Tuesday 30 September 2008

UEL Refugee Research Centre Seminar

Resiliance and social capital in asylum seeking families in Sweden

Professor Ulla Björnberg,

Department of Sociology, University of Gotehnburg, Sweden

October 8 2008, 6.00 – 7.30pm, Room EB.G08, East Building, UEL Docklands Campus

Abstract

Research has suggested that social networks are important resources for children as well as for adults to resist health problems. For asylum seeking children social networking might be hard to accomplish due to constraints linked to social and legal contexts in the host country. Constraints can also be linked to the family situation and the circumstances they have to cope with in every day life. The situation of parents, in particular mothers, are important for the coping of children. In the paper I draw on results from an ongoing study on the experiences of asylum seeking children and their families in Sweden. The over arching research objective is to identify factors that are important for well being of children seeking asylum and to study how they cope with their experiences as asylum seekers. The tension between excluding experiences and expectations regarding how the situation of the child and it’s family should improve or deteriorate after the flight is for a child a constitutive reference for how coping strategies are developed. In the analysis I draw on theoretical concepts of resilience, empowerment and social capital. The main focus is on families who have waited for decisions regarding permanent residence for several months and sometimes more than a year. The empirical data are based on qualitative interviews with children from 9 years and with one parent for each child.

Bio

Dr. Ulla Björnberg is full professor of Sociology at the university of Gothenburg, Sweden. She is currently directing a research program on the health and wellbeing of asylum-seeking children and their families in Sweden. She has been engaged in several international projects on family policy and family life in Europe. She lectures on a variety of topics involving gender relations and gender structures, the welfare state and family policy. Dr. Björnberg has a long record of research on families, gender equality, lone mothers, reconciliation of employment and family life. Recently she has finalised a research programme on Family ties between generations. Public and private transfers between generations in different family forms.