Producing casework strategies in the social welfare effort with unaccompanied refugee minors
Author
Kværnø, Ann-Kathrine
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2018
Abstract
Dette speciale undersøger, hvordan danske kommuners sagsbehandlere producerer sagsstrategier i arbejdet med uledsagede mindreårige flygtninge (UMI’er), hvor de skal balancere mellem loven som universel struktur og som situeret praksis. Med afsæt i et kvalitativt feltarbejde i børn- og ungeafdelinger, herunder deltagerobservation og interviews, og med et blik på sagsbehandleren som street-level-bureaukrat, kortlægges, hvordan diskretion udøves i praksis. Specialet identificerer to institutionaliserede strategier: en bureaukratisk strategi, der indebærer teknikker som at skabe distance til klienten og udskyde ansvar for at sikre ligebehandling og effektivitet, og en individbehov-strategi, der fokuserer på at tilbyde den bedst mulige indsats for den enkelte UMI. Analysen viser, at sagspraksis i høj grad afspejler bredere velfærdsstatlige rationaler om integration, ungdom og familie og ikke kun udspringer af lov og administrative retningslinjer. UMI’er placeres ofte i liminale og kategorisk uklare positioner mellem barn og voksen samt mellem integration og ‘selvintegration’, hvilket former de strategier og teknikker sagsbehandlerne anvender. Specialet konkluderer, at indsatsen med UMI’er produceres gennem strategier, der er præget af en velfærdsstatslig ambition om kulturel samhørighed og forestillet enshed.
This thesis examines how municipal caseworkers in Denmark produce casework strategies when working with unaccompanied refugee minors (UMIs), navigating between law as a universal structure and as a situated practice. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in children and youth departments, including participant observation and interviews, and approaching caseworkers as street-level bureaucrats, the study explores how discretion is exercised in practice. It identifies two institutionalized strategies: a bureaucratic strategy involving techniques such as creating distance from clients and deferring responsibility to ensure equal, efficient treatment, and an individual-need strategy focused on providing the best possible services to each UMI. The analysis shows that casework practices largely reflect broader welfare-state sentiments about integration, youth, and family rather than solely legal rules and administrative guidelines. UMIs are often placed in liminal and categorically ambiguous positions between childhood and adulthood and between integration and ‘self-integration’, shaping the strategies and techniques caseworkers employ. The thesis concludes that the casework effort with UMIs is produced through strategies influenced by a welfare-state agenda aimed at cultural cohesion and imagined sameness.
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