This thesis explores negotiations of belonging among unaccompanied young refugees in Sweden. The thesis further aims to shed light on methodological aspects of bringing out their voices. The analysis draws on postcolonial and poststructuralist approaches to belonging and relates belonging to the concepts of home, place, racialization and notions of “Swedishness”. The thesis analyses qualitative interviews with 17 young people, who arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors and have been granted permanent residency. The interviews are complemented with walk-alongs and photography-based interviews. Paper 1 gives an overview and discussion of research on unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors. I argue that there is a lack of their voices in the research, and that their own agency and perspectives are not addressed due to a focus on vulnerability and emotional health (or lack thereof). Paper II, which is delimited to participants in a rural village, shows that they negotiate belonging and a sense of home related to places but that othering is constraining. In paper II and III I suggest that the participants’ belongings and position in Sweden can be understood as conditional due to othering and racialization. In paper III, I argue that expressing gratitude can be understood as a form of impression management and, thus be a strategy to negotiate their position in the interview setting as in the host country. I finally argue that in order to understand the participants’ negotiations of belonging attention has to be paid to their agency as well as the conditioning of belonging in discourses and in interactions on the local level.

The purpose of this paper is to examine motivation in studies and/or work among unaccompanied adolescents who received asylum in Sweden. We have examined how six unaccompanied refugee boys’ ages 15-18 years describe their motivation, regarding both current studies and their potential future studies or work. We have attempted to capture the children’s stories about what the factors are that increase or decrease their motivation through qualitative research interviews. The children, who participated in the study, are all living on an accommodation for unaccompanied refugee children. We have analyzed the collected and transcribed material by utilizing two separate theories: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and The Self-Determination Theory. The main result for this study is that the unaccompanied refugee children describes themselves motivated to study and set high goals for them to achieve a college or university degree. They aim to later on work within high-status professions and they are aware that the only way to reach that goal is through higher education.

In the last couple of years there has been an immense increase in the number of unaccompa­nied refuge minors seeking asylum in Sweden. These minors share one thing in common; they have all abandoned things they hold dear in pursuit of a better life. The majority of them are placed into residential care homes, accommodations where they are aided and cared for by personnel. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research regarding how these personnel experience their work. With help of the method grounded theory and interviews, I investigate their working situation and their role in these homes. All participants agree that their primary role and task are to establish a feeling of safety amongst the minors, however, organizational aspects can hinder this process. Organizational aspects are also key factors that have to be adequate in order for the personnel to increase their professional knowledge. By including the framework resilience therapy and comparing this to my result, I put my study in a bigger context, suggesting that if the minors are capable of feeling safe, they will also develop skills that increase their wellbeing throughout their lives.

Legal rules regarding unaccompanied refugee children in the European Union (EU) are closely related to the refugee crisis and the community’s asylum policy. This study aims to investigate how the best interests of the unaccompanied refugee child is being ensured under EU law. Dworkin’s theory and various methods are used to answer the research question. Firstly, the focus is, with the use of the chosen theoretical framework and international legal method, on the interpretation of the principle of “the best interests of the child”. Secondly, the thesis studies how this principle is reflected in the EU law in relation to unaccompanied refugee children, by applying EU legal method. This study shows, on the one hand, that there are a few anomalies in the EU legislation in the area of asylum that arise with regard to the best interests of the unaccompanied refugee child. It is argued that the European Union’s restrictive asylum legislation leads to conflicts between the international law and the EU law. On the other hand, the thesis demonstrates that the EU law has continuously improved, and the international child rights principle was adopted in it. It will be shown in this study that despite the common asylum policy and the community acquis, the EU Member States’ domestic law enables different assessments of the best interests of the unaccompanied child. The solution of normative conflicts is also in the hands of the EU countries, since the status determination of refugees and the assessment of the child’s best interests are carried out by the EU Member States. This will be confirmed by analysing the most important applicable EU laws, particularly the Proposal for a Regulation establishing a Union Resettlement Framework. The Proposal is chosen for discussion, because this is an essential part of the Common European Asylum System and is consistent with two packages of legislative proposals to reform it. The conclusion of this thesis is that the best interests principle is guaranteed in the EU law, but it is not guaranteed in the spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and further improvements are needed in the EU legal framework.

Background: Unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) report increased levels of mental health problems, specifically symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are very common. They have often experienced multiple trauma events and additional stressors related to migration, acculturation and family separation. High-quality measurements of PTSD symptoms that are brief and easy to administer among URM are therefore needed. Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Children’s Revised Impact of Events Scale (CRIES-8) when used in a population of URM. Method: Confirmatory factor analyses, internal consistency and test-retest agreement were analyzed using data from two previous studies; one Norwegian longitudinal study of URM mental health including 284 participants and 104 participants from a Swedish intervention study. Results: CRIES-8 in this population showed questionable levels of internal consistency and moderate test-retest agreement. The two-factor model of Intrusion and Avoidance was confirmed to have god model fit in this study, while the one-factor model of PTSD had poor model fit. Three items related to Avoidance (2,5 & 8) were found to have a large proportion of error in the one factor model. Conclusion: When CRIES-8 are used in studies of PTSD among URM the reliability and validity seems lower than previously found in other contexts. Especially the items related to avoidance seem potentially problematic in this context. It is recommended that researchers and clinicians are cautious when interpreting CRIES-8 scores when used with URM.

This study has been conducted in southwestern Sweden regarding asylum-seeking unaccompanied refugee children’s health. The aim is to investigate and understand unaccompanied refugee children’s health during their asylum-process based on care homes personnel’s experiences. The focus is on what factors that impact these children’s health the most and the data has been collected through interviews with personnel at care homes. The result showed that asylum-process, health care, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, traumatic events, and PTSD are factors that have a negative impact on these children’s health, and thatsecurity and integration have a positive impact on their health.

Today, the concept “unaccompanied refugee children” is common in Swedish media. The concept is both dramatic and sad. Alone - refugee - child. It is about children, who alone escape from perse- cution, war, poverty and starvation. The purpose of this study is to investigate, from a user perspec- tive and to a certain extent a goal fulfillment perspective, how some unaccompanied refugee chil- dren look at and assess how Kalmar's municipality has succeeded in taking care of and supporting the possibilities of unaccompanied refugee children to be integrated into the municipality. The result shows that the children are mostly satisfied with the municipality's efforts. The conclu- sion is furthermore that some of the goals presented in the regional program have been achieved. Some have not. Keywords: unaccompanied refugee children, integration, security, education.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka ensamkommande barns upplevelser och erfarenheterav integrationsprocessen bland ensamkommande som har erfarenhet av att bo på ett HVB-hem.Semistrukturerade intervjuer gjordes med fem unga vuxna män som kommit till Sverige somensamkommande barn från Afghanistan. Materialet utmynnade i sju teman: boende ochutslussverksamhet, relation, språk och utbildning, integration, känslan av ensamhet ochutanförskap, psykisk ohälsa under asylprocessen samt i väntan på uppehållstillstånd.Resultaten visar att respondenterna upplevde att språket var viktigt för att komma in i detsvenska samhället och att det blev lättare att få ett arbete. Andra faktorer som de upplevdeviktiga för en lyckad integration är bland annat att skaffa svenska vänner, lära sig regler, densvenska kulturen och ett bra mottagande. Resultatet visar även det att respondenterna uppleveratt det har varit svårt att få svenska vänner både i skolan och i samhället, vilket bidrar tillutanförskap och ensamhet. Vidare visar studien att respondenterna tycker att socialarbetarebehöver mer utbildning i arbetet med ensamkommande barn för att få en bättre förståelse förderas kultur och vad barnen bär med sig. Intervjupersonernas upplevelser ger en beskrivning avhur de har haft det som ensamkommande barn, men det går inte att dra generella slutsatser tillen större population av ensamkommande. Sammanfattningsvis kan denna studieförhoppningsvis bidra till att förbättra förståelsen för ensamkommande barns behov undervistelsen vid HVB-hem.

Abstrakt: Antalet ensamkommande barn som anländer till Sverige har ökat kraftigt de senaste åren. Detta gör att man vid mottagandet av dessa barn måste se till att deras behov efterlevs, även på lång sikt. Det ställs i synnerhet krav på de boenden där de flesta av barnen hamnar efter att de får permanent uppehållstillstånd. I denna studie efterfrågas hur personalen arbetar på dessa boenden, och vilka metoder som används. I studien har gruppintervjuer samt enkäter använts. Resultatet visar på att specifika metoder generellt anses som mycket användbara, men inte anses som något av det viktigaste i arbetet. Ospecifika metoder används betydligt mer, och bygger mycket på anpassning till olika situationer och klienter. Den viktigaste och mest användbara resursen i arbetet anses vara att ha en relation som bygger på förtroende och tillit, och att skapa trygghet. Synen på varför relationen är viktig är uppdelad, ofta mellan boendena, i praktiskt användbar och för den ensamkommande barnen emotionellt positiv. De som ser relationen som emotionellt positiv tenderar till att lägga större vikt vid relationsskapande. / The number of unaccompanied refugee minors arriving in Sweden has risen significantly in recent years. This calls for a reception in which their, (also long term) needs are covered. In particular, this accentuates the responsibility of the group-homes where most of these children and youth are placed after their asylum claims are accepted. In this study attention is focused on how the staff in these group-homes work, gaining information on current methods being used in the group homes, and exploring how effective and sufficient these methods are considered to be. The study involves a mixed-methods design, including both interviews and survey methods. The results show that specific group-home methods in general are perceived as very useful, but not the most important aspect in their work. Unspecific methods are used significantly more frequently, and are based in the ability to adapt to different situations and clients. The most important and useful resource in this work is considered to be having a relationship built on confidence and trust with the children, and to create a place of safety for the children. The perceptions of why the relationship is important are varied, often between the group-homes. Some emphasize practical areas, other emphasize emotional and developmental areas. Those who view the relationship as emotionally positive tend to further emphasize the importance of building relationships.

In recent years, Europe has witnessed a flow of refugees from war struck areas who seek asylum in various European countries, where Sweden is one of the recipient country. A large portion of these refugees comprise of unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs). Aim: The aim of the present study is to examine how unaccompanied refugee minors have the conditions in Malmo when it comes to individual health and lifestyle (tobacco, alcohol and drug use) and social environment (absence of family, living situation, school, social support and future prospects) as compared to the general population of the same age; and also, if these conditions could possibly put them at a risk to encounter or commit a crime. Method: The data is collected using quantitative survey questionnaires distributed to URMs (N=30). The data of the general population has been obtained through Region Skåne. Results: The findings indicate that in comparison to the general population, URMs report high level of ill-health, tobacco use, access to narcotics and low social support, which are termed as risk factors. The institute of school, however, is termed a protective factor for the URMs, where they score almost equivalent to the general population in terms of school satisfaction and better than them in terms of help and support from the teachers. The implication of the findings are discussed further in the paper.