Lived experiences of Swedish asylum policy among unaccompanied young people and social workers in a non-governmental organization

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article aims to explore lived experiences of the asylum process in Sweden from the perspectives of unaccompanied young people and social workers who work with these young people during a period when Swedish asylum-laws went through a transformation. Young people are expected to become ‘integrated’ and create a sense of belonging in Sweden within a temporary perspective, and the social workers are supposed to work towards integration during more prolonged waiting times and more restrictive asylum politics. The article is based on interviews with young people with current or recent experience of the asylum process and social workers in a non-governmental organization. The results are centred around three themes: (1) the deportable young person; (2) time and waiting; (3) the contagious deportability and state of waiting. These are related to the asylum process from both the young people’s perspectives and how the social workers experience and talk about the young people’s situations. The findings show that the asylum-law changes have created an imminent threat of becoming deported, which puts young people in a state of deportability. There are demands to both wait and ‘integrate’ during this time, which is understood as a paradox of waiting. The deportability is also contagious, affecting the social workers who are supposed to provide support with integration in the middle of the precarious time the state of deportability and waiting creates.