In recent years, focus has been on asylum policies in the context of the growing numbers of asylum seekers arriving to Denmark but not much attention has been paid to the individual situations of women seeking asylum in Denmark. This thesis presents a case study on the Danish asylum system that has been analyzed using a comparative legal analysis, examining what international legal norms Denmark has implemented into the asylum system in practice. Using critical frame analysis, dominant frames and underlying narratives were identified in asylum practices, demonstrating the negative consequences female asylum seekers experience as a result. Although, great improvements have been made by Denmark, the analysis proved that there still exists gaps in the protection of women seeking asylum. This includes the recognition of gender-related grounds for asylum, gender-sensitive procedures in application assessment, and the gender responsive reception circumstances. Furthermore, this study concludes that Denmark still has steps to take to fully adopt gender-guidelines into practice, and that (non-) application of gender-guidelines and gender-sensitive approaches has negative consequences for women seeking asylum in Denmark.

Bakgrund: Papperslösa och asylsökande räknas till samhällets mest utsatta och tillhör de grupper vilka FNs mänskliga rättigheter syftar till att skydda. Svensk lagstiftning är inte förenlig med dessa rättigheter. Papperslösa och asylsökande lider ofta av fysiska och psykiska problem och vägen till hälso- och sjukvård är kantad av hinder. Den svenska yrkesetiska koden för sjuksköterskor beskriver en professionell plikt att vårda alla på samma villkor. Omständigheter som hindrar sjuksköterskor att ge jämlik vård ställer dem inför problem och dilemman. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av papperslösa och asylsökande i hälso- och sjukvården. Metod: Litteraturstudie med kvalitativ ansats. Tio vetenskapliga artiklar granskades och låg till grund för denna studie. Resultat: Studien fann fyra huvudteman, Att famla i blindo, Frustration, Kulturell kompetens och En känslomässig utmaning med åtta tillhörande subteman. Slutsats: Brist på/okunskap om riktlinjer var tydlig. Det är därför av stor vikt att författa och implementera riktlinjer i verksamheterna. Leiningers transkulturella omvårdnadsteori ska inspirera sjuksköterskor att utforma kulturanpassad omvårdnad. Den publicerade forskningen inom valt område var begränsad och talar för ett bristande forskningsintresse inom området. Klinisk betydelse: Genom att studera sjuksköterskors erfarenheter identifierades organisatoriska hinder som möjligen kan avlägsnas genom tydliga riktlinjer och ökad kunskap. Ett uppmärksammande av ämnet kan leda till strukturella förändringar och ett införlivande av rätten till lika vård. / Background: Undocumented migrants and asylum seekers are part of society’s most vulnerable groups which the UN Human Rights seeks to protect. Swedish legislation does not comply with these rights. Undocumented migrants and asylum seekers often suffer physical and psychological problems and the road to health care is paved with obstacles. The Swedish Ethical Code for nurses describes a professional duty to provide care for all under the same conditions. Factors that prevent nurses from providing equitable care, cause problems and dilemmas. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe nurses' experiences of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers in the health care system. Method: Literature review with qualitative approach. Ten articles were reviewed and formed the basis for this study. Result: The findings of this study revealed four major themes Flying blind, Frustration, Cultural competence and An emotional challenge with eight subthemes. Conclusion: The lack of / ignorance of guidelines were clear. The writing and implementation of guidelines is therefore essential. Leininger transcultural nursing theory can inspire nurses to develop cultural appropriate care. Published research in this subject was limited therefore suggesting a lack of interest in this area of research. Clinical significance: By studying nurses' experiences, organizational barriers were identified. These may possibly be eliminated by clear guidance and knowledge. Highlighting this problem can lead to structural changes, thereby helping to incorporate equitable health care for all.

The aim of this study was to examine how asylum organizations work in facilitating the integration of asylum seekers into Swedish society.  In Sweden, despite its historical acceptance of migrants and asylum seekers, the country is not immune to integration challenges. The study employed a qualitative research approach to capture the perspectives and opinions of employees working in the selected organizations. A purposive sampling method was utilized, wherein two representatives were carefully chosen from each organization. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of four (4) participants. Thematic analysis was applied to analyze the data gathered from these interviews. The findings of the study indicated that asylum organizations offer various forms of support, including assistance with school placement, language acquisition, housing, education on Swedish norms and customs, and facilitating connections with authorities to Asylum seekers. However, several challenges persist, such as insufficient government support, inadequate funding, and lengthy asylum procedures. To address these issues, there is a need for increased government support, proactive measures, financial aid, expedited asylum processes. These improvements would enable the organizations to effectively engage and assist asylum seekers in their integration process.

Bakgrund: Antalet flyktingar världen över ökar och fortsätter enligt UNHCR:s mätningar att öka och utgör därmed även en växande patientgrupp. Flyktingars tillgång till vård påverkas negativt av flertalet faktorer vilket kan ge allvarliga konsekvenser för deras hälsa. Sjuksköterskan är ofta flyktingarnas första kontakt med hälso- och sjukvården i ankomstlandet och spelar därför en viktig roll i att överkomma dessa hinder. Syfte: Att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att möta och vårda flyktingar inom hälso- och sjukvården. Metod: En kvalitativ litteraturstudie som följde Polit och Becks niostegsmodell, kvalitativa originalartiklar inkluderades och analyserades med tematisk analys enligt Braun och Clarke. Resultat: Tre teman med åtta underteman identifierades: Utmaningar i yrkesrollen med underteman att förstå varandra samt komplexitet och en vidgad yrkesroll. Känslor och dilemman och underteman svåra känslor och hanteringsstrategier, inställning till flyktingar samt etiska dilemman. Utmaningar för god omvårdnad med underteman strukturella hinder, behov av mer kunskap samt tid – en bristvara. Slutsats: Sjuksköterskor upplever ett antal hinder i vården av flyktingar, varav kommunikationssvårigheter är det enskilt största. Här är tolken ett viktigt verktyg. Vidare forskning kring tolkar och deras funktion i vårdmötet behövs för att identifiera såväl framgångsfaktorer som hinder kring kommunikation via tolk. / Background: The number of refugees worldwide is increasing and, according to UNHCR's measurements, continues to increase and thus also constitutes a growing patient group. Refugees' access to care is negatively affected by several factors, which can have serious consequences for their health. The nurse is often the refugees' first contact with health care in the country of arrival and therefore plays an important role in overcoming these obstacles. Aim: To describe nurses' experiences of meeting and caring for refugees within the health care system. Method: A qualitative literature study that followed Polit and Beck's nine-step model, qualitative original articles were included and analyzed using thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke. Result: Three themes with eight sub-themes were identified. The main themes were challenges in the professional role, emotions and dilemmas and challenges for good nursing. Conclusion: Nurses experience several obstacles in the care of refugees, of which communication difficulties are the single greatest. Here the interpreter is an important tool. Further research on interpreters and their function in the care meeting is needed to identify both success factors and obstacles regarding communication via an interpreter.

Background Based on the Global Trends report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee, in high-income countries, there are 2.7 refuges per 1,000 national population, girls and women account for nearly 50 percent of this refuge population. In these high-income countries, compared with the general population refuge women have higher prevalence of mental illness. To our knowledge this is the first systematic review that addresses access to mental health services for refugee women in high-income countries. Thus, this review was conducted to examine the barriers to and facilitators of access to mental health services for refugee women in high-income countries for refugee resettlement. Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL databases were searched for research articles with qualitative component (including mixed-method or multi-method with qualitative component), in order to examine barriers and facilitators related to accessing mental health services. Relevant studies were collected on March 14, 2020 and were extracted and critically appraised by multiple authors. A narrative synthesis was conducted with the included studies to gather key synthesis evidence. Results Of the four databases searched, 1258 studies were identified with 12 meeting the inclusion criteria. The major barriers identified were language barriers, stigmatization, and the need for culturally sensitive practices to encourage accessing mental health care within a religious and cultural context. There were several studies that indicated how gender roles and biological factors played a role in challenges to accessing mental health services. The major facilitators identified were service availability and awareness in resettlement countries, social support and the resilience of refugee women to ease access of mental health services. Conclusion This review revealed socio-economic factors contributed to barriers and facilitators to accessing mental health among women refugees and asylum seekers. Addressing those social determinants of health can reduce barriers and enhance facilitators of access to mental health care for vulnerable populations like refugee women. Although there is a difference in health access policy among the top resettlement courtiers, the review found that there are no significant differences in accessing mental health for refugee and asylum seeker women among leading resettlement countries. The review findings suggest the need for further research on this topic given the potential significance of the findings on refugee and asylum seeker women mental health.

This research explores the causes and incentivizing factors behind the irregular migration of Syrian asylum seekers to Sweden. The study highlights the opinions from 9 Syrian asylum seekers with previous irregular migration experiences to Sweden. The results show that Syria’s conscription law (the compulsory military service), Sweden’s liberalized asylum policies, and lacking social networks in the state of destination were the main determinant contributing factors for irregular migration. For participants obtaining a passport required completing the military service period however the participants rejected the military service, as a result, they lacked passports, consequently, their regular routes were limited. The liberalized asylum regime in Sweden in terms of its lenient procedures towards irregular migration attracted the participants to migrate irregularly. Likewise, lacking social networks at the destination state decreased the employment chances for the participants and as a result, the work permits and regular pathways through the labor market were limited.

No / European countries are dealing with an increasing number of refugees seeking asylum. Country evidence is critical in the assessment of any asylum claim. The purpose of this study is to review some of the common issues which frequently are the focus of asylum appeal cases in relation to applicants from South Asia and the Middle East. The focus is on Pakistan, Iraq and Iran and it covers a range of issues that give rise to asylum claims, such as the general security situation, the risk from terrorism and other forms of political violence, the risk to political opponents of governments, the risks in blood feuds and from the perceived violation of family honour, religious persecution and the risks faced by ethnic minorities. It is a very useful resource to volunteers and professionals involved in supporting asylum seekers.

This study compares print media representations of refugees and asylum seekers with representations in short stories and poems written by refugees and asylum seekers themselves, within the frames of creative writing workshops. The primary research question guiding the study reads: How do (self-)representations in texts written by refugees and asylum seekers, within the frames of creative writing workshops, differ from representations of refugees and asylum seekers in print media.As a theoretical foundation for the study serves the social constructionist assumption that language, rather than reflect, constructs reality, and that the way the world is understood affects policies, practices and actions – in this case concerning refugees, asylum seekers, refugee relief, refugee/asylum seeker reception systems, integration etc. Starting out from the notion that print media representations of refugees and asylum seekers follow certain recurring patterns – not only resulting in rather simplistic portrayals, but, also, almost systematically leaving out refugee and asylum seeker voices, views and opinions – the study, following Dorothy Smiths suggestion that individuals somehow excluded from a particular discourse may offer perspectives undermining it, turns to the refugees and asylum seekers’ own texts as a possible source of alternative representations. Using Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory, complemented by semiotic analysis, (self-)representations in three anthologies with refugee and asylum seeker texts are compared to the results of a meta analysis of earlier research of representations of refugees and asylum seekers in print media.The findings of the study suggests that there are similarities, but also significant differences in how refugees and asylum seekers are represented in their own texts when compared to print media. Consequently, it is argued that there is a potential worth fostering in the creative writing workshops for refugees and asylum seekers, as well as similar initiatives. They may be seen as a step towards increasing refugees and asylum seekers’ opportunities to voice their opinion in matters that concern them; as answering to the post colonial call for bringing in new voices to the (social) development debate; and as contributing to the realisation of an agonistic democracy/pluralism.

AbstractThis study aims at investigating how refugees are discursively represented in twelve articles written by the Danish online newspaper 'Den Korte Avis'. The main question aimed at answering being “Which power relations are established discursively by how refugees are positioned, represented and potentially subjected to stereotypical representations through discourses in the articles and what are the potential consequences of these representations?” The research applies a social constructivist approach to answer the main question and the research questions.The study has been conducted using Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional framework for critical discourse analysis (CDA), which has provided theory and methods for critically analysing media texts. Beyond that, Stuart Hall’s perception of representation has been used to provide the research with a clear theoretical background for understanding how representations work, both in production and consumption. Moreover, Hall’s paper “The Spectacle of ‘the other’” has been used to dig deeper into the representation of other cultures or minority groups of society. Within this, Hall's notions on stereotyping through representations have been used in analysis of the news articles.The research found four predominant discourses about refugees, which all exclusively represented them negatively. In the articles, refugees are represented as a cultural or terror threat, an economic burden and as migrants. Within these discourses, refugees are often subjected to stereotypical representations. Similar for all four discourses was the fact that they drew on an understanding of Denmark being under threat from the refugees and the asylum influx, and that border control would be a way of countering this threat. It is, thereof, concluded that 'Den Korte Avis' carry a nationalist bias in their articles. It is, moreover, concluded that 'Den Korte Avis', in their coverage of refugees, reproduce unequal power relations between the Danes and the refugees, as a clear scenario of 'us versus them' is established frequently, wherein refugees are positioned as not being able to fit into Danish society because they are 'too different'. Thereby, a cultural hegemony is also established in the articles. It is argued in this thesis that the mainly negative representations of refugees in the news media, could have consequences both culturally/societally and politically, some of which we may be seeing already.

This study aims to draw attention to the stories of Afghan unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Sweden; their reasons to leave Afghanistan and to migrate to Sweden, the way that they migrate, and the problems they face during their journey to Sweden are investigated. In order to achieve the aims of this study, a qualitative method is used based on semi-structured interviews. Altogether, eight people are interviewed of which six are Afghan male unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, one is a legal guardian and one is an assistant (behandlingsassistent). Theories such as push and pull factors, migration industry theory, transit migration theory, and social network theory help to understand better the stories of Afghan unaccompanied children while analyzing the data.The data obtained from interviews shows that the children who were leaving Afghanistan had mixed motivations. Factors such as lack of security, violence, threats, individual risks associated with their ethnicity, forced recruitment, economic hardship and political reasons push them to leave Afghanistan. My findings show that the main reason for the children to leave Afghanistan is the harassment and violence against the ethnic group Hazara.Moreover, the data demonstrates that traveling with smugglers and crossing borders, by land or by sea, is a multiple-step procedure for Afghan unaccompanied children. They have many stops along the way and spend lots of time in different transit countries. The journey is full of risks for them. My interviews reveal that transit migration creates a number of problems for these children.In addition, this study indicates that the role of social networks is of great importance for these children. The smugglers create strong incentives for their decision to claim asylum in Sweden. Moreover, co-migrants and friends of friend who live in Europe play a significant role in their decision-making. Furthermore, restrictive legislations as well as lack of protection in transit countries make onward migration inevitable. Other factors, such as the probability of getting a residence permit and family reunification, are important for Afghan unaccompanied children to choose Sweden as a destination country.