In the past decades, Sweden’s asylum policy known for its humanitarianism has taken a significant turn toward restrictiveness. In 2016 a temporary law was introduced in Sweden to restrict asylum seekers in reaction to the refugee crisis 2015. The group that has been hit hard by this law is the unaccompanied young refugees. In 2018 another temporary law referred to as the Upper Secondary School Act was enforced to allow certain unaccompanied young refugees to complete their upper secondary education studies. Those young refugees who received temporary resident permits may only extend his or her resident permit if he or she finds a permanent employment within six months after graduation from the second upper school. The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of how the Upper Secondary School Act affects the lives of those young refugees, and how those young people orientate themselves in their everyday lives to live up to the law’s requirement. The study’s data has been gathered through a qualitative research method and six interviews are conducted with six young refugees affected by the Upper Secondary School Act. The study’s theoretical approach is based on orientation/disorientation, deserving, SOC(a sense of  Coherence) and human capital theory. The study shows that the Upper secondary school Act has led to negative consequences for those unaccompanied young refugees due to the law’s difficult requirement. It causes stress, mental problems and disorientation for the young refugees. The study also shows that the young refugees worked very hard to navigate the uncertainty in their lives, to fulfil the law’s requirement and claim for belonging in Sweden.  The study concludes that the political context shapes the lives of young refugees.

In 2016 a new temporary asylum law was introduced in Sweden which limited the chance of being granted asylum. This law was most hard hitting on unaccompanied young people who no longer received fair asylum processes. The government changed part of the temporary law in 2018, and this amendment is referred to as the Upper Secondary School Act. The purpose of this change was to allow certain groups of unaccompanied young people the chance to gain asylum by granting them a residence permit to study in Sweden.   The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether the Upper Secondary School Act provides unaccompanied young people enough human dignity and respect. To do this, elements of two immigration laws are examined to see how the differences between the laws affects unaccompanied young people in the asylum process and in order to gain an understanding of why the new high school law was introduced into legislation. This thesis also conducts a qualitative study to find out what effects the law have had on unaccompanied young people. The Upper Secondary School Act is then reviewed from an ethical and critical standpoint, where the thesis's theoretical approach is based on the thoughts of Jürgen Habermas, Seyla Benhabib and Elena Namli.   The study shows that the Upper Secondary School Act has been criticized from many different directions, and points out that the law is inadequate and lacking a humane perspective. This study also concludes that the law has led to negative consequences for unaccompanied young people because they are not provided with the right conditions for a good life in Sweden. This has led to them being neglected. In order to change this the law must respect human dignity and express an equal respect for all people. This will then counteract repressive structures that prevent the possibility of integration, which the Upper Secondary School Act does not achieve. The main problem with the present law is that there is not enough respect for unaccompanied young peoples’ human dignity.

Bakgrund: Flyktingfrågan blev högaktuell under 2000-talet. Detta då en allt större andelen samkommande ungdomar ankom Europa samtidigt som synen alltmer utgår från att dessa urholkar den nationella kulturen, sammanhållning och social välfärd. År 2020 initierades en offentlig utredning där huvuduppdraget innebar att utreda hur en “långsiktigt hållbar” migrationspolitik kan skapas. I samband med detta föreslogs i nämnda utredning bland annat att endast bevilja tillfälliga uppehållstillstånd. Flyktingar uppfattas alltmer som ett hot mot den nationella kollektiva identiteten. De samhälleliga förändringarna och paradigmskiftet påverkar i allra högsta grad nyanlända barn och ungdomar. För den ensamkommande gruppen av barn innebär flykten i sig en särskilt otrygg situation utan egen familj och det skyddsnät som denna utgör. För denna grupp är därför anskaffandet av ett arbete, som är enviktig del av en lyckad integration, av särskilt stor vikt med tanke på att det i många fall avgör möjligheterna att stanna i Sverige.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur ensamkommande ungdomar upplever anskaffandet av ett arbete i Sverige, samt att i denna process undersöka vilket stöd som ungdomarna anser vara mest betydelsefullt. Följande frågeställningar bearbetas i studien: ● Vilka utmaningar upplever de ensamkommande ungdomarna när det gäller att erhålla ett arbete i Sverige? ● Vilka underlättande faktorer upplever de ensamkommande ungdomarna när det gäller att erhålla ett arbete i Sverige? ● Vilket vuxenstöd anses av ungdomarna som mest betydelsefullt på vägen mot anskaffandet av ett arbete? Metod: Kvalitativ metod användes i studien och data producerades genom att tolv semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med ensamkommande individer som rekryterades via ett bekvämlighetsurval (privata kontakter), på grund av det rådande pandemiläget. Intervjuerna genomfördes i samverkan med en annan medstudent. Det teoretiska ramverket bestod av ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv. Intervjuerna transkriberades och en tematisk analys gjordes utifrån ett perspektiv på integration.  Resultat och slutsatser: De ensamkommande ungdomarnas upplevelser sammanställdes efter tematisk analys, och presenterades i fem olika teman. Språk, avsaknad av körkort och en upplevd rasism skapade hinder för inträde på arbetsmarknaden, samtidigt som de ensamkommande ungdomarna framförde vikten av att uppnå självständighet och att inte ge upp som styrkor. Kontaktnät och att ha ett socialt stöd upplevdes av ungdomarna som avgörande för att finna ett arbete. Juridiska hinder och den oro som dessa skapar, var något som i detta sammanhang stack ut på ett negativt sätt i ungdomarnas berättelser. Området för studien är relativt outforskat, och betoningen på ungdomarnas egna upplevelser bidrar med en ny dimension till barn- och ungdomsforskningen på detta område, där fokus ligger på forskning med i stället för om ungdomarna. När ungdomarnas eget perspektiv lyfts i förhållande till möjligheten till inträde på den svenska arbetsmarknaden, blir detta ett bidrag till den samlade bilden av det praktiska integrationsarbetet. Background: The refugee issue became highly topical during the 2000s. This is due to the fact that an increasing number of unaccompanied minors arrived to Europe, but also the more and more widespread view that they erode the national culture, cohesion and social welfare. In 2020, a public inquiry was initiated in which the main task was to investigate how a “sustainable” migration policy can be created. During this time, it was proposed in the saidinquiry, among other things, to grant only temporary residence permits. Refugees are increasingly perceived as a threat to the national collective identity. The societal changes and the paradigm shift affect newly arrived children and young people to a very high degree. Fort he unaccompanied group of children, escape in itself means a particularly insecure situation without one's own family and the safety net that this constitutes. For this group, therefore, the acquisition of a job, which is an important part of a successful integration, is of particular importance, given that in many cases it determines the possibilities of staying in Sweden. Aim: The purpose of the study is to investigate how unaccompanied minors experience the acquisition of a job in Sweden, and in this process to investigate which support the group considers most important. The following issues are addressed in the study: What challenges do the unaccompanied minors experience when it comes to getting a job in Sweden? What facilitating factors do the unaccompanied minors experience when it comes to getting a job in Sweden? Which adult support is considered most significant by the unaccompanied minors, when it comes to acquiring a job?  Method: Qualitative method was used in the study and data were produced by conducting twelve semi-structured interviews with unaccompanied individuals who were recruited via a convenience sample (private contacts), due to the prevailing pandemic situation. The interviews were conducted in collaboration with another fellow student. The theoretical framework consisted of a phenomenological perspective. The interviews were transcribed and a thematic analysis was implemented, using an integrational perspective.  Results and conclusions: The experiences of unaccompanied young people were compiled after implementing the thematic analysis, and presented in five different themes. Language, lack of driving licenses and a perceived racism created obstacles for entry to the labor market, while the unaccompanied young people emphasized the importance of achieving independence and not giving up as strengths. Contact networks and having social support were perceived by the young people as crucial for finding a job. Legal obstacles and the anxiety they create was something that in this context stood out in a negative way in theyoung people’s stories.  The area of the study is relatively unexplored, and the emphasis on young people's own experiences contributes a new dimension to child and youth research in this area. When the young people's own perspective is illustrated in relation to the possibility of entering the Swedish labor market, this also becomes a contribution to the overall picture of the practical integration work.

The purpose of this thesis is to perform a critical discourse analysis on the upper secondary school act aiming to map which discourses that are being reproduced concerning unaccompanied youths, as well as the motivation behind the creation of the law. Furthermore, the purpose is to investigate the consequences of the discourses produced for unaccompanied youths’ rights claims. Faircloughs discursive model of three levels was used to review the proposition. This was complemented by an analysis of the result in relation to the Copenhagen school of securitization as well as Elena Namlis perspective on human rights. The review revealed that the dominating discourse in the upper secondary school act depicts the unaccompanied youths as foreign and potential threats. The law is motivated by the need to compensate for the Migration boards’ long processing time for their application of asylum upon arrival. It is said that this specific group ended up in an misfortuned situation. It is also explained that the law will trigger the youths to integrate through the demand of them needing to finish high school and find a job within 6 months in order to get asylum. However, this thesis also shows that the government is not fully ready to compensate for this misfortune as the demands, qualification to be available for this law, and security control of youths are implemented. Those obsticles are motivated by the view of the youths as existential threats and could be viewed as a sign of securitization of unaccompanied youths. What follows is them having a more difficult path of reaching their rights of asylum.

With the backdrop of newly admitted restrictive asylum policies in Sweden, a new law that made temporary residence permits available for studies in upper secondary school was adopted in 2018. This study aims to analyze how grassroot bureaucrats experience the implementation and result of the so called “upper secondary school act” (2018:755). The use of a possible discression and the laws’ policy documents from the grassroot bureaucrats’ perspective is the focus of the analysis. The study is based on 10 semi-structured interviews with teachers that have implemented the law in smaller Swedish municipalities. The analysis uses qualitative text analysis combined with the theoretical framework “State agent or citizen agent: two narratives of discretion” (Maynard Moody & Musheno, 2000). The study finds that the implementing teachers mainly makes decisions based on enabling a permanent residence permit for the students both in using their discression and handling the policy documents. The teachers describe the law as strict in many aspects but also helpful to students. They teachers emphasize their hard work, flexibility, cooperation with each other and with the non-profit civil society in creating a good implementation. The theoretical citizen agent narrative in contrast to the state agent narrative (Maynard Moody & Musheno, 2000, 348-356) mainly conforms with the interviews on these points, except for the cooperation with the non-profit civil society, which may need more exploration.