The overall goal of this thesis was to highlight different communicative aspects of participation in interpreter-mediated asylum hearings with unaccompanied Russianspeaking children who had applied for asylum in Sweden between 2001 and 2005. Participation in the asylum process is guaranteed to these children by the Swedish Administrative Law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which are incorporated in the Swedish Aliens Act. The Migration authorities in their work with asylum seeking minors have integrated principles of the best interests of the child and the principle of respecting the children’s views on matters concerning them. In this thesis, we have studied the conditions of participation in a highly complex, hybrid activity type, where participants face contradictory demands. Hybridity can be traced in communicative dilemmas which are difficult to solve and handle for all the participants involved, including the caseworkers, interpreters and children. The caseworkers are expected to control an interview in which whole of the communicative exchange is rendered by interpreters who influence the progress of the encounter. Contradiction lies in the fact that the caseworkers are expected to treat all asylum seekers equally both as a group and individually, by relating to general legal regulations and at the same time, take into account the interests and individual needs of an individual child. It might be difficult for these caseworkers to stay neutral and meet underage clients whose life stories and experiences, conduct and needs differ considerably from what is usually ascribed to children. Asylum seeking children come to Sweden to stay. Our results have shown that they take an active role in their attempts to lead to a positive outcome in their cases. In this respect, children’s testimonies and the impression they make as informants play a salient role. The communicative tasks faced by the adolescents are, however, difficult to achieve. Previous life conditions, vulnerability, psychosomatic problems, and memory and concentration difficulties may affect their performance. Other factors which might further impede these children from achieving their task is the pragmatic and linguistic deficiency, which they experience in a context where they lack communicative means and are not fully aware of the norms and regulations relevant for the encounter. Despite hese limitations, it seems that these minors try hard to shoulder their role as asylum seekers and informants actively and strategically. One strategy chosen by the children was to disclose information selectively. They tried to avoid answering questions which could reveal their age, origin or the whereabouts of their caregivers and thereby enable authorities to establish their identity and send them back. To compensate for their uncooperativeness in this area, the adolescents tended to provide information which had not been asked for. Our studies have shown that children could have been prevented by both the caseworkers and interpreters from expressing their views and opinions in a free and self-chosen way. In this respect, interpreters’ contributions were salient for what information was forwarded to the caseworkers. In some cases, they changed both the language and the format of the responses provided by the children. Some of the communicative strategies which were initiated by the interpreters could be linked to both their professional skills and to the hybridity and the complexity of the situation. Interpreters had difficulties staying neutral in relation to the children and orient them in the encounters. Age differences between the participants could also have an impact on how the children were treated and the respect and importance attributed to their voices. We have identified sequences where interpreters initiated monolingual exchanges with one of the interlocutors where they actively tried to exclude and discredit the children’s voices, something which often happened with the tacit approval of the caseworkers. Thus, it can be seen that communicative premises which are inherent in the asylum hearings influence the participant statuses of the children and their possibilities to express their asylum claims.

Allas delaktighet är ett centralt tema i många styrdokument ända från regeringsnivå till offentliga organisationer och företag. Att skapa förutsättningar för allas delaktighet genom gott ledarskap är centralt både för att uppnå offensiv kvalitetsutveckling och hållbarhetsutveckling. Examensarbetet är en fallstudie där fallet handlar om strategisk samhällsutveckling med hållbarhetsmål. I studien undersöktes hur ledarnas agerande för att skapa förutsättningar för delaktighet påverkar kvalitetsutvecklingen när en offentlig organisation gör en hållbarhetsresa. Studien gjordes genom enkäter riktade till medarbetarna samt semistrukturerade och semistandardiserade intervjufrågor med organisationens högsta ledarskapsskikt under den politiska nivån, i kombination med teoretisk förankring i relevant forskning och litteratur. Från teorin togs kvalitetskriterier för ledarnas agerande och framgångsfaktorer för medarbetarnas upplevelse fram som sedan användes vid analysen. Resultatet visar att ledarnas agerande skapar förutsättningar för medarbetarnas delaktighet för fyra av sex kvalitetsindikatorer, medarbetarna upplever inte att införandet av en gemensam utvecklings- och hållbarhetsagenda och färdplaner har påverkat ledarnas agerande samt att framgångsfaktorerna påverkats positivt för tre av de sex kvalitetskriterierna. Ledarna upplever att de agerar för att skapa förutsättningar för delaktighet för alla kvalitetskriterier och att de förändrat sitt agerande efter att agendan infördes på tre av sex kvalitetskriterier och att deras agerande påverkar framgångsfaktorerna positivt för samtliga kvalitetskriterier. Största skillnader mellan medarbetarnas och ledarnas upplevelse av ledarnas agerande finns i kvalitetskriterium att ”initiera öppen dialog” samt i att ”tydligt visa vilket ansvar och vilka befogenheter medarbetarna har” vilket antyder var förbättringsområdena finns. Studien visar också på vikten av att ledare agerar konsekvent och i linje med gemensamma styrdokument samt att organisationen arbetar in sina strategiska styrdokument i verksamhetens processer och rutiner för att utvecklings- och hållbarhetsagendan ska få genomslag i hela verksamheten. För att det ska lyckas måste ledarskapet ses som ett av utvecklingsområdena för organisationen. / Everyone's participation is a central theme in many governing documents, from government level to public organizations and companies. Enabling everyone's participation through good leadership is central to both offensive quality development and sustainability development. This is a case study where the case is about strategic societal development with sustainability goals. The study examined how the leaders' actions to create conditions for participation affect quality development when a public organization makes a sustainability journey. This study was conducted through surveys aimed at employees as well as semi-structured and semi-standardized interview questions with the organization's highest leadership layer below the political level in combination with theoretical grounding in relevant research and literature. From the theory, quality criteria for the leaders 'actions and success factors for the employees' experience were developed, which were then used in the analysis. The results show that the leaders' actions create conditions for the employees' participation for four of six quality indicators, the employees do not feel that the introduction of a common development and sustainability agenda and roadmaps has affected the leaders' actions and that the success factors have been positively affected by three of the six quality criteria. The leaders feel that they are acting to create the conditions for participation for all quality criteria and that they have changed their actions after the agenda was introduced on three of six quality criteria and that their actions have a positive effect on the success factors for all quality criteria. The biggest differences between the employees' and managers' experience of the managers' actions are in the quality criteria to "initiate open dialogue" and to "clearly show what responsibility and what powers the employees have", which indicates where the areas for improvement are. The study also shows the importance of leaders at all levels acting consistently and in line with common governing documents and that the organization works its strategic governing documents into the business's processes and routines so that the development and sustainability agenda has an impact throughout the business. For it to succeed, leadership must be seen as one of the development areas for the organization. / <p>2021-06-06</p>