Introduction

This chapter aims to illuminate a discord between the general integration discourse in Sweden, the way it is materialised in social work practice, and how young refugees view their own situation in relation to integration and resettlement.

Based on a study with 11 so-called ‘unaccompanied female minors’, the chapter illuminates alternative perspectives on what challenges these girls face as they seek to integrate into a new society post transit.

Integration (also the Swedish definition of the term) has been criticised for being vague and shifting in meaning, depending on the context in which it is used (Lalander and Raoof, 2017; Schierup and Alund, 2011). Nonetheless, it is a recurring concept in social work with refugees, often in terms of aim or objectives (Wernesjö, 2019); consequently, it shapes the approach used by social workers with their clients (Vitus and Jarlby, 2021). In general discourse, structural challenges related to integration tend to be reframed as questions of problematic identities (Korteweg, 2017). Lalander and Raoof (2017) argue that individuals whose identities diverge from the majority are perceived in social work as ‘unprocessed raw material’ that are to be moulded through social interventions. Therefore, efforts made to promote integration are designed in ways that reinforce the individuals’ sense of non-belonging (Eliassi, 2015; Lalander and Raoof, 2017).

This chapter is based on a study done with teenage girls having arrived in Sweden seeking refuge. The chapter begins by briefly introducing the study. It then proceeds by outlining and problematising a general discourse of integration and its application to social work in Sweden, with a focus on unaccompanied minors. Thereafter, it turns to the voices of the girls and analyses how their accounts regarding integration compare to the general discourse.

In the conclusion, I argue that the discord between the two perspectives of integration has a very concrete impact on the girls’ reality, impeding on their ability to resettle as equal members of the Swedish society.

Outline of the study

This chapter is based on a study, conducted between 2017– 2019, in which 11 girls who had arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied refugee minors were interviewed, seven of them were interviewed on two separate occasions. They were between 13 and 18 years old and came from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria and Somalia and had been in Sweden for between six months to two and a half years.