Ovisshetens flytt. - En kvalitativ studie baserad på ensamkommande flyktingbarns berättelser

Abstract

This study is about children that have been forced to flee to another country, due to conflict, poverty or natural disasters, without their families. They are known as unaccompanied refugee children. The aim of the study is to, by focusing on individual children's feelings and experiences of being forced to flee create greater knowledge and understanding of what is hidden behind some of the statistic of migration.

To answer the aim of the study, I used the following research questions: How is a child affected by being forced to leave home and to flee to a foreign country? How does an unaccompanied refugee child perceive the exodus? How do the unaccompanied refugee children handle their situation during the flight and at arrival in Sweden?

The study is based on a qualitative method and consists in semi-structured interviews with five unaccompanied refugee children aged 17 to 21. The theoretical framework is based on three theoretical concepts; refugee crisis, identity and coping.

The study results show that these children are a very vulnerable group, who were forced to be exposed to several losses and traumas. Regardless of transport and who had taken the decision that they should leave their home country, the flight had been marked by feelings of sadness, fear and anxiety, combined with uncertainty about what the future was going to bring. Consistently among all respondents was that they used several of coping strategies to manage their lives. The positive thinking and hope for a brighter future turned out to be indicative. School and education proved to be important both to manage their lives and partly to permit the integration of their new homeland.

The overall conclusion of the study, which confirms previous studies based on unaccompanied refugee children, was that the only thing that these children actually have in common is that they have been forced to separate from their families and social context in order to search a safer future elsewhere. In the current situation, despite of the mental strain that the exodus caused them, all the informants in the study have recovered their mental balance and health in general and are being grateful to be in Sweden.