This two-part small-scale research is positioned within a social constructionist interpretive epistemology. Both parts of the research used qualitative methods. Part One explores the perspectives of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in relation to their educational experiences in the UK. It also considers the experiences, opportunities and challenges for school and college staff with supporting the educational needs of UASC in a shire county in England. The methodology employed to collect the data for Part One consisted of semi-structured interviews with six professionals and the ‘Talking Stones’ (Wearmouth, 2004) interview technique with six UASC. For Part Two of the research, a Collaborative Action Research (CAR) approach was used consisting of one cycle of three group supervision sessions with five professionals from Part One. Within the group supervision sessions, a Solution Circles framework was implemented and participants were encouraged to prepare cases to discuss and collaboratively problem solve. The benefits to supporting the needs of UASC by introducing professionals to the process of group supervision are also explored. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) interpretation of Thematic Analysis was employed across both phases as a method of data analysis. This enabled themes to be identified which emerged from the data. Two key findings were discovered to play a significant role in the UASC’s social and emotional wellbeing: the uncertainty of the UASC’s future in relation to their unresolved asylum status and their acquisition and fluency of English language. The latter is discussed in relation to how fully the students felt able to integrate and communicate their needs. Barriers to language also link closely to students accessing the curriculum and their experience of inclusion within the setting. An array of opportunities and challenges of supporting the social and emotional needs of UASC are outlined by school and college staff. Such findings include: recognising and identifying the social and emotional needs of UASC, a lack of experience and opportunities for staff training, challenges with inclusion and integration of UASC within the educational settings, funding and available resources, developing supportive and trusting relationships over time and forming social connections. Within the paper, these findings are explored in relation to Bronfenbrenner’s (1979; 1989) Ecological Systems Theory. Implications for educational professionals and for educational psychology practitioners are discussed.

Building on three theories of European integration – liberal intergovernmentalism, neofunctionalism and postfunctionalism – I offer an explanation to the process and outcomes of the development of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) between 2008 and 2018. The process to establish the CEAS has been characterized by clashing actor preferences, which forced actors into negotiations. This thesis aims to analyze the dynamics of these negotiations surrounding the CEAS. My results show that liberal intergovernmentalism explains locked positions in interstate bargaining and highly compromised outcomes, and even non-decisions, of the CEAS. I also argue that neofunctionalism loses explanatory power when sensitive issues concerning automatic quota systems and national sovereignty are discussed, although many arguments by the involved actors in the policy process draw upon neofunctional assumptions. Postfunctionalism is argued to gain explanatory power during recent years, since identityrelated arguments and Eurosceptical and anti-immigrant ideas in European governments have increased.

<p>Do we have a moral duty to offer severely ill asylum- seeking children permanent residence permits?</p><p>This thesis analyses our moral duty to offer 410 severely ill asylum-seeking children permanent residence permits. During 2004 an emotionally charged debate started in Sweden. The debate concerned the deportation of 410 severely ill asylum- seeking children and their families. For this and other reasons Sweden was criticized by the United Nations commission along with human rights organizations for being too restrictive in its migration and asylum politics. My thesis outlines the migration and asylum debate and the refugee situation in the world at present together with facts about how the asylum procedure takes place in Sweden. Further I draw upon medical research connected to the asylum procedure along with how the Swedish Government and Save the Children respond to the migration and asylum debate.</p><p>I also explore which rights, in terms of legal implications and ethical principles, these children have. Additional I outline theories in political philosophy from the utilitarian and communitarian tradition. The two philosophers I refer to are Michael Walzer and Peter Singer to apply their views to my primary question. Finally, I reach a critical analysis where I summarize and discuss my research. In the end I offer my final reflections in order to further debate on migration and asylum issues.</p>

Do we have a moral duty to offer severely ill asylum- seeking children permanent residence permits? This thesis analyses our moral duty to offer 410 severely ill asylum-seeking children permanent residence permits. During 2004 an emotionally charged debate started in Sweden. The debate concerned the deportation of 410 severely ill asylum- seeking children and their families. For this and other reasons Sweden was criticized by the United Nations commission along with human rights organizations for being too restrictive in its migration and asylum politics. My thesis outlines the migration and asylum debate and the refugee situation in the world at present together with facts about how the asylum procedure takes place in Sweden. Further I draw upon medical research connected to the asylum procedure along with how the Swedish Government and Save the Children respond to the migration and asylum debate. I also explore which rights, in terms of legal implications and ethical principles, these children have. Additional I outline theories in political philosophy from the utilitarian and communitarian tradition. The two philosophers I refer to are Michael Walzer and Peter Singer to apply their views to my primary question. Finally, I reach a critical analysis where I summarize and discuss my research. In the end I offer my final reflections in order to further debate on migration and asylum issues.

My contribution is focused to a modest framework creation for asylum-immigration theory. By means of arms-export data from 17 Western European countries, tested against inflow of asylum seekers to these countries, covering the past 26 years, it is clear that arms-export from these countries do not contribute to their own asylum-inflow. The main theoretical contribution to existing literature on arms export and migration is therefore that I separate plausible causes of outgoing migration (arms export to countries from where asylum flows are generated) from determinants of asylum immigration. Empirically, I disprove such hypothetical indirect connections put forward both within academic literature and by NGOs like Amnesty International. Instead, I find the counter-intuitive, namely that increased arms export leads to less asylum immigration. Also, in contrast to previous literature on asylum immigration, I build on Granovetter (1973) and propose that diffusion of information through asylum networks depend on weak social connections as opposed to close relationships like ethnic bonds, family ties and friendships. In addition, I problematize the tendency of existing literature to treat asylum seekers as labor migrants and argue for a framework founded on principles which account for the unique circumstances and life situations faced by asylum seekers. In doing so I also extend on previous quantitative works and find that crucial determinants for inflow are signified by the generosity of the welfare state, absence of far right sentiments, and religious diversity. The wealth of a country, its general quality of life, its linguistic and ethnic fractionalization, do not appear to matter.

My contribution is focused to a modest framework creation for asylum-immigration theory. By means of arms-export data from 17 Western European countries, tested against inflow of asylum seekers to these countries, covering the past 26 years, it is clear that arms-export from these countries do not contribute to their own asylum-inflow. The main theoretical contribution to existing literature on arms export and migration is therefore that I separate plausible causes of outgoing migration (arms export to countries from where asylum flows are generated) from determinants of asylum immigration. Empirically, I disprove such hypothetical indirect connections put forward both within academic literature and by NGOs like Amnesty International. Instead, I find the counter-intuitive, namely that increased arms export leads to less asylum immigration. Also, in contrast to previous literature on asylum immigration, I build on Granovetter (1973) and propose that diffusion of information through asylum networks depend on weak social connections as opposed to close relationships like ethnic bonds, family ties and friendships. In addition, I problematize the tendency of existing literature to treat asylum seekers as labor migrants and argue for a framework founded on principles which account for the unique circumstances and life situations faced by asylum seekers. In doing so I also extend on previous quantitative works and find that crucial determinants for inflow are signified by the generosity of the welfare state, absence of far right sentiments, and religious diversity. The wealth of a country, its general quality of life, its linguistic and ethnic fractionalization, do not appear to matter.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the asylum seekers that reside in Turkey temporarily, from their own standpoint and from the viewpoint of workers and representatives working in the agencies and institutes involved in the field. This work focuses on the inconveniences experienced by asylum seekers and refugees during their stay in Turkey and the reasons of these inconveniences, in the context of social exclusion. The research for this thesis is based on the analysis of the in-depth interviews that were done with the asylum seekers, representatives and workers in UNHCR, government and in several NGOs. Relevant report by the UNHCR, and the scholarly literatures on migration and asylum and on transit migration and asylum seeking through Turkey was examined. The results of the study can be sorted as follows: Firstly, there is an increasing and visible reluctance to accept refugees in the world. Secondly, it is seen that Turkey does not have an effective asylum policy and legal arrangements on this issue. Thirdly, not only the asylum seekers but also the officers who are dealing with them face some problems. Lastly, it had been observed during the interviews asylum seekers are being excluded different ways during the period of living in Turkey.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the asylum process from an experiential perspective, starting in the country of origin, fleeing, claiming asylum and being granted refugee status. The theoretical interest is to contribute with an understanding of how this asylum process impacts on personal meaning-making, focusing on identification and positioning work of the person forced to flee and make an asylum claim. With this purpose in mind, I have remained close to the experiences of the participants talk made visible through interpretative analysis.   Drawing on a discursive-psychological approach, 19 interview-cases (10 in England and 9 in Sweden) have been analysed consisting of stories of the migration process: life in the country of origin, fleeing, claiming asylum and being granted refugee status. This talk includes rich description of what this has involved for these participants, in terms of the more existential aspects of this kind of migration, identification and positioning, as well as their attempts to give this process some sort of meaning. This I name refugeeship.   The results show that refugeeship is characterised by a multitude of implicit and explicit questionings concerning the refugee’s rights and duties. Implicit questions concerning the refugee’s flight, starting in the country of origin are followed by explicit questions when encountering the official legal system of asylum in the new country, which involves an erosion of sense of self. The refugee stories express what I call the moral career of refugeeship, illustrating the events in refugeeship which are ongoing, though changeable over time and space and incorporate a moral dimension. The refugee finds him or herself continuously justifying the migration, struggling for recognition and convincing ‘Others’ that one can in fact become a contributing member of  the new society.

There is a crisis of asylum in Africa. In response to large and protracted refugee populations, declining donor assistance and a range of related security concerns, a significant number of African states have limited the asylum they offer to refugees. Some states have closed their borders to new arrivals and pursued early repatriations. Many other states have contained refugees in isolated and insecure camps. Given the scale of this crisis, the global pressures on asylum, and the disproportionate share of the global refugee burden borne by Africa, understanding the responses of African states poses an important challenge. A critical examination of the factors influencing the refugee policies of African states is, however, strikingly absent from the scholarly literature. The objective of this thesis is to address this gap by examining the responses of Kenya, Tanzania and Guinea to the arrival and prolonged presence of significant refugee populations. Drawing on field research, this thesis argues that the asylum policies of the three cases are the result of factors both related to the presence of refugees, such as burden sharing and security concerns, and unrelated to the presence of refugees, such as foreign policy priorities, democratization, economic liberalization and the sense of vulnerability experienced by many regimes in Africa. Drawing on a political history of the post-colonial African state, this thesis argues for an approach that recognizes the politics of asylum in Africa. Such an approach highlights the importance of incorporating the host state into any examination of asylum in Africa and the predominant role that broader political factors play in the formulation of asylum policies. This is not to suggest that factors such as the protracted nature of refugee populations, levels of burden sharing and security concerns are irrelevant to the study of asylum in Africa. Instead, the thesis argues that such factors are very relevant, but need to be understood in a more critical way, mindful of the political context within which asylum policies are formulated. This approach leads to important lessons not only for the study of asylum in Africa, but also for the future of the refugee protection regime in Africa.

Since 1980s, a number of factors caused an overall enhancement in the number of persons applying for asylum in Europe. This rapid increase in asylum applications and the end of the ideological gains towards refugees with the end of the politicized Cold War environment, necessitated European countries to re-focus on their immigration and asylum policies in a more systematic manner, especially after the ratification of the &lsquo / Single European Act&rsquo / . Following the transfer of competencies in asylum and migration to the Community level, discussions were quickly moved within a European framework although harmonization of divergent national practices about an issue directly related to state sovereignty, has not been deemed as a troublefree task for the Member States. On the other hand, the acquis regarding this problematic and state-centric issue has already started to be transferred to the Applicant Countries for the EU membership, as part of the pre-accession strategy, and also to the third countries through bilateral agreements. This thesis work will focus on the concerns regarding the extension of these European asylum acquis to the third countries as well as on the advantages of creating a Common Asylum Policy within the Union and its Associates.