory-stress (the PLDC: Silove et al., 1997); premigratory-trauma exposure (HTQ-TE; Mollica et al.,1992) and distress (HTQ-PTSD: Mollica et al.,1992; HSCL-25: Hesbacher et al.,1980; Winokur et al.,1984). High levels of exposure to premigratory-traumatic events, postmigratory stress, and distress were reported. Regression analyses revealed ‘Feeling a burden to others’ and being denied asylum to be the strongest predictors of distress. It is concluded that a range of postmigratory stressors impact negatively on asylum seeker wellbeing. Those denied asylum experience more restrictions and poorer mental health. Limitations are acknowledged. 1.4 Implications: The literature review and research report conclude that present asylum determination processes are damaging to those seeking refuge. Psychotherapeutic interventions directed at the intra-psychic level may be of limited effectiveness given the more primary social and material needs of these clients. 1.5 Critical Appraisal: Reflections on the research process are presented alongside key learning points.

This thesis investigates the experiences and strategies of queer migrants seeking asylum in Sweden due to sexuality and/or gender identity. By conducting ethnographic fieldwork and biographical interviews within the RFSL Newcomers support network, the thesis analyses how queer migrants navigate the Swedish asylum apparatus. Building on recent research in queer migration studies, it explores how power relations related to class, gender and race affect queer migrants’ strategies. Applying Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network theory, the thesis furthermore analyses the queer migrants in an actor network together with RFSL Newcomers and the asylum apparatus as independent actors. This thesis additionally aims to contribute to the sociological debate on categorization and construction of identity using Ian Hacking’s concept of the looping effect. Lack of social capital, of not having the right networks, gendered possibilities of visibility and speaking about sexuality can establish obstacles for queer migrants in the credibility assessment and the success of the asylum claim. The asymmetric power relation forces queer migrants into conflicting strategies. Forced visibility and hyper hiding are strategies that are specifically produced in relation to the asylum apparatus creating gendered risk and precarious living conditions. This thesis concludes that queer migrants and the RFSL Newcomers network, in their asylum activism both challenge the asylum apparatus and Western narratives of LGBTQ identity. Nevertheless, RFSL and the queer migrants become complicit in the production of official essentialistic LGBTQ identities when navigating the asylum apparatus. By exploring the Swedish context of LGBTQ asylum and categorization of LGBTQ identity in the asylum process, this thesis contributes to the somewhat undertheorized field of queer migration in Swedish academia.

This thesis seeks to develop a fresh approach on immigration history in post-war Britain by focusing on public administration in a contract labour programme. The orthodox approach towards studies of immigration has been to concentrate upon the outcomes of state activity rather than the process. Consequently the experiences and reactions of volunteer workers have received much attention. This thesis offers new perspectives based on an analysis of the frameworks developed to deliver the Displaced Persons and European Voluntary Worker programmes after the Second World War. It is argued that the mundane aspects of government bureaucracy, normally unremarkable and unimportant, are indeed crucial to an understanding of how post-war labour and refugee policies were managed. With an abundance of government records extant, it is feasible to revise an important chapter of immigration history by exploring the architecture of public administration in an era of expanding bureaucracy. This study analyses the techniques and systems deployed by civil servants to provide a clearer understanding of the organisational character of a contract labour scheme that also granted political asylum to refugees. Although some political ambitions guiding the programmes were questionable, the method of their delivery suggests greater consideration was given towards participants than has previously been claimed. Emphasis is given to the origins of the immigration schemes within the wider framework of state activity, and towards the government machinery and resources available to implement policy. The state expanded dramatically during the Second World War and the civil service gained invaluable experience in managing complex new tasks. By analysing the application of this knowledge, it is possible to gain an insight into the culture of bureaucracy, explore how projects involving tens of thousands of individuals were conducted, and how the programmes affected the frame of reference of civil servants overseeing immigration and political asylum.