Förvaret : En kvalitativ intervjustudie med handläggare på Migrationsverket

Sammanfattning: There are five detention centers in Sweden (in swedish ”förvaret”), were asylum seekers and migrants are held in custody until the Migration Agency has completed their investigation and concluded who are allowed to remain in Sweden and who should return/sent back to their home countries. The detainees are taken into detention centers because the state and authorities are afraid that they will ”go under ground”. This study has been based on the primary empirical data provided by semi-structured interviews. These have then been analysed with a narrative methodology, and in interaction with relevant literature as secondary data. Seven staff members at the detention center in Flen have been interviewed. Erving Goffman´s theory about ”total institutions” and Michael Foucault´s theory about power and its exercise have been used as theoretical basis for the analysis. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the staff members in the detention center in Flen works, how the staff experience their duties and what opportunities there are available for the detainees. The following questions should be answered: (1) How does the staff work in the detention center and how does the interaction between the detainees and the staff look like? (2) How the detention center affects detainees health and what kind of care is available for detainees? (3) What do the staff consider of the criticisms against the detention centers? In summary, the empirical base shows that (1) the staff at the detention center (in Flen) have two different roles, first to help detainees who feel bad or are sick and also to persuade the detainees to cooperate and leave the country voluntarily. The interviewers stated that some of the detainees do not want any contact with the staff, while others are more open to it. (2) The main aim of the staff is to treat the detainees within the walls of the detention center, however, when the resources are insufficient. When more serious problems arise the detainees are offered care outside the detention center. (3) The interviewed staff members held the opinion that the criticism of the detention centers is wrong and unfair. Their conviction was that the lawmakers have decided that these detention centeras are needed and that they trust their decisions, detention centers are part of the asylum process, that the staff only trying fulfill their duties, detention centers are the result of the policy that people voted for in general elections.