Unaccompanied Afghan Minors’ Rights when Restrictive Transnational Migration Policies are in Force – The Case of Sweden

Abstract

Abstract This article highlights how migrant childrens’ rights to, and within, education can be negotiated at the national level. The aim is to underline and discuss the discourses that appear in selected Swedish legal and political documents relating to unaccompanied Afghan minors. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (cda), this research shows the co-existence of two different discourses on unaccompanied Afghan minors. The first discourse is based on the concept of unaccompanied Afghan minors as global rights holders and considers all children without exception as having the right to receive human assistance, education and appropriate protection against violence. The second discourse relates to the concept of unaccompanied Afghan minors as foreign citizens, which counteracts the work of Swedish authorities to deal with contradictions in policies assuring the rights of migrant children. This could also be a risk when the Convention on the Rights of the Child becomes Swedish law in 2020.