The securitization of asylum seeking in Sweden after 2015 in light of experiences of asylum-seeking girls with roots in Afghanistan

• This chapter aims to shed light from a gender perspective on the issue of security for asylum seeking adolescent girls in context of increased securitisation of the asylum-seeking process following the migration vogue of 2015. Half of those 163,000 asylum-seeking people who arrived to Sweden in 2015 were children, and half of them were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), a majority being boys from Afghanistan. As a response Sweden has reversed its open asylum regime to the minimum EU standard in 2016, including restrictive attitude towards granting residency for UASC. This article explores how the securitization radically changed the preconditions for the establishment of asylum-seeking adolescent girls. Beyond the review of previous research and new data sources it also explores the issue through the analyses of the life stories of two girls of Afghan origin. One of them arrived with her parents through family affiliation with her brother who had previously received asylum as an UASC. The other girl arrived as an UASC in 2015. The narrative analysis provides a voice to two girls and their experiences, and is to complement the research on post 2015 securitisation with focus on gender based vulnerabilities of adolescent girls. 

Nyckelord

securitization

Afghanistan

girls

refugee

unaccompanied asylum seeking

establishment

Working Life Studies

arbetslivsvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kap (ämneskategori)