This longitudinal study examines whether family processes (family cohesion and family conflict) mediate the relationship between family separation experiences and the development of peer relationships (quality and conflict). The study includes a sample of 199 early adolescent Latinos from immigrant families. Family conflict mediated the relationship between separation experiences from fathers and peer conflict at year 1 but not year 2 such that more separation from father was associated with higher family conflict and higher peer conflict at year 1. Family cohesion did not mediate associations between mother or father separation and peer relationship outcomes. Family cohesion predicted more positive peer relationship quality at year 1 and family conflict predicted more peer conflict at year 1 indicating some distinction between these characteristics of relationships for families and peers. Mother separation predicted more peer conflict at year 1. This is consistent with qualitative studies of immigration experiences and separation (e.g., Baccallo & Smokowski, 2007; Suarez-Orozco et al., 2002). This study has added empirical quantitative support to show high levels of family conflict associated with family separation. Further, this study has demonstrated that youth who experience greater separation from fathers are likely to experience higher family conflict that is associated with greater peer conflict. In contrast, mother separation has a more direct association with peer conflict. Although family separations are associated with more peer conflict, they do not appear to influence change over time in peer conflict. The different paths of influence for mother separation and father separation warrant further research to explicate the unique associations between each parent‟s separation and family dynamics.

Statistics regarding Somalis’ integration in Sweden, indicates that this group have a hard time to become integrated, currently being characterized by high levels of unemployment, low levels of education and as being residentially segregated. Today, many Somalis reside in Sweden separated from their family. This due to the contemporary asylum framework, which does not recognize Somali identification documents as valid evidence for proving ones identity, when applying for asylum based on family ties. The decision from the Swedish Board of Migration, and its rejection of Somali identification documents as evidence for proving ones identity, can arguably be seen to illuminate the fact that Somalia is not seen as a legitimate nation-state. This view can therefore have effects on the concerned Somalis sense of national identity and citizenship.     This study investigates what consequences these two factors, stemming from the contemporary asylum framework, have on the affected Somalis ability and willingness to integrate, and if it can be seen as resulting in a state of anomie among the concerned group.        This has been done by interviewing Somalis that have been subject to the contemporary asylum framework and the outcome of family separation. The findings from these interviews have then been analyzed in relation to a conceptual framework and theoretical figure, which illustrates an interrelation between the concepts of citizenship, identity and integration, furthering integration in terms of a symmetric relationship between the three concepts, while possibly resulting in a state of anomie, in case of an asymmetric relationship between the three concepts.     The findings from this study indicate that the contemporary asylum frameworks denial of Somali identification documents can not be seen to have affected their sense of national identity and citizenship substantially. However, the issue of family separation can be seen to hamper the ability to integrate among affected Somalis, and can instead be seen to result in a sense of exclusion and un-representation among them, creating a state of anomie among this group.

The United States of America was founded on imperialist ideals that favoured European protestant values and blood. Meanwhile the Native peoples of the lands on which the very country was founded were treated as a “problem”. In times of conflict children are often the most vulnerable group, suffering great trauma and distress. This paper has outlined the origins of policies that would exploit and traumatise Native American children by removing them from their families, effectively violating their rights. Evidence is presented through historical analysis that these practices are so ingrained in the American political system that is was with relative easy that contemporary policies were passed, that would violate the human rights of Indigenous blooded immigrant children by forcibly separating them from their parents and subjecting them to subhuman conditions in migrant detention centers along the US-Mexico border.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Haitian immigrant population in the United States is the fourth largest immigrant group from the Caribbean after immigrants from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica. Cortes (2008) and the United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF) reported that 17% of children born from two-parent families in some Caribbean countries had a migrating parent at some time in their childhood (Cortes, 2008). Using a phenomenological study enlightened how Haitian adult children have coped with transnational separation, which is a term used to describe families who live in different countries while trying to maintain a collective welfare and unity across borders (Falicov, 2007). The goal of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the experiences of adult children who lived in Haiti and were raised by relatives while their parents lived in the United States. The saturation of theme was a maximum of six adult children (not gender specific). The primary data collection method was in-depth interviews with the adult children inviting them to recount their experiences growing up in Haiti while their parents lived in the United States. I attempted to explore the major stressors of financial, emotional, and psychological strains. For example, how did those children maintain a relationship with their parents and cope with family separation? The data was coded and analyzed according to the research questions. These conversations privilege the voices of adult children who have experienced this phenomenon.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilken inverkan försörjningskravet har på familjers möjlighet gällande att återförenas i Sverige och vilka konsekvenserna blir av att tvingas leva ofrivlligt splittrad från sin familj på grund av en restriktiv migrationspolitik. Vidare undersöker studien hur ett teoretiskt perspektiv på familjesplittring kan bidra till att till att identifiera behovet av stöd under separationen och i förlängning utveckla det sociala arbetet avseende gruppen splittrade. Det empiriska materialet utgår ifrån en kvalitativ ansats och består av fem intervjuer med civilsamhälleliga aktörer som jobbat med personer som lever splittrade från sina familjer på grund av den rådande migrationspolitiken och empirin har analyserats ur ett intersektionellt och transnationellt perspektiv.  Resultatet har visat att försörjningskravet präglas av samhällets exkluderande och inkluderande mekanismer vilket gör det svårt för personer med flyktingbakgrund att nå upp till kravet och därmed få återförenas med sin familj. Att tvingas leva ofrivilligt splittrad från sin familj har visat sig en negativ inverkan på den psykiska hälsan, integrationen samt relationerna inom familjen. Studien visar hur oron för familjen genomsyrar individernas liv och hur stressen av att nå upp till kravet är påtaglig vilket även hämmar den integration regeringen menar försörjningskravet ska resultera i. Analysen av empirin har utifrån de valda teoretiska ansatserna visat på ett behov av stöd bland gruppen splittrade som inte identifierats av välfärdsstatens organisationer och det sociala arbetet. / The purpose of the study is to investigate what impact the maintenance requirement has on refugee families' ability to reunite in Sweden and what the consequences of being forced to live involuntarily separated from their family due to a restrictive migration policy are. Furthermore, the study examines how a theoretical perspective on family separation can contribute to identifying the need for support during the separation and in the long run develop the social work regarding the affected members of the family. The empirical material is based on a qualitative approach and consists of five interviews with civil society actors who have worked with people living involuntarily separated from their families due to the current migration policy and the empirical data have been analyzed from an intersectional and transnational perspective. The results have shown that the maintenance requirement is characterized by society's exclusive and inclusive mechanisms, which makes it difficult for people with a refugee background to reach the requirement and thus be reunited with their family. Being forced to live involuntarily separated from one's family has been shown to have a negative impact on mental health, integration and family relationships. The study shows how concern for the family permeates the lives of individuals and how the stress of reaching the requirement is palpable, which also hampers the integration the government believes the maintenance requirement should result in. Based on the chosen theoretical approaches, the analysis of the empirical data has shown a need for support among the group of people having been separated which has not been identified by organizations and civil society actors in the welfare state.

Background Involuntary family separation due to forced migration is a particular form of suffering to which contemporary methods of psychosocial support seem scarce. It has been shown to cause mental and physical impairments that are often misdiagnosed for pathologies. Migrants who endure such trauma may have prolonged feelings of ambivalence for resettling and impaired conditions for integration. Aim Based on such research and reports, this study attempts to find appropriate measures of inter-personal psychosocial support that may improve resilience and wellbeing to live under such conditions. While building upon Social Work ethics, it targets both professional and non-professional providers of psychosocial support.  Methodology Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with informants from Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, and Syria. All had resettled in Sweden and been separated from their families due to migrating. The interviews explored psychosocial measures that they had received and their own resources for coping. The data was then analysed through Thematic Analysis. Result The results are presented in three overarching themes. The first indicates that psychosocial support is an ambiguous term that was described in manners that contradicts a duality of professional and non-professional support. The two following themes describe support from the informants’ surrounding networks and their own attitudes and efforts of coping. These themes present a “map” of psychosocial needs that can orient support providers to suitable interventions. Discussion and conclusion The study concludes that psychosocial support for migrants in separation benefits of being looked upon from a holistic perspective of needs. Western dualities of professional and non-professional support are not the primary concern in such crises. The findings imply that providers of support do well in bridging the gap to others and collectively fill such necessities. Providing access to community, acknowledgment, and a sharing of the efforts to reunite are means to help the separated find purpose in seemingly purposeless suffering. Methods of coping are own ways to endure the distress of separation. Supporters may help to explore such strategies while remembering cultural variations of perspectives on stress and support.

Recent changes and amendments have been made in the Swedish Aliens Act (2005:716), regarding the possibility of a permanent residence permit. These rules are regulated in Ch. 5 sec. 7 para. 1 and in Ch. 5 sec. 8 para. 2 in the Swedish Aliens Act. These amendments were made in the light of the modern society, dealing with the problem of migrant offenders in Sweden, only a couple of years after the Convention on the Rights of the Child was incorporated into Swedish law. Nonetheless, these rules have been criticized by various legislative bodies and human rights organizations. Hence, the special requirements that apply according to these conducted provisions in the Aliens Act raise questions about the child perspective in these rules. The purpose of this thesis is to identify the premises on which these rules rest, and the consideration taken of the child being a child, the child perspective, in these rules and how they relate to Sweden’s international commitments, mainly the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The purpose includes identifying and highlighting problems with the legislation and the need for changes in the Swedish law.  The conclusion drawn is that the studied provisions are not compatible with the statements made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child regarding the interpretation of the Convention, and that the legislation needs to be changed for Sweden to live up to the international obligations in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, so that these rules are reasonably legally secure and non-discriminatory. Furthermore, the conclusion is that the child in the studied provisions is not constructed as a child in need of protection, but rather as an adult being punished – as “a person”– an unwanted one – a ‘persona non grata’.