The aim of this study is to examine how Swedish social services work withspecifically international adopted children and their sense of belonging. We alsowant to examine how social services take the child's best interest into consideration regarding international adopted children. We chose a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews with four social workers within units for child and family support and four social workers within family law in different municipalities aroundSweden. We have studied the results using belonging as a theory and identity andethnical identity as theoretical concepts. The results show that social workersbelieve that internationally adopted children may have more difficulties to formbelonging to their family and surroundings. It also shows that the Swedishmunicipalities do not really offer specific support for adoptees. The informants havestated that they cannot guarantee the child's best interest in every situation, since itis constantly changing, individually defined and adapted to needs. We did find thatthe support that is provided for adoptees and their families is mainly preventivemeasures. This includes parental education before adoption to equip the parents withall the knowledge they may need to adhere to the child's best interest. Manyinformants also state that many of the adoptive children have special needs in formof cleft palate, mental health issues as well as cognitive delays. They also state thatmany of these children have been institutionalised in orphan care and that it cancause trauma to these children later in life, which also can be considered a specialneed. The result also shows that the social workers believe that therapy can beeffective for these children and that the municipalities state that they would buythese services if needed. The municipalities work to prevent these health issuesamong adoptees by strengthening the parents to get the same knowledge as thesocial services to be able deal with the children. The informants say that theadoptees and their families should be able to feel like a “ordinary” family withoutthe state watching them if not needed which causes a dilemma.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-131051 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Hussfelt, Agnes, Bouacida, Tindra-Cerine |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för socialt arbete (SA) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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