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ABSTRACT
Unaccompanied refugee minors are vulnerable due to previous and current experiences, yet often resourceful when resettling in a host country. Their experiences of ambivalence and trust in relationships with transnational family, peers and social workers have not been extensively researched. Using a qualitative longitudinal research design, we followed unaccompanied refugee youths during their first two years of resettlement in Norway. In our understanding, they struggled to overcome the tensions of being in-between what they could take for granted in the past and an indeterminate future. The changes the youths described were not initiated by or dependent on social work practice, but they have important implications for such practice. The youths developed capacity to assess trustworthiness of people and institutions, and they exerted more agency in developing new relationships. Our study suggests three interesting implications for social work practice and research: more emphasis should be put on (a) the youths as trust-givers, (b) how the youths assess trustworthiness, and (c) how social service organisations become trustworthy.
SAMMENDRAG
Enslige mindreårige flyktninger er en sårbar gruppe barn og unge på bakgrunn av tidligere og nåværende erfaringer, men de er også ressurssterke med ambisjoner for framtiden i det landet de bosettes. Hvordan de mindreårige selv opplever bosettingsfasen er i liten grad forsket på. Gjennom å anvende et longitudinelt forskningsdesign har vi fulgt enslige mindreårige flyktninger gjennom de to første årene av bosettingsfasen i Norge. Ungdommene ble i intervjuene oppfordret til å reflektere over spørsmål som var viktige for dem. De valgte ofte å snakke om sine relasjoner til sosialarbeidere, jevnaldrende og familien i hjemlandet. Over tid viste de hvordan de gjennom relasjonene de inngår i aktivt påvirker og løser de spenningene de erfarer i overgangsfasen mellom fortid, nåtid og framtid. Forandringene ungdommene beskriver er ikke initiert eller avhengig av sosialarbeidernes praksis, men har likevel viktige implikasjoner for slik praksis. De mindreårige utviklet dømmekraft i å vurdere hvem de kan gi tillit bade personlig og på systemnivå. De tok mer kontroll over relasjoner de inngikk i. Vår studie har tre interessante implikasjoner for sosialt arbeid og forskning: Det bør legges mer vekt på 1) de mindreårige som tillitsgivere, 2) hvordan mindreårige vurderer tillitsverdighet, og 3) hvordan velferdstjenester blir tillitsverdige.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Ketil Eide, social worker, PhD in sociology and associate professor in social work at the Department of Health-, Social- and Welfare Studies, University of South-Eastern Norway. His research has primarily focused on childhood and migration, well-being of unaccompanied refugee minors and social work with families and children with a minority background. In social media (Linkedin): linkedin.com/in/ketil-eide-5b491231.
Hilde Lidén, PhD in social anthropology and research professor, Institute for Social Research, Norway. Her research interests are transnational migration, childhood, family policy, acculturation, minority rights, UN Convention on the rights of the child. Her research include studies on unaccompanied minors, asylum seeking children and their families.
Bergit Haugland, sociologist and assistant professor in child welfare at the Department of Health-, Social- and Welfare Studies, University of South-Eastern Norway. She have social work experiences in child welfare at local and state level, and have special interests in the well-being of unaccompanied refugee minors.
Torunn Fladstad, social anthropologist and senior adviser, Southern Norway Regional Trauma Centre (RVTS South). Her research has focused on various refugee populations in Norway, with special focus on children and unaccompanied minors, and includes reflections on methodology and ethics.
Hans A. Hauge, PhD in sociology and associate professor in social work at the Department of Health-, Social- and Welfare Studies, University of South-Eastern Norway. His research has primarily focused on social services to children and youths, with emphasis both on collaboration between professions, and between the public, voluntary and private sectors.
Notes
1 The number of arrivals and countries of origin vary. Currently many originate from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Eritrea, and Somalia.
2 We use the terms youths or minors when referring to informants in our study, who were between 15 and 21 years of age during the two-year period.
3 The proportion of unaccompanied refugee minors granted permanent residency fluctuates over time. When ‘our’ informants arrived (2010/2011), the asylum policy and practice concerning unaccompanied minors in Norway was not as restrictive as today. For the past few years, the majority have been granted temporary stay until 18 years of age, with the intention of returning them to their country of origin or a third country (Lidén et al., Citation2017).
4 The other integration themes being markers and means (employment, housing, education, and health), facilitators (language and cultural knowledge, safety and stability) and foundation (rights and citizenship).
5 The interviews were included in the project ‘Care, Expectation and Effort. Resettlement of unaccompanied refugee minors in local communities’ (Eide, Citation2012b).