The purpose of this study was to describe experiences and perceptions of ongoing work with health promotion cultural inserts in four different associations in Gavle municipallity for asylum seekers and newly arrived children and adolescents. The method used was a descriptive empirical qualitative interview with a phenomenological research effort. Five interviews were conducted with four women and one man, from four associations in Gavle municipality. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed with a thematic analysis. The result showed that the staff's perceptions about their work were that the work being conducted was a good method of promoting well-being and contributing to a sense of context for remedying mental ill health. Cooperation with community actors was also a key in their work and made it possible to reach the children and adolescents who were the target group for health-promoting cultural activities. The difficulties perceived were lack of economics, information and structural changes, which made it difficult to implement, follow up and continue their work. The conclusion was that the work with health promoting activities was perceived as a method of integration as well as promoting health. There was also a consensus that the work performed had a good effect in bringing children and young people's families closer to the Swedish society. The obstacles discovered were structural changes, lack of information and too little of economy. One key to success was the cooperation in the local community which made it possible to reach the group. / Studiens syfte var att beskriva erfarenheter och uppfattningar av pågående arbete med hälsofrämjande kulturinsatser i fyra olika föreningar i Gävle kommun för målgruppen asylsökande och nyanlända barn och ungdomar. Metoden i denna studie var en beskrivande empirisk kvalitativ intervjustudie med en fenomenografisk forskningsansats. Fem intervjuer genomfördes med fyra kvinnor och en man, från fyra föreningar i Gävle kommun. Intervjuerna transkriberades ordagrant och analyserades med en tematisk analys. Resultatet visar att personalens uppfattningar kring arbetet med kulturinsatser för asylsökande och nyanlända barn och ungdomar var att arbetet som bedrivs var en bra metod för att främja välbefinnande och även bidra till en känsla av sammanhang för att motverka psykisk ohälsa. Samarbete med aktörer i lokalsamhället var dessutom en nyckel i deras arbeten och möjliggjorde att nå ut till de barn och ungdomar som var målgruppen för de hälsofrämjande kulturaktiviteterna. De svårigheter som uppfattades i arbetet var brist på ekonomi, information och strukturella förändringar vilket försvårade att genomföra, följa upp och fortsätta med arbetet. Slutsatsen av denna studie var att arbetet som bedrivs kring hälsofrämjande kulturinsatser uppfattas vara både en metod för integration och för att främja hälsa och förebygga ohälsa för målgruppen asylsökande och nyanlända barn och ungdomar. Arbetet uppfattades även ha en god effekt på barnens och ungdomarnas familjer för att komma närmare det svenska samhället. De hinder som upptäcktes var strukturella förändringar, brist på information och för lite ekonomiska medel. Avslutningsvis var samverkan i lokalsamhället en nyckel för framgång som möjliggjorde att nå ut till målgruppen.

Since 2001, Australia’s increasingly securitised and exclusionary asylum policy has been legitimated through a damaging discourse surrounding people who seek asylum. This discourse, reinforced by successive Australian Prime Ministers, has been instrumental in shaping policies which have a devastating human impact. While political elites across the West are distancing themselves from a discourse of inclusive multiculturalism, Australia continues to celebrate its multicultural success despite the ongoing tension between a rhetoric of inclusion and one justifying exclusion. Since discourse is both productive and reflective of the social world, shaping discourse can be understood as a means to shape reality. This thesis explores how discourse is constructed and reproduced through framing; a discursive practice that influences how certain issues are understood. The texts analysed are those in which Australian Prime Ministers and senior political figures defend policies of exclusion against people who seek asylum by boat as part of a broader policy vision for a Safe, Secure & Free Australia. In order to contrast the frames, narratives and discourses associated with exclusion, communications promoting the policy vision of an inclusive Multicultural Australia have also been analysed. The frames identified in the material reproduce particular narratives which help to maintain the hegemonic position of discourses which present Australia as a humanitarian, welcoming and inclusive multicultural society and situate people who seek asylum by boat as illegal, seeking an unfair advantage, and as a threat to national security. By identifying frames that consistently appear in the messaging of Australian political elites, we can understand how certain narratives have come to be accepted as truth.

This thesis makes a historically grounded theoretical contribution to an emerging “critical” approach to refugee studies. Utilising the insights of Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt, it seeks to reconceptualise academic and policy understandings of what has come to be known as “the refugee problem" through an examination and critique of its (implicit) conceptual foundations. The thesis proceeds through a series of historically-informed moves oriented by the relationship between power, subjectivity, and agency, and argues that the key to reconceptualising the refugee problem lies in understanding how these three concepts rely upon and reinforce one another in a particular historically contingent configuration. The objectives of this thesis are threefold and connected. First, it unpacks a deceptively unproblematic term, “the refugee problem” to reveal the complicity of understanding the “refugee (as) problem” in perpetuating the plight of increasing numbers of the world's population, despite the alleviation of the difficulties these people face being the professed goal of the refugee regime. Second, in so doing it contributes to a growing body of literature seeking to counter the voicelessness and abjection into which refugees and asylum seekers are cast. And third, on the basis of this, to begin a conversation about rethinking the nature of the “solutions” we seek to a reframed “refugee problem.” Engaging in a (Foucaultian) genealogical analysis of “the refugee problem”, the first half of the thesis charts the historically-contingent development of a distinct “refugee problem discourse”, revealing that the construction of refugees as passive victims of political forces is the effect both of such discourse and of the international refugee regime as a classificatory regime of truth and subjectivity, rather than an expression of any essential nature of “the refugee.” The thesis then turns to Hannah Arendt's work as a theoretical lens through which to reframe our understanding of the “refugee problem” and to investigate how to identify and open up creative forces for re-subjectification processes and “solutions” not tied to the classificatory and subjectivising logic of the refugee regime or sovereign state system.  Practices of rights claiming, and the City of Sanctuary movement in the UK are examined as two such processes, with the potential of posing “counter-narratives” of problems and solutions which challenge the technocratic, or population-management, approach of the refugee regime.

This thesis investigated the power of framing practices in the context of Australian refugee policies between 1999 and 2003. The analysis identified legal rationalism as an ideological projection by which the Howard government justified its refugee policies to the electorate. That is, legal rationalism manifested itself as an overriding concern with the rules and procedures of the law, without necessarily having concern for consistency or continuity. In its first form, legal rationalism emerged as a

This study is aimed to increase the knowledge about the Swedish immigration authorities’ assessment of the asylum applications based on particularly distressing circumstances, submitted by disabled undocumented migrants. Making an attempt to explain the reasons of asylum-seekers’ health deterioration during the asylum process, this study determines the factors in migration authorities proceedings affecting such deterioration. Documents in five personal files concerning six disabled asylum-seekers, whose applications were declined, were studied by applying two observational methods: content analysis of the documents in the personal files and non-participant observations made during receptions of undocumented migrants at the Swedish Asylum Committee. The results of the study have shown that migration authorities' way of applying the principle of child’s best interests have a declarative character, while the disability perspective is completely ignored. The migrations authorities make free interpretations of the information on the countries of asylum-seekers' origin, while adaptation to Swedish conditions does not work at all as cause for residence permit. Advocates, who neglect their prior duties, have also a negative influence on the asylum process. Analyzed from the perspective of appropriate sociological concepts, the results of this study have shown that the above mentioned observations cause disabled undocumented migrants health deterioration.

Bakgrunn og hensikt: Studien setter fokus på miljørettet helseverns tilsynsrolle rettet mot psykososiale forhold i norske asylmottak med langtidsopphold. Hensikten var å belyse hvordan de profesjonelle tilsynsutøvere i kommunene ser på dagens tilsynspraksis og i hvilken grad de mener at den er i tråd med lovgivningens intensjoner. Studien søker dessuten å avdekke om tilgjengelige ressurser, lovverk, veiledere og rammebetingelser er tilstrekkelige, og hvilken betydning dette har for kvaliteten på tilsynet. Metode: Tversnittsstudie med strukturerte telefonintervjuer av 82 personer motsvarende 48,8% avdet mulige antallet fagpersoner fra norske kommuner, basert på et spørreskjema med 28 spørsmål med oppsatte svaralternativer og to åpne spørsmål. Data ble analysert med deskriptiv statistikk ogkvalitativ innholdsanalyse. Resultater: Ansatte som driver tilsyn etter forskrift for Miljørettet helsevern i dag opplever at de i for stor grad utøver et skjønnsbasert tilsyn, og etterlyser bedre retningslinjer og tydeligere krav i lover og veiledere. Videre etterlyses mer kunnskap direkte rettet mot psykososiale forhold i mottak, kurs og opplæring og bedre rammer for å kunne gjennomføre et forsvarlig tilsyn. Tettere og mer tverrfaglig samarbeid med helsefaglig personell og UDI, samt interkommunal organisering, sees på som en styrke for å bedre kvaliteten på tilsynene. Konklusjon: Dårlige boforhold (enkel standard), lang oppholdstid og lediggang/passifisering synes å være de største utfordringene for det psykososiale miljøet i mottakene. De viktigste tiltakene for å bedre kvaliteten på tilsynet synes å være økt kunnskap på feltet spesielt rettet inn mot psykososialeforhold, tydeligere krav og retningslinjer i lover og forskrift, og større grad av samarbeid på tvers avfagområder for å imøtekomme behovene til en utsatt gruppe mennesker/beboere i mottak. / Background and objectives: This study focuses on the supervision of environmental andpsychosocial conditions in Norwegian accommodation centers for asylum seekers with long-term residence. We aimed to examine how professionals from the communities view current practice andto what extent they consider it compliant with legislative intentions. We further aimed to explore the sufficiency of available resources, guidelines, and conditions, and to determine their effect on the quality of the supervision. Methods: This cross-sectional study used structured telephone interviews with 82 persons, a number that corresponds to 48.8% of the total number of professionals in Norwegian communities, based ona questionnaire comprising 28 closed and 2 open questions. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. Results: Employees who currently oversee regulations for environmental health reported too muchdiscretion-based supervision. They called for better policies and clearer requirements in laws an dsupervisors, respectively. Furthermore they announced more knowledge directly aimed at psychosocial factors in reception, and more focus from central government on courses and trainingand better facilities to carry out a proper inspection. Respondents viewed closer and more interdisciplinary collaboration with health professionals and immigration authorities, as well as intermunicipal organizations, as a force for improving the quality of inspections. Conclusions: Evidence suggests that poor housing conditions, long-term residence, andidleness/pacification comprise the largest challenges for the psychosocial environment in asylum centers. The most important measures for improving the quality of supervision likely requireincreased knowledge in the field, especially regarding psychosocial factors; clearer requirements;legal and regulatory guidelines; and greater cross-discipline collaboration to fulfill the needs of a vulnerable group of people/residents in reception / <p>ISBN 978-91-982282-9-8</p>

This thesis evaluates the policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers maintained by successive Australian governments against several core liberal principles. These principles are derived from various accounts of liberal political thought and the major themes and criticisms inherent in the public debate over the policy. The justifications of the policy given by the Australian government and the criticisms enunciated by scholars, refugee advocates and non-government organisations with respect to the policy strongly correspond with the core liberal principles of fairness, protecting the rights of the individual, accountability and proportionality. The claims of the critics converge on a central point of contention: that the mandatory detention of asylum seekers violates core liberal principles. To ascertain the extent to which the claims of the critics can be supported, the thesis selectively draws on liberal political theory to provide a framework for the analysis of the policy against these liberal principles, a basis for inquiry largely neglected by contributors to the literature. This thesis argues that, on balance, the mandatory detention policy employed by successive Australian governments violates core liberal principles. The claims of the critics are weakened, but by no means discredited, by the importance of the government's maintenance of strong border control. In the main, however, criticisms made by opponents of the policy can be supported. This thesis contributes to the substantial body of literature on the mandatory detention policy by shedding light on how liberal principles may be applicable to the mandatory detention policy. Further, it aims to contribute to an enriched understanding of the Australian government's competence to detain asylum seekers.

Cette thèse revient sur quarante ans de « fabrication » des réfugiés par l'Office Français de Protection des Réfugiés et des Apatrides (Ofpra) depuis sa création en 1952, où il s'apparente à un consulat pour les réfugiés, jusqu'en 1992, où s'achève sa reconfiguration en administration des demandeurs d'asile. Elle retrace ce faisant la carrière et la trajectoire de la catégorie d'intervention publique du réfugié. Au cours de cette période, la question de l'asile est en effet reformulée en passant du « problème » des réfugiés, à celui des demandeurs d'asile, désignant à chaque fois une catégorie cible à destination de laquelle l'action publique s'oriente en guise de solution. Cette thèse qui appréhende la catégorie de réfugié à partir de ses usages montre qu'il n'y a pas de réfugié « naturel », auquel correspondraient ou non les candidats à l'asile, de la même manière que la Convention de Genève ou la loi sur la création de l'Ofpra ne peuvent être considérées comme des textes neutres qui seraient applicables de façon objective si tant est que les institutions chargées de le faire soient indépendantes. Politiquement et historiquement situés, ces textes n'en sont pas moins des textes flous pouvant être interprétés de manière différente selon les besoins et les périodes. La recherche menée fait ainsi apparaître une catégorie de réfugié qui se reconfigure avec les transformations de l'institution chargée de l'attribuer : celles du profil et des trajectoires sociales de ses agents, de leurs pratiques et des dispositifs organisationnels qui les encadrent, eux-mêmes articulés à des politiques publiques spécifiques... / This Ph.D. explores forty year of "manufacturing" of refugees by the French Office for Protection of Refugees and Stateless (OFPRA) since its creation in 1952, where it was a sort of consulate for refugees, until 1992 when its ends its reconfiguration as an administration for asylum seekers. It traces the career and the path of the category of refugee as a category of public intervention. During this period, the issue of asylum is indeed reformulated from the "problem" of refugees to the "problem of "asylum seekers", designating target destination categories towards which public action is directed. This thesis, which captures the refugee category from its use, shows that there is no "natural" refugee to whom asylum seekers correspond or not. It shows also that the Geneva Convention or the Law on the establishment of OFPRA cannot be considered as neutral texts that would be applicable in an objective manner as long as the institutions in charge are independent. Politically and historically situated, these texts are not less also blurred texts that can be interpreted differently depending on the needs and periods. The research thus shows that the category of refugee reconfigures itself with the transformation of the institution responsible for its award: those of the profile and social trajectories of its agents, their practices and the organizational arrangements that surround them, themselves articulated to specific public policies...

In this thesis, I sought to accomplish two things. First, the thesis is written in a reflexive and even an auto-ethnographic manner. It invites the reader to follow the ethnographer through the metamorphosis of the study, from the point of conception, through the ethnographic fieldwork to the interpretation and, finally, to the presentation of the result. Doing so was an attempt to give the reader a vivid understanding of the process of making an ethnographic text. The ambition with auto-ethnographic dimension is to unveil and problematize the condition for ethnographic fieldwork, as well as to add nuance to the stories of my informants. Second, the thesis strives to answer a simple question: why the UK? The genesis of the question finds its roots in the departure of my friend Kanan, and it was by tracing Kanan’s journey that I found myself in Calais. By focusing on a transit zone like Calais, I have aimed to depart from a dualist approach of migration theories that only focus on destination and origin countries as their analytical points of reference and to present the everyday experiences of exile and statelessness as a continuous journey. The conduit for examining the experiences of my informants will be Chris Dolan’s concept of social torture. Through the concept of social torture, Chris Dolan interlinks the exercise of everyday violence and abuse on a mass scale and torture by focussing on the impacts of such acts on the individual’s body and mind. By doing so, Dolan identifies debility, dependency, dread and disorientation as the four impacts to identify a victim of social torture. The daily life experiences of my informants in Calais were that of social torture.  In this regard, I seek to show how social torture was an apparatus used to force unwanted populations from the French territory and into the UK and other European countries.

Dans cette recherche, nous étudions la médiation entre acteurs politiques, administratifs et sociaux, pour la gestion des demandes d’asile. Nous analysons ensuite les jeux d’acteurs autour de la situation des demandeurs d’asile afghans en France, via la sociologie de la traduction.La théorie de la sociologie de la traduction nous donne un modèle explicatif de l’action, des problèmes d’organisation entre différents acteurs d’un secteur dans différentes situations. Basée sur cette théorie, notre recherche vise finalement à voir comment les acteurs des réseaux pour les demandeurs d’asile trouvent une convergence. Dans le réseau d’acteurs au sens de la sociologie de la traduction, après avoir démontré qu’il existe bien une médiation, nous en analysons la nature. Ensuite, notre recherche se développe sur la mise en relation entre les théories des représentations sociales (et interculturelles) et une enquête sociologique qui inclut des questionnaires, des entretiens et l’observation directe et participative pour mieux comprendre les enjeux communicationnels des acteurs de la demande d’asile en France, autour de la réforme depuis 2013 jusqu’à aujourd’hui. A la fin, nous analysons les enjeux communicationnels de la réforme d’asile grâce au concept d’espace public, puis nous convoquerons la théorie de la traduction pour trouver un modèle de convergence. Fort de ce cadre théorique, nous insisterons sur le rôle du ministère de l’intérieur : en tant que médiateur ou traducteur au sens de la sociologie de la traduction , celui-ci a pris en main la réforme du droit d’asile et a fait le lien entre les acteurs du réseau depuis 2013. / In this research, we study the mediation between political, administrative and social actors to manage asylums requests. Then we analyze the actions around the situation of the Afghan asylum seekers in France, via the sociology of translation.The theory of Sociology of translation gives us an explanatory model of action, problems of organization between different actors of a sector in different situations. Based on this theory, our research aims ultimately to see how actors of the networks for asylum seekers find a convergence.In the network of actors through the meaning of the sociology of translation, after demonstrating that there is a mediation, we analyze the nature. Then, our research develops on the networking between the theories of social representations (and intercultural) and a sociological survey that includes questionnaires, interviews and direct and participatory observation to understand communicational issues of actors in the context of asylum in France around reform since 2013 until today. Finally, we analyze the communication challenges of the reform of asylum through the concept of public space, then we call the theory of translation to find a convergence model. With this theoretical framework, we will emphasize the role of the Ministry of the Interior: as mediator or translator within the meaning of the sociology of translation, it took on reform of the law of asylum and made the connection between the actors of the network from 2013.