In the past decades, Sweden’s asylum policy known for its humanitarianism has taken a significant turn toward restrictiveness. In 2016 a temporary law was introduced in Sweden to restrict asylum seekers in reaction to the refugee crisis 2015. The group that has been hit hard by this law is the unaccompanied young refugees. In 2018 another temporary law referred to as the Upper Secondary School Act was enforced to allow certain unaccompanied young refugees to complete their upper secondary education studies. Those young refugees who received temporary resident permits may only extend his or her resident permit if he or she finds a permanent employment within six months after graduation from the second upper school. The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of how the Upper Secondary School Act affects the lives of those young refugees, and how those young people orientate themselves in their everyday lives to live up to the law’s requirement. The study’s data has been gathered through a qualitative research method and six interviews are conducted with six young refugees affected by the Upper Secondary School Act. The study’s theoretical approach is based on orientation/disorientation, deserving, SOC(a sense of Coherence) and human capital theory. The study shows that the Upper secondary school Act has led to negative consequences for those unaccompanied young refugees due to the law’s difficult requirement. It causes stress, mental problems and disorientation for the young refugees. The study also shows that the young refugees worked very hard to navigate the uncertainty in their lives, to fulfil the law’s requirement and claim for belonging in Sweden. The study concludes that the political context shapes the lives of young refugees.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-100933 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Gul, Reaz, Li, Chunhua |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS), Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS) |
| 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 |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds