To establish the unestablishable

Non-governmental social work with asylum-seeking minors in a neoliberal Sweden

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6421051
AutoresMaria Moberg Stephenson (0000-0002-8101-3553, Karlstad University, autor de correspondencia), M Herz (0000-0002-6555-3875, University of Gothenburg)
Año2024
Volumen13
Número2
Páginas285-300
Fecha de publicación2024-06-20
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCritical and Radical Social Work (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2049-8675 • E-ISSN: 2049-8608
EditorialBristol University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1332/20498608y2024d000000038
OpenAlexW4399872980
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas14

This article aims to explore the impact of neoliberal logic and ideas of establishment in Sweden on non-governmental social work with asylum-seeking young people. The focus is on the perceptions of the social workers within a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working with the establishment of unaccompanied young people. Data were collected through interviews and participant observations and analysed using theories of neoliberalism, belonging and neoliberal racism. The results show that when the migration laws were toughened in Sweden, the social workers and the NGO had to adapt. The NGO repackaged their target group only to include young people with residency, excluding others. The social workers resisted these changes and went beyond their formal duties to support all young people regardless of asylum status. However, the social work provided was still within the establishment framework of the programme. They kept working towards establishing people already deemed within a neoliberal and colonial logic as unestablishable

Criminology · Political science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Research in Social Sciences · Social Work