Living in the Shadow of Political Decisions : Former Refugees’ Experiences of Supporting Newly Arrived Refugee Minors

Intending to support the cultural integration of unaccompanied refugee minors into the Swedish society, the Save the Children charity organization arranged meeting places in 2018 in four municipalities in Sweden. The mentors for the activities at these meeting places were recruited among former refugees who themselves had arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied minors. The study aimed to explore the experiences of being a mentor offering peer support to unaccompanied minor refugees at the meeting places. In this study, four semi-structured group interviews were conducted at the meeting places with 14 mentors, also former refugees. Data were analysed using thematic network analysis. Although the respondents expressed frustration concerning the Swedish migration politics, they all perceived the helping role as of utmost importance and connected this to positive emotions. The study highlights the unique contributions of peer support to the integration process of refugee minors by mentors providing social support, sharing experience-based knowledge and helping minors to navigate an often confusing and complex welfare system