This study employed qualitative research methodology informed by the grounded theory tradition to explore good practice and optimal services for young people presenting with complex care needs associated with challenging or high risk behaviour. In-depth interviews were conducted in three waves of data collection and analysis with fourteen experienced practitioners whose careers have included sustained periods of work with this group in a number of selected Victorian service systems. The principal vantage point was the interface between the supported accommodation and assistance programs for homeless young people, statutory child protection and care, placement and support programs for young people at risk and juvenile justice programs for young offenders. The nature of the problem necessarily included some consideration of mental health and services dealing with substance abuse. The findings propose a view of good practice giving emphasis to the accessible and assertive presence of a responsible adult to �be there� fostering relationships and skilled purposive intervention. Intervention should be planned, holistic, sensitive and responsive to particular needs. It provides active unconditional care. It attends to attachment and trauma concerns and works with short run goals and a long term perspective. Intervention is sustained until constructive disengagement can occur. The complexity and challenge in the task of helping hurt youth warrants the support, strength and guidance of a multi-skilled team. Ideally the team will be described using normative terms. Optimal services are timely, congruent, seamless and robust in capacity to nurture, establish boundaries and meet developmental and therapeutic requirements. They should be connected to a community and there for as long as it takes, with ready access to suitable accommodation, purchasing power and flexibility of operation. To the greatest extent possible solutions are generated in the place where help is sought. Voluntary service commitment lasts till personal capacity and natural networks take over.

Recent policy changes have created a new era of refugee resettlement in Australia. As a result of the introduction of the onshore refugee program, a two-tier resettlement assistance system has developed. This system differentiates between refugees who have been issued protection visas offshore and onshore, and provides considerably less resettlement assistance to onshore-visaed refugees with Temporary Protection Visa (TPVs). The exclusion of TPV holders from resettlement assistance programs and the temporary nature of the visa has prompted this comparative study of the resettlement experiences of two groups of recently arrived refugees. This thesis considers the experiences of recently arrived refugees within the economic, social, cultural and political spheres of resettlement, in order to develop a deeper understanding of the inter-related nature of the resettlement process and the impact of visa category on the integration of refugees in contemporary Australia. Kuhlman’s (1991) model of refugee resettlement, and definition of integration form the basis of the theoretical framework of the thesis. A multiple method approach has been applied to the study and data from the second cohort of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA) was analysed to present a macro level understanding of the resettlement experiences of recent arrivals in Australia. In Adelaide, interviews with key informants and service providers were undertaken in conjunction with a series of in-depth interviews with 10 Sudanese offshore-visaed Humanitarian entrants and 9 Iraqi onshore-visaed refugees, to provide detailed descriptions of the resettlement experience. While the resettlement process is found to be difficult for all refugees, the TPV policy acts to compound the problems and disadvantages refugees face in resettlement. Under these circumstances it is found that TPV holders experience social exclusion during their early resettlement in Australia. The importance of host-related factors on the resettlement experience are therefore found to be extremely relevant in contemporary Australian refugee resettlement. Policies regarding visa conditions, and refugees’ eligibility for resettlement assistance have a significant impact in all spheres of the resettlement process. These findings suggest that the influence of host society policies must be accorded more weight in theories of resettlement, given their ability to extensively influence the resettlement process. Further this thesis presents substantial evidence against the TPV policy and recommends that temporary protection in Australia be reviewed, in order to ensure the social inclusion and successful integration of future refugee arrivals. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1277761 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2007

<p>The background to this thesis lies in the great changes that have occurred in the disability field during the last threes decades. The purpose of this thesis is to describe, analyze and try to understand how these changes impact on life conditions for adult persons with mild intellectual disabilities. The main focus in this study is to listen to the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities themselves. The questions addressed in the study are; how do people with intellectual disabilities experience participation, citizen-ship, social exclusion and social inclusion in society? Where are their daily arenas and what characterizes those arenas in terms of citizenship, exclusion and inclusion? What type of experiences do they have from encountering people in the community, from encountering the organisations and staff that provide support and service and from the consequences of disability policies in practise? How do staff close to them work to reach the goals of participation? What role can professionals play in supporting participation? Which possibilities and barriers do the staff experience?</p><p>Empirical data for the study has been gathered by qualitative methods, mainly participant observations and interviews but also from document analysis of local authority documents, official guidelines, laws and national and international disability policy documents.</p><p>The theoretical framework is based on theories about citizenship and participation. Social exclusion and social inclusion are the sensitizing concepts in this study. For the interpretation and analysis theories about citizenship, participation and categorization were used.</p><p>In the light of the empirical findings the results of the study show that three main themes were promi-nent. The first theme concerned the daily arenas, were there were both excluded arenas and included are-nas with various forms of interaction with the society. The arenas for support and service in housing and daily activities are described as excluded arenas with mainly internal social interaction. On the other hand the new arenas such as daily activity centres, located in the community, such as cafés, shops run by peo-ple with intellectual disabilities together with staff had frequent interaction with other people in the soci-ety. The second theme concerned the content in the encounters between respondents with intellectual disabilities and different actors in the community. The informants had both positive and negative experi-ences of these encounters. The encounter with the disability policy was, according to this dissertation, that the user informants hade many experiences of lacking social citizenship but also that they experienced structural inclusion when politicians listen to them and answered their questions. The third theme con-cerned how the staff works to reach the goals of participation where both possibilities and barriers exist on structural and individual levels. This study illustrates the user informants’ many experiences of citi-zenship and social exclusion but also examples of social inclusion.</p><p>In the concluding chapter the results are discussed and analyzed in relation to the theoretical frame-work, where the concept of categorisation was very important. Finally, the description of the process clearly illustrates the difficulties for disability service organisations to develop support and services that are adapted to the actual disability policy. The results shed light on the gap between theory and practise.</p><p>Some of the most positive changes towards inclusion in society for people with intellectual disabilities come from services run by users and staff close to them. Final conclusions and reflections of the results in the study are that support and service also can be discussed in terms of universalism in order to reduce the process of categorisation.</p>

The background to this thesis lies in the great changes that have occurred in the disability field during the last threes decades. The purpose of this thesis is to describe, analyze and try to understand how these changes impact on life conditions for adult persons with mild intellectual disabilities. The main focus in this study is to listen to the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities themselves. The questions addressed in the study are; how do people with intellectual disabilities experience participation, citizen-ship, social exclusion and social inclusion in society? Where are their daily arenas and what characterizes those arenas in terms of citizenship, exclusion and inclusion? What type of experiences do they have from encountering people in the community, from encountering the organisations and staff that provide support and service and from the consequences of disability policies in practise? How do staff close to them work to reach the goals of participation? What role can professionals play in supporting participation? Which possibilities and barriers do the staff experience? Empirical data for the study has been gathered by qualitative methods, mainly participant observations and interviews but also from document analysis of local authority documents, official guidelines, laws and national and international disability policy documents. The theoretical framework is based on theories about citizenship and participation. Social exclusion and social inclusion are the sensitizing concepts in this study. For the interpretation and analysis theories about citizenship, participation and categorization were used. In the light of the empirical findings the results of the study show that three main themes were promi-nent. The first theme concerned the daily arenas, were there were both excluded arenas and included are-nas with various forms of interaction with the society. The arenas for support and service in housing and daily activities are described as excluded arenas with mainly internal social interaction. On the other hand the new arenas such as daily activity centres, located in the community, such as cafés, shops run by peo-ple with intellectual disabilities together with staff had frequent interaction with other people in the soci-ety. The second theme concerned the content in the encounters between respondents with intellectual disabilities and different actors in the community. The informants had both positive and negative experi-ences of these encounters. The encounter with the disability policy was, according to this dissertation, that the user informants hade many experiences of lacking social citizenship but also that they experienced structural inclusion when politicians listen to them and answered their questions. The third theme con-cerned how the staff works to reach the goals of participation where both possibilities and barriers exist on structural and individual levels. This study illustrates the user informants’ many experiences of citi-zenship and social exclusion but also examples of social inclusion. In the concluding chapter the results are discussed and analyzed in relation to the theoretical frame-work, where the concept of categorisation was very important. Finally, the description of the process clearly illustrates the difficulties for disability service organisations to develop support and services that are adapted to the actual disability policy. The results shed light on the gap between theory and practise. Some of the most positive changes towards inclusion in society for people with intellectual disabilities come from services run by users and staff close to them. Final conclusions and reflections of the results in the study are that support and service also can be discussed in terms of universalism in order to reduce the process of categorisation.

geography, where segregation and social exclusion of neighbourhoods and marginalised groups are mounting problems. Concurrently, globalisation and structural changes have altered the conditions for the national state and the public sector as well as for other actors. Previous efforts to decrease social inequalities have failed to achieve sufficient results. Today, promoting social inclusion and integration is a top priority on the political agenda and calls for innovative interventions. These changes in society have resulted in new constellations of collaboration, crosscutting sectors and borders in which various actors work towards collective goals. Many of the issues and subsequent responsibility that once belonged to the public sector are now handled through interplay between private and public actors in so-called governance arrangements. The thesis discusses if governance arrangements where new actors engage to promote social inclusion and integration can be more effective than traditional efforts. To reach satisfactory results, the relations between involved actors need to be solid and trustworthy, and the perspective of benefit must be long-term. In this respect, social capital is a central theory as it focuses on social relations between people, and emphasises networks, trust and reciprocal norms as important foundations for such relations. The aim of the thesis is to rethink strategies to promote social inclusion and integration by providing a theoretical discussion about value-creation. An assumption analyzed is that in situations where power and other resources are unevenly distributed, all parties involved can benefit by trustful cooperation. The ambition is to critically examine the concepts of governance and social capital, and to discuss their possibilities and shortcomings related to the value-creating processes. The usefulness and capacity of the theoretical framework is tested by analysing two unconventional approaches to promote social inclusion and societal integration, carried out by a public housing company in Malmö. / QC 20101018

This thesis consists of three studies that discuss and analyse Sweden's immigrant and integration policy from different perspectives. The main aim is to provide an understanding of and try to explain why the goal to develop an equal status and situation for immigrants and refugees in Sweden not has been realized. The first study, which also is a licentiate thesis, investigates national and local immigrant policy. It focuses on the political application in Umeå, a community in the north of Sweden. The second study extends the analysis by investigating interests and values that have dominated in the process which led to the Swedish integration policy of 1997. The third study extends the discussion about shifts in interests and values in Swedish immigrant policy. Its focus is on the recent increase in interest for questions about integration and repatriation respectively. The three studies are also discussed in introductory and summarizing discussions. The integration problems are here discussed from an extensive theoretical and analytical perspective with focus on questions about integration, citizenship and human rights. One main conclusion is that fundamental organisational, social, economical and political problems must be solved before the goals of Swedish immigrant policy can be reached. In addition it shows that Swedish immigrant and integration policy has developed parallel to, and been influenced by similar developments in other European immigration countries. In addition, international agreements on 'immigrants' and 'refugees' legal position have been of great importance in this development process as well. Accordingly a conclusion is that Swedish immigrant and integration policy not can be seen as an isolated Swedish phenomenon, but must be studied in relation to the development in both Sweden and to its international context. The results of the study of Swedish integration policy show that the moral foundation for this 'new' policy is both well informed and ambitious. It deals with the burning need to abandon the former immigrant policy that stigmatized and often segregated the people it was supposed to support. Yet these ambitions have been restricted by world events, Sweden's financial problems and disagreements among politicians, local workers and affected actors about political practice. The study shows that pragmatic economical considerations largely determine the development of this political field. It also shows that the contemporary debate about Sweden's integration policy consists of tensions between different perspectives, values, interests, ideologies and the like. These kinds of tension are revealed in the study of Swedish integration and repatriation policy as well. I show that both arguments for integration and repatriation political efforts can be built upon apparently humanitarian motives. An argument put forward is that two parallel and often conflicting approaches to what is meant by 'humanitarian efforts' for immigrants and refugees have developed. One approach means that fundamental structural problems in society must be solved before conditions for immigrants and refugees can be more similar to those of the majority. The other approach means that Swedish society only can offer them a life with social, economical and political marginalisation and that the best solution is to set them free from this fate. This later approach is discussed and criticized for being ambiguous and for involving moral political dilemmas. An argument put forward is that it is doubtful whether a repatriation policy can be justifed from a moral and human perspective. In the introductory and summarizing discussions I argue in favour of expanded citizenship and expanded human rights as means to promote participation in a multiethnic and multicultural democracy. / digitalisering@umu

Immigration has over the years been looked upon in many different ways: At times, as something positive, bringing in manpower and new influences, but at other times as something negative – something bringing problems along with it. I have for a long time been interested in social interaction in general, and when it was time for meto write my thesis, I decided to narrow that phenomenon down and write about the socialintegration of immigrants. Along with that came mechanisms promoting it as well as intercultural appreciation, this because it quite simply felt very relevant to the initial subject. The purpose of this thesis was to identify and discuss social integration for immigrants and the mechanisms promoting it, as well as to investigate intercultural appreciation in Gävle, Sweden. Two semi-structured focus-group interviews were conducted with both immigrants and nativeSwedes. Analysis was guided by grounded theory. It was found that both native and immigrant Swedes appreciate each other’s cultures, but also find parts of them disturbing. For example the immigrant participants found the Swedish literature very interesting, while the native Swedish participants were very appreciative and fascinated by all the different foods that have been introduced thanks to immigrants. However, the native Swedes found muslim traditions such as the burqha to be offensive, while the immigrants found the general Swedish attitude towards strangers to be just the same. The mechanisms promoting integration were often seen as insufficient by the immigrant participants, but those that did exist, for example SFI, was very much appreciated and seen as a very important source for getting help with the Swedish language, thus integrating oneself. The study suggests more research on the subjects of both intercultural appreciation between “new” and “old” Swedes, as well as on the different mechanisms for social integration for immigrants, investigating its actual impact.

During the study's first stage we noticed that the Swedish term ” utanförskap” was constructed for political purposes, the term’s ambiguity what was first raised our interest. Therefore the aims of this study was to examine how social workers at the social welfare office and the labor market related project Framtid Kronoberg  as well as politicians within the administration of Arbete &amp; Välfärd (Work &amp; Welfare) relates to utanförskap as a social phenomenon. The study’s second aim was to examine how the aforementioned persons consider utanförskap to be counteracted among young adults. The study has shown that the interviewees have different opinions regarding the meaning of utanförskap. Furthermore the study shows that there is a consensus regarding activation as the solution for utanförskap through either employment or by attending labor market related activities. The study has also shown that the activation requirements made by the politicians of the administration, with the purpose of placing young adults on social welfare in labor market activities consists of continuous controls and sanctions when deviation is noted.

This dissertation examines the dominant discourse of welfare dependency and its implications for lone mothers in Ontario, Canada. This hegemonic discourse has been instrumental in positioning lone mothers as deviant, pathologically flawed and ineffective citizens. Using a repeated survival analysis, I examine the spells of participants identifying the significant variables influencing social assistance exit rates. Social constructionism and critical feminism are the theoretical lenses underpinning the analysis. The quantitative study examines the current composition of the Ontario Works caseload, interrogates the legitimacy of the welfare dependency supposition, debunks numerous social constructions surrounding welfare receipt and highlights the barriers impeding participants. The study culminates with a new understanding to counter the welfare dependency paradigm, recognizing the overlooked provisioning work of women in the neoliberal post welfare state.

This dissertation examines the dominant discourse of welfare dependency and its implications for lone mothers in Ontario, Canada. This hegemonic discourse has been instrumental in positioning lone mothers as deviant, pathologically flawed and ineffective citizens. Using a repeated survival analysis, I examine the spells of participants identifying the significant variables influencing social assistance exit rates. Social constructionism and critical feminism are the theoretical lenses underpinning the analysis. The quantitative study examines the current composition of the Ontario Works caseload, interrogates the legitimacy of the welfare dependency supposition, debunks numerous social constructions surrounding welfare receipt and highlights the barriers impeding participants. The study culminates with a new understanding to counter the welfare dependency paradigm, recognizing the overlooked provisioning work of women in the neoliberal post welfare state.