Bakgrund: I Sverige har managementfilosofin Lean Production (Lean) fått ett stort genomslag inom offentliga verksamheter. Lean, som har sitt ursprung i den japanska biltillverkningsindustrin, handlar om att öka värde för kund, effektivisera verksamheten genom atteliminera resursslöseri och arbeta med ständiga förbättringar. Migrationsverkets beslutade 2010 att införa arbetssättet Lean i hela verksamheten. På grund av eskalerande konflikter runt om i världen, speciellt i Syrien, briserade flyktingströmmarna under 2015 och människor flydde mot Europa och Sverige för att söka skydd undan krig och förödelse. Efterfrågan på Migrationsverkets tjänster ökade således enormt och myndigheten försattes i en krissituation vars storlek aldrig tidigare upplevts. Arbetet enligt Lean sattes på prov och så även myndighetens krishantering.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen av hur tillämpningen av Lean inom offentlig verksamhet påverkas i en krissituation, samt att identifiera centrala leanattribut att utveckla för krishantering. Metod: Detta är en kvalitativ fallstudie av Migrationsverket. Den bygger på fem semistrukturerade intervjuer samt dokumentstudier. Studien har en övergripande induktiv forskningsansats och utgår således från empirin.  Slutsats: Studien visar att Lean fungerade som en stödstruktur för Migrationsverket vid hanteringen av flyktingkrisen 2015. Teamarbete och mötesstruktur fick en viktig betydelse för meningsskapande för medarbetarna. Samtidigt anpassades förbättringsarbetet och processflödet till krissituationen och blev mer kortsiktigt. / Background: In Sweden, the management philosophy of Lean Production (Lean) has had amajor impact on the public sector. Lean originated from the Japanese automotive industry and involves aspects such as increasing value for customers, optimize operations by eliminating waste and continuous improvements. In 2010 the Swedish Migration Agency decided to apply Lean on the whole organisation. Because of escalating conflicts around the world, especially in Syria, the refugee stream in 2015 increased and people fled to Europe and Sweden to seek protection from war and devastation. The demand for the Migrations Agency’s services thus increased enormously and the authority found itself in a crisis which magnitude had not been experienced before. Thus, the Lean strategy as well as the crisis management of the Migrations Agency was tested. Aim: The aim of the thesis is to increase the understanding of how the application of Lean in the public sector is affected during a crisis, and to identify key aspects of Lean to develop within crisis management. Methodology: This is a qualitative case study within the Swedish Migration Agency which is built upon semi structured interviews and document studies. The thesis has an inductive approach. Conclusion: The thesis shows that Lean functioned as a supportive structure for the Swedish Migration Agency during the immigration crisis in 2015. Teamwork and meeting structure had a great importance for sensemaking among the workers. The continuous improvement and process flow was affected by the crisis situation and adjusted to the crisis situation and became short-term.

The purpose of this study is to describe and understand how the principle of the child’s best interest in the asylum process for families with children is interpreted and implemented in practice by the asylum bureaucrats at the Swedish Migration Agency. Our questions are: “How is the best interest of the child in families with children interpreted by the asylum bureaucrats at the Swedish Migration Agency?” "How are asylum bureaucrats at the Swedish Migration Agency reasoning about the implementation in practice of the child's best interest in families with children? The essay rests upon semi-structured interviews with eight asylum bureaucrats at three different asylum units. The interviews are based on an interview guide together with a vignette, which purpose was to see how the interviewees are implementing the best interest of the child in a specific case of a potential application. We are analyzing our results by using Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucrats and their professional discretion. We are also using Roine Johansson’s (2007) interpretation of Lipsky and Svensson et al., (2008) and their perspectives about professional discretion. Our main findings and conclusions in the study are showing that the asylum bureaucrats interpretations of the best interest of the child are statutory. According to the asylum bureaucrats, the main definition of the principle is related to the importance of talking with the children. These statements in the interviews also reflects how they look upon the implementation in practice of the child's best interest. The asylum bureaucrats felt they have a wide discretion in their everyday work.

Seeking asylum is a human right, which means that all states in the world that have signed the UN Refugee Convention are responsible for ensuring that refugees in need of protection can get it. Sweden has signed the UN Refugee Convention as early as in 1954. Thus, a legally secure asylum process is to be sought. The Swedish Migration Agency has a central role in this, as the reception of refugees is the primary responsibility of the Agency. The Migration Agency's case management must therefore comply with the requirements regarding ensuring the protection of people who are forced to flee, in Swedish, European and international law. A basic principle of asylum cases is that it is the applicant who has the burden of proof to make his protection needs plausible. On the other hand, the Migration Agency has an extended investigative responsibility, as there is a strong protection interest in investigations of asylum cases. The so-called officialprincipen places a demand on the Migration Agency to investigate a case to the extend its nature requires. If the work of Migrations Agency does not meet these requirements, the result may be that deficiencies in the investigation are put on the applicant and that the application gets rejected. Deficiency in case management by the Migration Agency, apart from that it is affecting individuals, and can destroy a life, can also, in the long run, have devastating consequences for the entire Swedish legal system. It also means more work for the courts, double work for the Migration Agency and increased costs for the judiciary system.     The change of the instance procedure in 2005 has greatly improved the asylum process. The case law in the area has meant that the courts can check the Migration Agency's investigations and give references to the Migration Agency about what needs to be done in order for the administrative process to be more legally secure. My conclusion is that the Swedish legal order in this area is changing as more demands are made by the EU and due to the EU's increased competence in the area. When it comes to the actual design of the provision for the officialprincipen, it is rather vaguely designed. The frameworks for what is covered by the Migration Agency’s investigative duty appear relatively diffuse for the Agency. Hopefully, the provision in the new Administration Act, and a more solid case law in the area, will result in a more uniform and predictable enforcement of the officialprincipen at the Migration Agency. / Att söka asyl är en mänsklig rättighet vilket innebär att alla stater i världen som har skrivit under FN:s flyktingkonvention är ansvariga att se till att flyktingar som behöver skydd kan få det. Sverige har undertecknat FN:s flyktingkonvention redan 1954. En rättssäker asylprocess är således att eftersträva. Migrationsverkets har en central roll i detta, eftersom flyktingmottagande är verkets primära ansvar. Migrationsverkets ärendehandläggning måste alltså leva upp till de krav gällande säkerställande av skydd för människor på flykt som finns i den svenska rätten, europarätten och folkrätten. En grundläggande princip i asylärendena är att det är den sökande som har bevisbördan för att göra sitt skyddsbehov sannolik. Å andra sidan har migrationsverket ett utvidgat utredningsansvar eftersom det föreligger ett starkt skyddsintresse vad gäller utredningar av asylärenden. Den s.k. officialprincipen ställer krav på Migrationsverket att utreda ett ärende som dess beskaffenhet kräver. Om verket inte lever upp till dessa krav kan resultatet bli att brister i utredningen läggs den sökande till last och att den sökande får avslag. Bristande handläggning av ärenden hos Migrationsverket, förutom att den drabbar enskilda människor, och kan förstöra ett liv, kan även i förlängningen få förödande konsekvenser för hela det svenska rättssystemet. Det innebär även mer arbete för domstolarna, dubbelarbete för verket och ökade kostnader för domstolsväsendet.     Den under 2005 förändrade instansordningen har förbättrat asylprocessen en hel del. Prejudikatbildningen på området har medfört att domstolarna kan kontrollera Migrationsverkets utredningar och ge hänvisningar till Migrationsverket om vad som måste göras för att handläggningsprocessen ska bli mer rättssäker. Jag har kunnat konstatera att den svenska rättsordningen på området förändrats i takt med att det ställs större krav från EU:s sida och på grund av att EU får en ökad kompetens på området. När det kommer till själva utformningen av bestämmelsen för officialrincipen, är den tämligen vagt utformad. Ramarna för vad som omfattas av Migrationsverkets utredningsskyldighet framstår som relativt diffusa för verket. Förhoppningsvis kommer bestämmelsen i den nya förvaltningslagen, och en mer solid prejudikatbildning på området, medföra att en mera enhetlig och förutsägbar tillämpning av officialprincipen växer  fram hos Migrationsverket.

The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate how the business philosophy Lean, originating from the Japanese manufacturing industry, has been transferred to The Swedish Migration Agency. In addition to this, I will also look at how the management philosophy New Public Management (NPM) has been introduced in The Swedish Migration Agency´s discourse.   The Swedish Migration Agency is an authority of change and 2015 has so far been an eventful year marked by record high refugee flow in combination with the new organizational structure, alongside with mass recruitment in the organization.   The Lean model gaining ground can be seen as a paradigm shift and a shift from a democratic discourse to a NPM-discourse, where the state had previously been characterized by traditional bureaucracy, but now focuses on efficiency and management by objectives. This development creates a neoliberal effect on the Swedish welfare society, where citizens gradually transforms into consumers.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the work of asylum case- and executive officers at the Swedish Migration Agency. It focuses on the oral investigation that is conducted by the Swedish Migration Agency with an asylum seeker in Sweden, how the case- and executive officers assess if an asylum seeker is credible, and if there are any difficulties with this process. The aim of this study has not been to investigate how the credibility and reliability assessments should be conducted; instead, it has been to understand the complexity of these assessment and how the case- and executive officers experience the same. The study is ethnographic, and the empirical material consists of interviews with individuals who work as case- and executive officers at the Migration Agency's asylum units in Sweden. The study has a qualitative approach since the interest lies in individual experiences. The analysis is based on extracts from the interviews and is linked to existing research and theories. Theoretically, the thesis is inspired by Michael Lipsky's concept of street-level bureaucracy. In addition, we have also built up a theoretical chapter presenting the legal framework. The study shows that the assessment of an asylum seeker is a complicated and abstract process. And in the end, it all comes down to an overall assessment.

The Swedish Migration Agency has, through the years, received criticism regarding its management and assessments of different cases. One of these critiques has been towards the Agency’s management of asylum seekers claiming to have converted as a refugee claim. Therefore, this thesis aims to strengthen the Agency’s management of these cases. Using the critisism made against the Swedish Migration Agency, I suggested recommendation and amendments to the Agency’s established guidelines. The findings in this thesis showed extensive criticism towards the Agency’s usage of religious knowledge tests to assess the genuineness of a conversion. The critic also argues that the Agency lacks religious understanding and that the Agency should focus on identity, community, and faith in a higher power. The analysis presented a need to address religion, the conversion process, and the role of the Agency’s personnel in the guideline.

The aim of this study was to, through an analyze of court orders, gain a more profound understanding of how the Swedish Migration Courts argue and relate to credibility and reliability in the decision assessment for asylum-seeking LGBTQ people. The court orders used in the study was all rejected by the Swedish Migration Court and appealed to the Swedish Migration Supreme Court. The study is of an hermeneutic and qualitative perspective and an argumentation analysis of the court orders was conducted. The results show that the Swedish Migration Courts use both international-and Swedish law and guidelines as support and basis when they argue in the asylum assessments. They also use value-added words to reinforce their arguments. The critical perception of the asylum process presented by previous research can be understood to some extent. It is also possible to see that some criticism is unfounded, as more perspectives should be taken into consideration. Some gaps in knowledge about LGBTQ issues can be seen and therefore better guidelines may be necessary.

It is common by states to deny asylum for asylum-seekers with the argument that the applicant could find protection within their own country of residence instead of receiving international protection. This is called internal protection alternative (IPA). This research is a comparative case study and aims to explore and compare two neighbouring countries, Sweden and Norway, on how their immigration authorities differ in their assessment on both the security situation and IPA in Afghanistan. Furthermore, this thesis aims to compare the Swedish and Norwegian immigration authorities with international laws, agreements and guidelines which, therefore, is the conceptional framework for this research. This study concludes that IPA is not mentioned in the 1951 Refugee Convention and that there are no clear directives on how to apply it. States tend to interpret the already existing laws and guidelines in their own way. The result of this is that there are differences between states practice and the consequence could be that asylum-seekers could receive different assessments and decisions from different countries. This research is, therefore, highly relevant from a humanitarian- and academia perspective as it highlights differences in national practice which is crucial since these differences will affect the refugee situation of individuals and the possibility of obtaining asylum.

Some expulsion decisions cannot be executed due to the existence of deportation impediments, which in this case means that foreigners are in a legal limbo in such a way that they have neither the right to stay nor the opportunity to leave Sweden. The regulation of deportation impediments is found in Aliens Act (2005:716), but it is the application of these regulations that determine how specific cases are assessed, why it is highly relevant to study said cases.  The essay deals with political, practical and medical impediments, found in Chapter 12 of the Aliens Act, in order to establish the applicable law, and by analyzing ten court cases from the Migration Court of Appeal, study how the court assesses the Swedish Migration Agency's application of these legal barriers. The provisions being studied are chapter 12 1-3 §§ Aliens Act, concerning political impediments, chapter 12 18 § Aliens Act, concerning practical and medical impediments, and also chapter 12 19 § Aliens act which establishes the possibility of a new trial in a case. The applicable law is established through a legal dogmatic method, and the legal cases from the Migration Court of Appeal are analyzed using a legal sociological method.  The study concludes that political impediments are weighed heaviest in comparison to medical and practical impediments, due to the latter two not being derived from international conventions or instruments as opposed to political impediments. Furthermore, it is easier to present evidence when invoking political impediments, as evidentiary requirements are set lower than those for practical and medical impediments. At the same time the individual has an opportunity to be granted a new trial if he or she invokes a new condition that concerns political impediments, while a new trial cannot be granted if the individual invokes medical or practical impediments. The provisions concerning practical and medical impediments should therefore be developed or amended in such a way that they are adapted to the circumstances that may arise in these cases. It is also concluded that the Swedish Migration Agency's investigation and interpretation of these impediments must be more comprehensive. It must be adapted to the conditions referred to in the case, due to the application of these provisions being complex and requiring the Swedish Migration Agency's staff to be well trained and accurate in each individual case.