The aim of this study was to examine the discourse of asylum seekers in Sweden from January 2009 to December 2013 in the newspapers Helsingborgs Dagblad and Dagens Nyheter. By using discourse analysis as a theory and method, combined with the theory of orientalism, I have analysed and compared news articles from these two newspapers. The findings of the study shows that asylum seekers are often portrayed as a group rather than individuals. Included in the group identity are several subgroups, for example asylum seekers are portrayed as victims, as a cost to society and as a highly suspect group that cannot be controlled. Furthermore, asylum seekers are depicted as “the other” in contrast to the Swedish “we”, where differences in culture and tradition are frequently mentioned. The analysis also highlights the differences between what the two newspapers believe are the main difficulties in taking in asylum seekers into the community. Whereas articles in the nationwide Dagens Nyheter see the resistance in municipalities as the major problem, the local newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad describes how municipalities are being forced to take in asylum seekers even though they do not have the resources to manage them.

In today’s society media constitutes an arena with the opportunity for social communication. The arena is made up of subjective opinions that often leads to free debates about the subjects written about. The recent refugee situation has been highlighted in Swedish media during 2015 and has received widespread attention from various media outlets. The purpose of this paper is to examine how different Swedish newspapers chooses to portray the arriving asylumseekers. The material used is a selection of editorial pages in five daily newspapers. The theories used to evaluate how the newspapers are portraying the asylum seekers is the framing theory and agenda-setting theory. This research uses a qualitative case study approach that is complemented with a media analysis. The results of the research indicate that editorial writers do not differentiate in their description between different ethnic or cultural groups that are seeking asylum. Rather, there is a strong focus in writing about how the refugees are contributing negatively in the development of the Swedish society. The results also showed an indication that the content differs depending on the political standing of the newspaper.

Research on forced migration has largely ignored asylum seekers from sexual and gender minorities. This exploratory study aimed to examine both positive and negative experiences of LGBT asylum seekers who had migrated to Sweden. Within the study, experiences prior to migration, during transit, and after arrival in Sweden were conceptualized as a process. Guided by the research question “How do LGBT asylum seekers describe positive and negative experiences of their asylum journeys?”, semi-structured interviews with eleven LGBT asylum seekers were conducted and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. The analysis resulted in five themes; 1. Living Under Threat, 2. Into the Abyss, 3. Living in Suspension, 4. External Sources of Support and 5. Strength from Within. Considerable stressors were reported, spanning form pre- to post migration. LGBT asylum seekers are found to be an especially vulnerable group that demonstrates considerable internal resources.

In recent years, the numbers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) arriving to Europe have drastically increased. Due to delays in the asylum procedure, many UASC have turned 18 years old before the asylum procedure has ended. These adolescents need access to welfare services but they often lose several social rights when they reach adulthood. In this light, I have investigated the social rights of UASC who have reached the age of majority by using Esping-Andersen’s theory of welfare state regimes. I find that the social rights of this group vary between Germany, the conservative welfare state regime, and Sweden, the social democratic welfare state regime. However, in both of the countries, this group in general have limited access to welfare services. This is problematic since social rights are crucial for incorporation in the society. The findings are in several ways in line with the main characteristics in the two regimes but in order to fully understand what determines the social rights of UASC who have reached the age of majority further research is needed.

Parler de vulnérabilité en droit d’asile peut, à première vue, surprendre, tant la vulnérabilité des demandeurs de protection internationale semble être inhérente à leur statut et à leur parcours d’exil. La Cour européenne des droits de l’homme dans son arrêt M.S.S. contre Belgique et Grèce a d’ailleurs reconnu la vulnérabilité de l’ensemble des membres du groupe des demandeurs de protection internationale. Mais, cette approche globalisante s’oppose à l’approche individualisée de la vulnérabilité des demandeurs de protection internationale retenue dans le régime d’asile européen commun. Or, à plusieurs égards, c’est cette dernière approche qui permet de révéler tout l’intérêt du recours à la vulnérabilité en droit. Son analyse, à travers cette étude, permet d’affirmer que celle-ci tend à identifier des particularismes, des spécificités individuelles appelant une protection spécifique. En exigeant une individualisation de la vulnérabilité par l’existence d’une faiblesse caractérisée par des besoins particuliers en termes d’accueil et de procédure, le droit de l’UE circonscrit la notion de personne vulnérable à un nombre limité de demandeurs de protection internationale. Mais plus encore, cette acception retenue révèle la fonction principale de tout recours au concept de vulnérabilité en droit : assurer une protection renforcée et adaptée. C’est en effet à travers sa fonction, ici, une prise en charge physique et procédurale adaptée des demandeurs de protection internationale vulnérables, que se révèle l’effectivité de la vulnérabilité en droit européen de l’asile. D’un point de vue juridique, tous les demandeurs de protection internationale ne sont pas tous vulnérables, seulement certains d’entre eux, à savoir ceux ayant des besoins particuliers, peuvent être effectivement qualifiés de vulnérables. Cette étude de la vulnérabilité en droit européen de l’asile permet ainsi plus largement d’appréhender et de délimiter les contours et la fonction de la vulnérabilité en droit. / At first sight, talking about Vulnerability in the field of European Asylum Law could sound surprising, as the vulnerability of applicants for international protection seems to be inherent to their status and their exile course. The European Court of Human Rights in the M.S.S. versus Belgium and Greece case recognized indeed the vulnerability of the whole group of applicants for international protection. However, this globalizing approach is opposed to the individualized approach set in the instruments of the Common European Asylum System. In many ways, this last approach is the one that reveals the interest of using the concept of Vulnerability in Law. The analysis of Vulnerability, through the research conducted, allows to assert that Vulnerability aims at identifying particularities, individual specificities that require special protection. While demanding an individualization of Vulnerability through the existence of a characterized weakness entailing special needs in terms of reception and procedural guarantees, the EU Law effectively confines the notion of vulnerable person to a limited number of individuals. But, above all, it reflects the principal function of the use of Vulnerability in Law: to ensure an enhanced protection. It is indeed through its function, namely a material and procedural support adapted to the special needs of vulnerable applicants for international protection, that the effectiveness of Vulnerability is revealed in the field of the European Asylum Law. All the applicants for international protection are not per se vulnerable, just few of them are: only those who have special needs can be qualified as vulnerable. This analysis of the concept of Vulnerability in the field of European Asylum Law allows thus to comprehend and delimit its outlines and its functions in Law.

The aim of dissertation is monitoring of system of social methods and services for refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers, which are offered by states and non-states institutions, finding out users opinions on these services and finding the interest of the organisations and social workers for oficial elaboration of these methods. The aim is also try to proposit possibilities of innovation of the existing metodology.

After Sweden, among other European countries, received a record number of asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, the public discussion on integration of newcomers to the Swedish society intensified. One of the important means of such integration, as well as one of the fundamental human rights, is access to relevant information – knowledge refugees need to settle at a new place. This study looks into the information practices of one of the largest group of newcomers to Europe – the Afghans – based on the case of Kronoberg County in the Southern Sweden.   Grounded on Reijo Savolainen’s (2008) theory of everyday information practices, this study applies the combination of McKenzie’s (2003), Mwarigha’s (2002), and Berlo’s (1960) analytical models to explore the informational behavior of asylum seekers and check if it is accommodated in the communication strategies of different agencies involved in the integration process. To reach these objectives, a set of interviews was conducted with both Afghan newcomers and representatives of different governmental and non-governmental organizations.   The results of the conducted research and analysis may be summed up to one major topic. While Swedish reception and integration system is effective in reaching out to the newcomers and providing them with task-related information, the structure of the system impedes the provision of general orienting information and guidance, which is in great demand among the asylum seekers. Therefore, development of a parallel system of information can be noticed, with personal relations and authority of the local opinion leaders in the core of it. It is concluded that such division should not be seen as a threat to the integration of newcomers, rather as a supportive mechanism on its intermediate stage. Still, it is important to promote policies that foster active personal contacts between Swedes and newcomers – for example, mentorship programmes.

The challenge of immigration has divided EU member states, political parties, media and academia as well as the electorate of EU countries, leaving political decision makers under tremendous pressure on both national and EU level. To alleviate the situation for highly burdened member states, the Commission has suggested a permanent relocation mechanism for refugees, but so far, many member states have been reluctant to accept higher shares of refugees. Some observers have labelled the situation a crisis of solidarity, challenging the idea of European integration, but also questioning the Union’s capacity to demonstrate solidarity between member states, and consequently its capacity to show solidarity with arriving refugees.   By looking at European Parliament debates, this paper examines the main differences between the European Christian Democratic and Social Democratic understandings of solidarity and how these differences become visible in relation to relocation of refugees and asylum seekers between EU member states. The findings suggest that while there is some convergence, Christian Democrats are more inclined to consider refugees as a threat and to advocate the need of securing external borders than their Social Democratic counterparts. Social Democrats also to a larger extent favour the idea of making relocation mandatory, while many Christian Democrats emphasize the importance of subsidiarity.   The findings can be associated with the foundational values of both party groups and their political understandings of solidarity. Most interestingly, however, this paper finds that the national level variance within these two party groups is frequently bigger, than between them – indicating that MEP’s understandings of solidarity are perhaps more strongly mediated by nationality than political affiliation.

The topic of migration has become one that is gaining notice in society. With the number of migrants, asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors and child refugees rising rapidly in the past few years it has become a theme of great importance with global reach. These migratory fluxes blur the boundaries between voluntary and forced migration which were previously regarded as separate notions. The media plays a powerful role when it comes to define such concepts as well as creating representations of these populations and shaping the public perception of these individuals. Through this thesis, the representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees constructed by the Portuguese media will be analysed using discourse analysis. The aim is to create knowledge about the representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees in the Portuguese media as this means of communication is an important voice in the public and political debate concerning these populations. The results show that there are several dichotomies regarding the representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees in the Portuguese media. Young migrants are represented both as security seekers and causes of insecurity, victims and survivors, passive agents which lack agency and active agents who use their agency to leave their home countries, as well as people worth supporting and people who had enough support. Discourse analysis provides information regarding the discourses used in the Portuguese media to represent unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees as well as the context in which the articles were written. Finally, there are several representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees in the Portuguese media, yet the ones whose discourse is stronger, in the five chosen articles, are the of young migrants as security seekers, victims that are worth being supported and that are mostly active agents in their journeys.

As high levels of forced migration continue to challenge Europe, countries like Sweden are attempting to incorporate asylum-seekers into its education system. Over the past 50 years Sweden’s education system has undergone a unique shift from a centralized to a decentralized parental-choice model of schools. An approach called plural education promotes equity through shared experience and support for equity creating initiatives. Proponents of choice argued that plural education was maintained across the decentralizing shift in policy. Yet some evidence has begun to show that these values are not being upheld. Marginalized groups, such as asylum-seekers, appear to face a number of barriers to accessing the entirety of choices. In this qualitative study employing a grounded theory methodology, seven asylum-seeking parents were asked for their experiences entering their children into the Swedish compulsory school system. Semi-structured interviews explored the barriers, information and strategies each parent had for enrolment and school choice. Analysis found that parents had insufficient information for school choice, few strategies to find new information and faced a number of barriers. The implication of these findings are that these asylum-seekers did not have the support or knowledge to successfully participate in school choice and that education in Sweden may have weakened in its ability to promote equity for these respondents. / Samtidigt som stora flyktingströmmar fortsätter att utgöra en utmaning för Europa, försöker länder som Sverige att integrera asylsökande i dess utbildningssystem. Under de senaste 50 åren har Sveriges utbildningssystem genomgått ett unikt skifte från ett centraliserat till ett decentraliserat skolsystem baserat på det fria skolvalet. Ett tillvägagångssätt kallat "plural" utbildning har som syfte att främja rättvisa genom gemensamt lärande och erfarenhetsutbyte mellan elever. Förespråkare av det fria skolvalet hävdar att "plural" utbildning har kunnat upprätthållas efter systemskiftet till en decentraliserad skola. Det finns emellertid studier som visar på motsatsen. Marginaliserade grupper, som till exempel asylsökande, tycks stöta på flera hinder när de ska nyttja det fria skolvalet.I denna kvalitativa studie som bygger på en grundad teorimetodik intervjuades sju asylsökande föräldrar om sina erfarenheter rörande deras barns tillgång till den svenska grundskolan. Genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer undersöktes hinder och information samt strategier som föräldrarna hade beträffande inskrivning och skolval. Analysen visade att föräldrarna hade otillräcklig information gällande skolval och få strategier för att hitta ny information samt att de möttes av diverse hinder. Studien visar att dessa asylsökande familjer inte hade tillräckligt med stöd eller kunskap för att framgångsrikt delta i skolvalet och att den svenska undervisningen därmed har misslyckats med att ge dessa familjers barn en rättvis utbildning.