‘Unaccompanied minors’ in Sweden reflecting onreligious faith and practice

• In this article, we listen to young people having arrived in Sweden asunaccompanied minors, in relation to how they talk about andrelate to religion, belief and practice. There is still a lack ofresearch focusing on these young people’s own narratives andexperiences in their everyday life. This is particularly noteworthysince this category of young people, and especially those with a‘Muslim heritage’, have received increased attention both inresearch and in public discourse. For two years, we haveethnographically followed 20 young people with asylum status inSweden, who all arrived as unaccompanied minors and all camefrom areas of the world where Islam is the dominant religion. Theconclusions are that these young people both need to navigateand are affected by the current political and social contextquestioning Muslim people, and that this is the case regardless of their own personal relationship to Islam. Further, religious faithneeds to be related to its social and emotional embodiments,since it is here religious belief, shifts, changes and resistance, takeplace. Finally, we discuss how physical, temporal and socialdistance makes it possible to create other identities, and otherways of being religious or not.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Work (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Religionsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- Religious Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Religion

Islam

ethnography

youth studies

unaccompanied minors

Socialt arbete

Social Work

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)