Relation för livet. En studie om ensamkommande asylsökande barn

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to describe and to analyze needs and social efforts concerning unaccompanied/separated asylum-seeking children. The responsibility for the reception of this target group was transferred on July 1, 2006 from the Swedish Migration Board to the municipalities that sign an agreement with the Swedish Migration Board. Eight qualitative interviews were carried out with representatives for transit-residents and assigned municipalities in Skåne. Our main questions were: How has the reception of unaccompanied/separated asylum-seeking children been planned, how do the municipalities and the transit-residents consider their needs and what is the level of qualifications and competence within the municipalities in order to work with unaccompanied/separated asylum-seeking children on the basis of social efforts? We chose to clarify our findings on the basis of the attachment theory, which is applicable during the critical emancipation phase that the vast majority of the unaccompanied/separated asylum-seeking children find themselves in. The results of the study showed that the majority of the municipality representatives desired more comprehensive information about the children and their needs in order to match the children's cultural and linguistic heritage with the foster home's. The majority of the respondents considered the social service to have a higher level of qualifications and competence in order to care for unaccompanied/separated asylum-seeking children, despite some deficiencies concerning further education. Certain municipalities began to prepare for the reception at an earlier date while others trusted their existing resources. The importance of the children beginning school and the access to crisis intervention was noticed in the attempt to restore patterns of life and social networks.