Årligen kommer ett stort antal barn och ungdomar utan medföljande förälder eller annan legal vårdnadshavare till Sverige för att söka asyl, så kallade ensamkommande flyktingbarn och ungdomar. De ensamkommande barnen har rätt till skydd, skolgång, sjukvård och en meningsfull vardag där de kan knyta sociala kontakter. De här barnen behöver få trygghet och normalitet i sin tillvaro för att kunna utvecklas, känna sig säkra och få en chans till ett bra liv. Ansvaret för ungdomarnas boende och omvårdnad ligger på kommunnivå och kräver att det finns kompetent och kunnig personal som möter dessa ungdomar. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur personalen arbetar på ett boende för ensamkommande flyktingungdomar för att utveckla mening, identitet och trygghet över kulturella gränser. Metoden som användes var fyra intervjuer med narrativ teori som inspiration för att få fram personalens berättelser istället för enbart svar på ställda frågor och få en djupare förståelse för personalens påverkan på verksamheten och de ensamkommande flyktingungdomarna. Resultatet visade att personalen arbetar utifrån samtal för att skapa en ömsesidig trygghet och tillit inom boendet och genom det sker en samhällsintroduktion och integration för de ensamkommande flyktingungdomarna med en samtidig respekt och förståelse för deras egen kultur. Utifrån detta arbete skapas en värdegrund hos ungdomarna i svensk demokrati och en utveckling av deras identitet. Analysen av berättelserna visar att de fem ord som är målsättningsord för organisationen, samhörighet, egenvärde, samhällsintroduktion, ansvar och möjligheter kan sammanfattas till den demokratiska värdegrunden som arbetet sker utifrån. / Every year a great number of children and youth come to Sweden without any parent or legal guardian, seeking asylum, they are called unaccompanied refugee youth. These unaccompanied minors are entitled to protection, school, healthcare and a meaningful everyday life, where they can make social contacts. These minors need stability and normality in their life to be able to develop, feel secure and have a chance to a good life. The municipality has the responsibility for the minors living conditions and care and this demands competent and knowledgeable personnel to work with these minors. The purpose of the study was to examine how personnel in housing for unaccompanied refugee youth work with meaning, identity and security across cultural borders. The method was four interviews with narrative theory as inspiration to get stories more than just answers to questions and a deeper knowledge for the personnel’s influence on the organization and the unaccompanied refugee youth. The result showed that the personnel worked from conversation to create a mutual security and trust within the housing and through that a community introduction and integration takes place with a simultaneous respect and understanding for the youths own culture. From this basic values are created for Swedish democracy and development of the youth’s identity is created. The analysis of the stories shows that the five words that is the aim for the organization, solidarity, self-worth, community introduction, responsibility and possibilities can be concluded as the democratic basic values that the personnel work is conducted from.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att belysa och analysera hur nyanlända ungdomar beskriver sina upplevelser av att börja om i en ny skola, i ett nytt land. Uppsatsen handlar om att förklara och belysa flyktingungdomars upplevelser av att börja om i ny skola och lära sig ett nytt språk och skaffa nya vänner och vad denna utmaning innebär. Med uppsatsen vill jag belysa språket och skolans betydelse för nyanlända elevers delaktighet. Min studie är baserad på kvalitativa metoder och jag har genomfört kvalitativa intervjuer med sex deltagare som har erfarenheter av att vara en nyanländ elev. Analysen av studien gjordes med IPA (Interpretative phenomenological analysis). IPA är en kombination mellan fenomenologi och hermeneutik. Teoretiska utgångspunkter är den sociokulturella teorin och postkolonial teori. Med sociokulturell teori analyserar jag delaktighetens och gemenskapens betydelse för lärandeprocessen bland nyanlända elever. Jag använder postkolonial teori för att analysera den postkoloniala ordningen i vår nutida skola. Jag har kommit fram till att nyanlända elever står inför en svår utmaning när de börjar skolan. Deltagarna upplevde att det var svårt att skaffa vänner, lära sig ett nytt språk och bli en del av samhället. Deltagarna upplevde både delaktighet och utanförskap i skolan och de har blivit utsatta för kränkning, stigmatisering och mobbning. Skolan hade en viktig roll i nyanlända elevers liv, speciellt under de första åren i Sverige eftersom nyanlända träffade jämnåriga och nya människor i skolan. Svenska språket är ett krav för att nyanlända ska klara sig och bli delaktiga i skolan. Det kräver lång tid för nyanlända elever att bli accepterade i skolan, lära sig ett nytt språk och anpassa sig till det nya landet. / The aim of this study is to illuminate and analyze how newly arrived adolescents describe their experiences of starting over in a new school, in a new land. The essay will explain and illuminate the refugee adolescents’ experiences of starting over in a new school and learn a new language and make new friends and what this challenge mean for them. The essay describes the language- and the school's impact on newly arrived students’ participation. My study is based on qualitative methods, based on interviews with six individuals who have the experience of being a newly arrived student. The analysis of the study was made with IPA (Interpretative phenomenological analysis). IPA is a combination of phenomenology and hermeneutic perspective. Theoretical premises are the socio-cultural theory and postcolonial theory. With socio-cultural theory I explain and analyze the participation and community importance for the learning process among newly arrived students. I use postcolonial theory to analyze the post-colonial order in our current school. I have found that newly arrived students are facing a difficult challenge when they start school. The participants experienced that it was difficult to make friends, learn a new language and become part of the community. The participants experienced both inclusion and exclusion in school and they have been exposed to violations, stigmatization and bullying. The school had an important role in the newly arrivals' lives, especially during the first years in Sweden because in school they meet peers and new people. Swedish language is a requirement for new arrivals so they will cope with life and get involved in school. It takes a long time for newly arrived students to be accepted in school, learn a new language and adapt to the new country.

This study examines ways in which African and Afro-Caribbean refugee girls and young women negotiate and perform identity in varied social contexts. Designed as youth-centered participatory action research, the study draws from three years of engagement with a group of refugee girls, ages 11-23, from Somalia, Liberia, Haiti, Burundi, and Sudan. The research occurred in the broader context of The Imani Nailah Project, a program I initiated for refugee middle and high school girls in May 2008. Through in-depth interviews, youth-led focus groups, and arts-based research, Imani researchers (study participants) and I explored experiences and expressions of gender, race/ethnicity, nationality, age, religion and citizenship status, as well as the intersections among these multiply-located identities. This study spans a wide range of identity negotiations and performances, from micro-level interactions to macro-level impacts of dominant culture. Three interrelated chapters focus on programmatic, methodological, and theoretical components of the dissertation research: (a) how refugee girls and university volunteers pursue mutual learning within a service context; (b) how girl-centered participatory action research can serve as a vehicle towards relational activism, and (c) how broader discourses of othering shape the salience of refugee and citizen identities in the lives of refugee girls. Combined, these articles expand our understanding of how refugee girls narrate self as they participate in and contribute to multiple social worlds. / Ph. D.

Previous literature, although helpful in demonstrating the insidious nature and effects of Islamophobia on Muslims, does not underscore the varying forms and intensities of Islamophobia that a diverse range of Muslims in the West face and the powerful ways in which race and socio-economic class factor into their experiences, coping mechanisms, and stigma responses. This dissertation contributes to the literature on Muslims in The West in three ways: (1) offering a qualitative approach to understanding the ways in which Islamophobia is perpetuated through media discourse and coinciding political legislation, and is experienced differently by a diverse range of Muslims in Canada, (2) adding the concepts of spiritual marginalization, spiritual homelessness, and social status optimization to the analytic vocabulary on integration and articulating their relationship with identity, and (3) making a connection between race and social class and the response to Islamophobia and articulating their relationship with human agency. In chapter one, I provide an in-depth literature review on Islamophobia in the West. In chapter two, I present the results of a discourse analysis study that highlights the structural dimensions of Islamophobia through media representations and framing of incidences involving Muslim vs. non-Muslim perpetrators of violence. In chapter three, I present the results of a study that showcases group level experiences of racism amongst a relatively powerless group of Muslim refugee youth in Hamilton Ontario and St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador. In chapter four, I provide a contrasting response to stigma by reporting on the experiences and mobilization of a socioeconomically privileged group of first, second and third generation Muslims in Edmonton. Finally, I summarize the conceptual findings of each paper, review and discuss the general theoretical and conceptual contributions of the dissertation to existing literature, and provide suggestions on future directions for studying Islamophobia and Muslim integration in The West. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation analyses the varying forms and intensities of Islamophobia that a diverse range of Muslims in Canada face and the powerful ways in which race and socio-economic class factor into their experiences, coping mechanisms, and stigma responses. The thesis explores three themes: 1) how Islamophobia may be structurally maintained and propagated through media discourse and coinciding political legislation, 2) how Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate is experienced differently by different groups of Muslims in Canada, and (3) how there may be a connection between race and social class in individual responses to Islamophobia. By adding the concepts of spiritual marginalization, spiritual homelessness, and social status optimization to the analytic vocabulary, this work is a unique contribution to existing literature, and to our understanding of the differing lived experiences of being Muslim in the West and the varying ways in which Islamophobia informs the day to day lives of Muslim Canadians.