I minori stranieri non accompagnati sono considerati i nuovi protagonisti dei processi migratori e costituiscono a partire da questo secolo un vero e proprio soggetto migratorio. Il seguente lavoro presenta un quadro generale di riferimento giuridico-normativo per mettere a fuoco la questione dei minori stranieri non accompagnati sia in Italia che in Europa e nello specifico in Spagna, Francia, Inghilterra. Inoltre, vengono prese in considerazione le tematiche educative di questi minori presenti in Italia. La letteratura presa in esame insegna che i minori stranieri non accompagnati presentano molti bisogni educativi associati all’esperienza della migrazione, all’età adolescenziale e al fatto di trovarsi in Italia, da soli, senza adulti legalmente responsabili per loro. Si sottolinea, dunque, il necessario intervento educativo che l’educatore è chiamato a svolgere attraverso un’azione di sostegno e accompagnamento competente. In questo lavoro si presenta infine, attraverso una ricerca esplorativa, le rappresentazioni che gli educatori intervistati dell’associazione Gruppo Abele, della cooperativa Esserci e dell’Oratorio S. Luigi di Torino e della cooperativa CSAPSA di Bologna, hanno rispetto all’educativa di strada, come intervento pedagogico volto ad aiutare i minori stranieri non accompagnati in processi di integrazione e socializzazione. / The unaccompanied children are the new protagonists of migratory processes and since this century, they are a new and real migratory subject. This work presents a normative and juridical reference frame in order to show the question of unaccompanied children both in Italy and in Europe, and especially in Spain, France and UK. In addition it considers educational topics of these minors in Italy. The considered literature underlines many educational needs of unaccompanied children, which are related to migration experience, to adolescence, to be in Italy alone without legally responsible adults. The thesis wants to underline the necessary pedagogical intervention that is educator is called to develop through an action of qualified accompaniment and support.. The last part of present work is an explorative research which describes the educators’ representations about informal education in street, that is a pedagogical intervention due to help unaccompanied children towards integration and socialization processes. The interviewees are from Gruppo Abele Association, social cooperative Esserci, parish recreation Centre S.Luigi in Turin and from cooperative CSAPSA in Bologna.

This study regards the Swedish documentation system, BBiC, which is translated from the English version LACS. BBiC is created to make sure that the children’s needs are put in centre of attention in child protection investigations. The BBiC-system becomes problematic regarding unaccompanied refugee children because of the parent-perspective which is a keystone in the system. Therefor BBiC creates discretion for the social worker which is not BBiC: s original intension. The study’s aim was to understand how BBiC: s creates discretion for the social worker that works with unaccompanied refugee children. In the results of the study we show that the social workers discretion expands when using BBiC in the work with unaccompanied refugee children. Because of the lack of guidelines from Socialstyrelsen, BBiC is used differently in different municipalities. The social workers sees BBiC in different ways, some see BBiC as a complete system and has adapted BBiC well to the work with unaccompanied refugee children and therefore the discretion increases. Some has only adapted BBiC as a way of thinking and still has a large discretion. We use Lipskys theory about street-level bureaucracy and discretion. We selected the theory and its concept because it is relevant to analyze how BBiC has created discretion for the social workers that work with unaccompanied refugee children. With a large discretion there is also a risk of injustice safety for the unaccompanied refugee child. Therefor the legitimacy of municipality can be questioned. We preformed semi-structured interviews in eight municipalities in southern Sweden and had twelve interviewees. We have also done literary studies regarding Socialstyrelsens reports about BBiC and the research that concerning the implementation of BBiC.

Vår studie undersöker tolkens betydelse i kommunikationen mellan handledare på HVB och ensamkommande flyktingbarn. Vi fokuserade främst på möjligheter och brister som finns i tolkning idag, men även för att kunna förbättra handledarnas arbetssätt med barnen.  Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie där vi har intervjuat fyra tolkar och fyra handledare på HVB. För att analysera vårt resultat har vi använt oss av tre kommunikationsmodeller och Habermas teori om det kommunikativa handlandet. Modellerna har använts för att förklara specifika tolkningssituationer mellan barnen och handledare, och Habermas teori har vi använt för att förklara tolkningen utifrån samhället. I studien framkommer det att tolkningen ger goda möjligheter för att skapa en kommunikation mellan två individer. De största bristerna är att det saknas tolkar i vissa språk och att det blir fel i dialekter. Många av handledarna menar att tolkarnas kompetens är bristfällig och att tolkarna behöver vidareutbilda sig. Det framkommer även att många upplever att det är en fördel om tolken har kunskap om kultur och samhällen för att kunna överbrygga mellan barn och handledare. I tolkningen förekommer sällan känslomässiga samtal och att det är individuellt om barnet vill visa sina känslor vilket beror på vilket förtroende de har till tolk och handledare. Det finns mycket att förbättra inom tolkningen och det saknas riktlinjer kring hur man ska genomföra tolkning. / Our study investigates the interpreter´s significance in the communication between assistants at residential care homes and unaccompanied refugeechildren. We had our focus mainly on the possibilities and the deficiencies that are in interpreting today, but also to improve the assistants’ way of working with the children. We have implemented a qualitative study where we have interviewed four interpreters and four assistants at residential care homes. To analyze our results we have used three communication models and Habermas´ theory of communicative action. The models were used for explaining specific situations with interpreters between assistants and children, and we used Habermas´ theory to explain interpreting by society. The study reveals that interpreting gives good possibilities to create a communication between two individuals. The largest deficiencies are that there is a lack of interpreters in some languages and there occurs flaws in dialects. A lot of the assistants say that the competences of the interpreters are deficient and that the interpreters need more education. The study also reveals that many of the interviewed experiences that it is an advantage if the interpreter has knowledge about culture and communities to create a bridge between children and assistants. In interpreting, emotional conversations rarely presents and it is individual if the child wants to show its feelings and it depends on the trust they have to the interpreter and assistant. There are a lot of improvements needed and there is a lack of guidelines to how assistants should implement interpreting.

The focus of this study has been to plumb social workers experiences regarding their work methods in two institutions regarding unaccompanied children through a perspective of gender. In this study, four semi-structured qualitative interviews has been contrived in purpose to gather in material which has been presented in five themes to ease an analyse focusing of gender. In all the interviews both authors participated with one in charge and one taking notes. One of the main focuses has been the relations between both social workers and their clients and between colleges in the institutions. The other main focus has been the activities, both planed and spontaneous, which the clients been offered, for example football, bowling and boxing. The idea of analyse this main focuses is based in our knowledge through recent science studies that shows that gender is created both in relations, language and everyday actions.

Every year a great amount of unaccompanied children flee their homelands without their parents or guardians. This means a journey filled with danger and difficulties. The difficulties don’t only exist during the road ahead but also when the children arrive to the new country. Even if Sweden’s work in receiving refugees is one of the best in the world, it still exist problems. The support work with unaccompanied children is done on different levels in society. The work performed nearest to the individuals takes place at the asylum- permanent residence accommodation where the youth are placed after the decision if they can stay in the country or not. We will in this essay illustrate how the support work with unaccompanied children in the age 13-18 looks like and what effect social support has on the adolescent’s identity development. By visiting two agencies that have asylum- permanent residence accommodation we carried out four interviews with professionals who work on a daily base with the young people. Based on the informant’s narratives and interpretations of the young people’s experiences, we seek to gain knowledge of their situation, both physically and psychologically. We investigated the circumstances behind the feeling of security, how reliance is formed and how social support can help the children’s sense of coherence. We use both crises theory, identity theory and the theory of SOC (sense of coherence) to analyze the informants´ stories. The results of this study show that social support is highly important for a child’s identity development. It is the professional who work on a daily base closely to the children who often symbolize the essence of social support. It’s through their work a safe environment is established and upheld. Identity is shaped through social relationships within groups where solidarity and a mutual confidence exist. We have also acknowledged some deficiencies in the structure of the support work, for example regarding which premises are the young individuals expected to adapt to the Swedish society. The adaption and adjustment has become an obligation for the young individuals rather than for the society.

The aim of the study was to examine collaboration and professional perspectives on the best interest of the child in regards to working with unaccompanied asylum seeking children. Firstly, our result show that counselling is available for the unaccompanied children from case workers, staff, school counsellors and emergency psychiatric care. All of the participants in this study describe the need for long-term counselling for unaccompanied children, however, providing the long-term counselling is not the primary purpose of the organisations in question. Therefore an additional service-provider working with counselling is a necessity. Secondly, the study explores the participants’ professional perspectives on the best interest of the child. The participating professionals work with the best interest of the child in accordance with their level of education and professional role. At the same time, they stress the fact that time, resources and other factors have an influence on their ability to keep the best interest of the child in focus. Finally, the study addresses collaboration between the service providing organisations. Collaboration does exist, but the participants wish for a development and transparency in the collaboration in order to clarify the responsibilities of each organisation. / Studiens syfte var att undersöka samverkan och professionellas perspektiv på barnets bästa i arbetet med ensamkommande barn genom besvarandet av tre frågeställningar. Den första frågeställningen rör de möjligheter till psykosocialt stöd som finns för ensamkommande barn. Vårt resultat visar att möjligheter finns i form av stöd hos handläggare, personal och skolkurator samt BUPs akutmottagning. Verksamheternas primära syfte är dock inte långsiktigt behandlande stödsamtal, vilket är något som samtliga respondenter anser att många ensamkommande barn är i behov av. Det behövs alltså ytterligare en aktör vars syfte är att arbeta med psykosocialt stöd för dessa barn. Den andra frågeställningen undersöker hur respondenterna ser på begreppet barnets bästa utifrån sitt professionella perspektiv. Samtliga respondenter har uppgett att de arbetar efter bästa förmåga i relation till sin yrkesroll och utbildningsnivå. Respondenterna påtalar samtidigt att tid, resurser och andra omgivningsfaktorer påverkar deras möjligheter att arbeta för barnets bästa. Studiens sista frågeställning berör samverkan mellan de verksamheter som tagit del i studien. Resultatet belyser att samverkan mellan verksamheterna existerar, men att respondenterna önskar en utveckling och transparens i samverkan för att tydliggöra samtligas uppgifter.

Bakgrund: Konstruktioner av ensamkommande barn har undersökts till viss del. Föreställningar om barnen i bland annat medier och policydokument har studerats. Hur barnen konstrueras inom en "vardagskontext", i form av ett öppet diskussionsforum online (Flashback Forum), och hur konstruktioner däri görs trovärdiga, bedöms eftersatt. Syfte: Syftet med föreliggande studie var att identifiera olika inom Flashback Forum förekommande diskurser kring ensamkommande barn, med avseende på deras retoriska organisering. Med diskurs avsågs ett sätt att tala om och förstå världen som konstruerar ett objekt eller företeelse på ett särskilt sätt. Metod: För att besvara syftet användes en diskurspsykologisk ansats vilken fokuserar på hur trovärdighet och sanning skapas i kommunikation. Utifrån en teoretisk modell, innefattande de fyra retoriska teknikerna category entitlement, empirisk repertoar, konsensus och extremfallsformuleringar, undersöktes hur skribenter på forumet skapade sanning och bemötte andras föreställningar om barnen. Resultat: Resultatet visade att ensamkommande barn omges av diskurserna de vuxna, barnen, våldtäktsmännen, de särbehandlade, de sexuellt utsatta samt diskursen om de biologiskt manliga könet. Diskurserna användes parallellt i talen och underbyggde argumenteringar på forumet. Skribenterna använde de studerade retoriska teknikerna för att skapa trovärdighet i uttalanden. Med särskilda uttrycksformer skapades fakta om ensamkommande barn. / Background: Constructions of unaccompanied children have been researched to some extent. Concepts of the children have been studied in media and policy documents amongst others. How the children are constructed within an "everyday context", in form of an open online discussion forum (Flashback Forum), and how the constructions become credible, are regarded as under-researched. Aim: The aim of the present study was to identify different discourses concerning unaccompanied children on the Flashback Forum, with regard to their rhetorical organization. Discourse is meant as a way to talk about and understand the world that constructs an object or phenomenon in a particular way. Method: To answer the aim, a discursive psychological approach was used, which focuses on how credibility and truth are created in communication. Based on a theoretical model, including the four rhetorical techniques category entitlement, empirical repertoire, consensus and extreme case formulations, it was examined how the writers at the forum created truth and responded to others' beliefs about the children. Result: The results showed that unaccompanied children are surrounded by the discourses: the adults, the children, the rapists, the special treated, the sexually vulnerable and the discourse of the biologically male sex. Discourses were used in parallel in the speeches and to back up arguments at the forum. The writers used the studied rhetorical techniques to build credibility in the statements. With specific expression, facts about unaccompanied children were created.

Syftet med denna studie är att öka förståelse för hur fyra ensamkommande flyktingbarn upplever det nya samhället, samt det som görs för att underlätta deras  integrering i Sverige. Att lämna sitt hemland och vara på flykt för en bättre framtid är ett beslut som varje ensamkommande flyktingbarn har tvingats möta, och lämna sin komfort zon. Denna forskning utvärderar effekterna av påtvingad invandring och de copingmekanismer som fyra ensamkommande barn använde när de påbörjar sin resa till frihet och en fristad i Sverige. Dessutom så undersöker denna uppsats det mottagandelandet Sverige, och tillgången till resurser för att underlätta deras integration i det svenska samhället, både på kommunal och nationell nivå. Fokus i denna uppsats är delvis på de svårigheter dessa ungdomar genomgår i hemlandet och den kulturchock och det tryck att anpassa sig som de möter i det nya landet. En kvalitativ forskningsmetod används i denna uppsats, som undersöker subtila nyanser av bilden på ensamkommande flyktingbarn. I denna uppsats används semi-strukturerade intervjuer för att samla in kvalitativa data, vilket gör att de svarande får tid och utrymme att dela sina känslor. Fokus i intervjun bestäms av forskaren då det finns områden som bedöms behöva en djupgående undersökning. Berättelserna analyseras med hjälp av kristeori och teorier om invandrings- och flyktingprocesser som en ämnesteori, och vi skiljer på två olika faktorer, 1. Resan bestående av dramatiska konsekvenser, såsom trauma, frustration, förföljelse, och sist men inte minst ”separationsångest". 2. Stress till följd av den nya kulturen och trycket för snabb anpassning och förändring. / The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of how four unaccompanied refugees experience their new society and what is being done to facilitate their integration in Sweden. To leave and escape a homeland to try to find a better future is a decision that every unaccompanied minor refugee has been forced to face, leaving his/her comfort zone. This research evaluates the impact of forced migration and the coping mechanisms that four unaccompanied minors use as they embark on their journey to freedom and a safe haven in Sweden. Additionally, this essay examines the host country Sweden, and its availability of resources to better facilitate the integration of migrants to Swedish society both at the municipal and national level. The focus of this essay is partly on the difficulties these youngsters undergo in their home country and the culture shock and pressure to adapt they face when living in their new country. Furthermore, by choosing qualitative research method for this essay, we examine subtle nuances of the image of unaccompanied refugee children, both as a concept and as a denominator that creates an identity crisis for them. In this essay semi-structured interviews are utilized to collect qualitative data, allowing respondents the time and scope to examine and share their sentiments. The researcher who directs the conversation to areas deemed to require closer in depth exploration decides the focus of the interview. Analyzing stories using the crisis theory and theories about immigration and refugee processes we distinguish two distinct denominators, 1. A journey with dramatic consequences, such as trauma, frustration, persecution, and, last but not least, ‘separation anxiety’. 2. Stress arising from the new culture and pressure for quick adaptation and change.

Abstract Titel: Ur elden in i askan. En kvalitativ studie om det sociala nätverkets betydelse för ensamkommande barn Keywords: unaccompanied refugee children, social network, risk and resilience, social work. Authors: Karin Bodå och Leila Silva   The main purpose of this study is to illuminate and describe the importance of having a social network for unaccompanied refugee children in Sweden. Using qualitative interviews this study looks at their possibilities to create a social network in Sweden and how their network helps them to solve problems. Knowledge of this subject is important for social workers, in order to be able to encourage and help unaccompanied refugee children to build a social network. The base for our analysis is attachment theory, coping theory, social network theory, KASAM theory, risk and resilience theory, system theory are used to give deeper insight into experiences of four unaccompanied refugee boys. Important results found that their social networks affected their possibilities to handle problems. They felt that being surrounded by people who supported them made them feel less lonely. Further results showed that they felt limited in creating a social network during their first time in Sweden, mainly because of language difficulties, culture differences and the feeling of not being accepted. Finally we found out that some had negative experiences of social workers. Social worker’s approach affected their wellbeing.

Studiens huvudsyfte är att utforska HVB-personalens känslomässiga påfrestningar i samband med bemötandet av ensamkommande flyktingbarn samt att utforska personalens upplevelser av sin psykosociala arbetsmiljö i relation till interaktion med ungdomarna. Studien är baserad på fenomenologisk ansats, med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med 10 medarbetare. Resultatet redogör för medarbetarnas upplevelser i samband med bemötandet av ensamkommande flyktingbarn samt medarbetarnas upplevelser av sin psykosociala arbetsmiljö i relation till interaktion med ungdomarna. Enligt resultatet upplevs arbetet med ensamkommande barn som både givande och krävande. Social kompetens upplevs vara den viktigaste kunskapen men även språk- och kulturkompetens betonas. Dessutom lyfts lyhördhet och respekt för andra människor fram som centrala aspekter. Enligt respondenternas utsagor upplevs den psykosociala arbetsmiljön någorlunda stressande. Medarbetarna använder sig av olika copingstategier för att hantera den emotionella påverkan. Studiens slutsats är att arbetet på HVB-hem är psykiskt och emotionellt påfrestande vilket ökar tendensen till psykisk ohälsa. / The purpose of this study was to explore the HVB staff's emotional strain associated with their work. The study is based on a phenomenological approach, using semi-structured interviews of ten employees. According to my results the personnel experienced working with unaccompanied minors as both rewarding and demanding. Social skills are the most important knowledge in this kind of work, but language and cultural competence are also desirable. Sensitivity and respect for other people are highlighted as central issues in this kind of work. The psychosocial environment is perceived as stressful. Workers use various coping strategies to manage their stress. The study concludes that work in the HVB home is mentally and emotionally stressful and strenuous, increasing the risk of mental illness.