This study is about a guardian ad litem mission, role and relation to unaccompanied children. On the basis of qualitative interviews the study aims to understand the trustees’ role and relation to unaccompanied children. We chose to interview nine trustees to achieve a better insight of the trustees roll. We analyzed the interviews and tried to gain a better knowledge about a guardian ad litem mission, role and relationship to unaccompanied children with role theory and concepts off pastoral power and trust. Our results demonstrate that the guardian ad litem task is complex. Their mission in the legislation is not clearly defined but it covers the general welfare of the child. Complying with unaccompanied children to various meetings with government agencies such as immigration office, tax office, social services, and help with their finances. As a conclusion we now understand that to be a guardian ad litem to unaccompanied children requires a great deal of effort and commitment. They have to actively be able to engage themselves into the role of a guardian ad litem. A guardian ad litem is like a parent for these children helping and guiding those to the new society.

This thesis explores negotiations of belonging among unaccompanied young refugees in Sweden. The thesis further aims to shed light on methodological aspects of bringing out their voices. The analysis draws on postcolonial and poststructuralist approaches to belonging and relates belonging to the concepts of home, place, racialization and notions of “Swedishness”. The thesis analyses qualitative interviews with 17 young people, who arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors and have been granted permanent residency. The interviews are complemented with walk-alongs and photography-based interviews. Paper 1 gives an overview and discussion of research on unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors. I argue that there is a lack of their voices in the research, and that their own agency and perspectives are not addressed due to a focus on vulnerability and emotional health (or lack thereof). Paper II, which is delimited to participants in a rural village, shows that they negotiate belonging and a sense of home related to places but that othering is constraining. In paper II and III I suggest that the participants’ belongings and position in Sweden can be understood as conditional due to othering and racialization. In paper III, I argue that expressing gratitude can be understood as a form of impression management and, thus be a strategy to negotiate their position in the interview setting as in the host country. I finally argue that in order to understand the participants’ negotiations of belonging attention has to be paid to their agency as well as the conditioning of belonging in discourses and in interactions on the local level.

The purpose of this paper is to examine motivation in studies and/or work among unaccompanied adolescents who received asylum in Sweden. We have examined how six unaccompanied refugee boys’ ages 15-18 years describe their motivation, regarding both current studies and their potential future studies or work. We have attempted to capture the children’s stories about what the factors are that increase or decrease their motivation through qualitative research interviews. The children, who participated in the study, are all living on an accommodation for unaccompanied refugee children. We have analyzed the collected and transcribed material by utilizing two separate theories: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and The Self-Determination Theory. The main result for this study is that the unaccompanied refugee children describes themselves motivated to study and set high goals for them to achieve a college or university degree. They aim to later on work within high-status professions and they are aware that the only way to reach that goal is through higher education.

TEMPS EN TEMPS (times in time): Music for voice and instruments in a multi-track recording environment, by Marc Beaulieu, is a work meant to be experienced on many levels of perception. This analysis attempts to present the work at its most important (relevant) levels. / This work is written for a multi-track recording studio. The first section of this thesis describes the expanded possibilities of compositional procedure, orchestration and vocal/linguistic construction inherent in this particular medium. / The concept of the work is deeply rooted in the sociological thesis expounded in Alvin Toffler's "The Third Wave". These sociological 'undertones' and their bearing on the background structure of the work are examined in the following section of the thesis. / The subsequent sections of the thesis introduce the perceptual and conceptual aspects of the overall musical language, and discuss essential characteristics of the harmonic, rhythmic and linguistic fabric of the work as well as special applications of studio recording techniques such as digital sound processing, sampling and mixing. This leads to a discussion of formal structure based on three (3) conceptual waves co-existing and interacting in time.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne, 2000. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-280).

Research with refugees tends to be dominated by mainstream medical and trauma models. However, development of resilience theories and research on coping increasingly find that such constructs can open up currently limited understandings of the refugee experience. This research took a culturally relativist approach to explore experiences of coping in young unaccompanied refugees in the UK. Following extensive consultation, five young refugees were recruited, who were living independently or semi-independently having arrived in the UK without their family, at the age of 15 or 16. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to explore experiences and understanding of 'coping', whilst acknowledging the relative contributions of their own and my own cultural frameworks and the limitations of language; three participants made use of having an interpreter present. The accounts are presented idiographically, under three major themes that were apparent on multiple levels of the refugees' lives, from the individual to the cultural: 'Adaptation in the context of hardship and loss', 'Beliefs and worldview in shaping a new life', and 'Building strength and self-reliance'. These findings contribute to research finding resilience in refugee lives, whilst not to the detriment of incredible loss and pain. The research attests to the significance of cultural frameworks in refugee coping, with religion playing a key role. The themes are discussed in relation to existing literature and relevant texts, with implications for further research and clinical practice. The role of professionals as allies of refugees is suggested, in promoting socially inclusive practices that involves work both in the clinic and on community and social levels.

The issue of integration of children of asylum seekers and immigrants living in the Czech Republic is the theme of the thesis. I have chosen the topic because I find it very interesting and an up-to-day subject which is in the way of all citizens of the Czech Republic. I have focused the theoretical part on clarifying some concepts, such as: asylum seeker, immigrant, foreigner, refugee, unaccompanied minors, integration and other ones. The aim of the thesis is to find out obstacles for the integration of children of asylum seekers and immigrants living in the Czech Republic. For the implementation of the research part of the thesis, I have chosen the qualitative type of research - the method of interview - the technique of interview. A sociometric test has been chosen as a complementary method. The research was conducted in Permon, a facility for foreign children, from January 2011 to March 2011. The Research Group No 1 consisted of ten immigrant children from 7 to18 years old (in case of students their age could be 21 years at the utmost). The research of asylum seeking children was not enabled. The facility is obliged to protect the children and does not provide any information about them. I have processed the results through the form of case studies. For the purpose of the research implementation, I have divided the integration into five areas (language, culture, housing, social relations and needs). A questionnaire designed by PhDr. Kovařík and Prof. Dunovský was another independent part of my research. In the area of language, it came in sight that most immigrant children communicate in Czech language which they learned from their parents or, and it is very rare, in detention facilities for foreigners. The most frequent problem in this area is writing (spelling). In the area of culture, it came in sight that despite the possibility to observe customs of their original countries, very few respondents cherish them here in the Czech Republic. Customs and traditions differ from country to country, but it does not hinder the integration of children of immigrants. As for the area of housing, all respondents are living in the facility for children ? immigrants. They travel home, if there is the home, only at weekends or according to capability of their parents. All but two respondents are happy at home. In the area of social relations, it came in sight that if respondents need any help, they mostly approach teachers and educators but also friends and parents. In the last area, the area of needs, it came in sight that the most frequent need is to be with their families and then the need for greater freedom. The additional questionnaire for children revealed that what respondents are the most worried about is that they will not see their families any more. On the other hand, weekends spent with their families and leaving the facility are the two things that they are looking forward to the most. It is possible to say that respondents feel that the facility is a barrier which prevents them from integration into mainstream society and deprives them from their freedom. The sociometric test was performed in one secondary school and in one primary school in the town of Písek in February and March 2011. The Research Group No 2 consisted of students of different grades and age (7-17 years old) including foreigners. The test was performed in five classes. The test results showed that foreign children have no problem with their integration. Based on the results of the sociometric test, it is possible to take the assumption that the origin of children is not an obstacle in communication with other children. This assumption can be a basis for more extensive research. It is possible to use the thesis as a basis for any quantitative research. What is more, the thesis can serve the general public to increase their awareness of this issue.

abstract: Immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers. Three words describing the same group of people. Individuals seeking a better, safer life. Western media is focused right now, in 2016, on the humanitarian crisis from the Middle East to the European Union; just like two years ago it was centered on the huge numbers of unaccompanied minors immigrating into the United States from Central America. Media changes its focus but problems do not end with a change of headlines. Unaccompanied minors are the most vulnerable population looking for asylum. This study looks at two different immigration flows of unaccompanied minors: one from the Middle East going to the European Union; and the other one from Central America to the United States. This research finds similarities and differences between these two flows of migrant children related to the reasons why they leave their countries of origin, their experiences during the trip to the destination countries, the asylum process, the legal status of these children and how these minors are perceived by societies in the destination countries. Using a human rights law framework, this thesis will explore the continuum of violations of human rights that these children endure on their journey from their origin countries to their destination states. Through interviews with former and current direct providers of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, previous scholarly work, documentaries and news articles on the subject, it will make clear that these two flows of children fleeing to different destinations have much more in common than what may be initially perceived. This emergent, exploratory and inductive qualitative research will bring light to asylum law and question why the social responsibility to protect children seems to skip the most vulnerable ones: unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. / Dissertation/Thesis / Documents to be included in addendum / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2016

The main aim with this thesis has been to understand how the resilience process could be enhanced for South Sudanese unaccompanied and separated children, USC, resettling in Nairobi, Kenya. The aim has further been to provide primary empirical data in order to bridge the gap on resilience research specifically related to this target group, within a non-western refugee context. The research has been carried out using a single case study design, with qualitative methods including an extensive literature review, and semi-structured interviews, as well as a questionnaire for qualitative purpose with 16 South Sudanese youth, arriving in Kenya unaccompanied or separated. Within this thesis, the concept of resilience has been approached from mainly a childhood perspective, focusing on research from the field of child psychology. As a complement, one specific model from the salutogenic research field on health promotion has also been used.   Through the case study, a variety of internal and external protective factors were identified, that could enhance the resilience process for South Sudanese USC. The most occurring were: a belief in God; focus, hard work and discipline; the desire to help family and people in need of support; education; support from others; and to understand and accept the new culture. In addition, the senses of meaningfulness, comprehensibility and manageability worked as important tools to further understand the protective factors that had enhanced resilience for the South Sudanese participants. The findings of this research have also included risk and vulnerability factors that could challenge the resilience process for the target group, including severe human suffering and stressful events; violence; lack of basic needs; loss of family and relatives; lack of mentor/advisor; and separation from family. The thesis ends with providing practical recommendations for humanitarian and development actors on how they best can support South Sudanese USC in the East Africa region.

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.