Socialtjänstens arbete med ensamkommande barn som är gifta : En kvalitativ intervjustudie

Sammanfattning: In the beginning of 2016, a new debate took place in Swedish media concerning unaccompanied children who were married when they arrived to Sweden. The reason for this discussion was whether these children should be allowed to live with the person they were married to. In this study, the main purpose is to examine how social workers within social services handle these cases. During qualitative interviews we have been able to take part of nine social workers thoughts and opinions about working with these children. The result of the study shows that most of the informants have similar thoughts about which factors that are important to take into consideration. The reasoning of the interviewees have been focused on topics like the best interest of the child, the child’s will, age and the importance of the child’s consent to the marriage. The answers from the informants have been analysed through a Swedish perspective on street-level bureaucracy. From this perspective we have seen that the work is characterized by regulations that give the social workers a significant room for interpretation. This kind of freedom within the work with unaccompanied married children is managed by the social workers through cooperation in the working group.