Crime, deportation and the child : Rule of precedence in the event of a conflict between the interest of the society and the child's needs

We haven’t always had rules surrounding who can and cannot travel to and from Sweden. These types of rules have occurred as time has gone by. For example, Sweden has decided that immigrants who commit crime, as a main rule, should not be allowed to stay in the country. However, there are multiple instances where this main rule can be compromised. One of these exceptions are for example when the court tries to decide what’s in the child’s best interest before deportation. The estimation of a child’s best interest is based on the investigation made by social services, where they have weighed out options against each other; what values and interests we as a country are trying to protect by deporting immigrants because of crime. One of the problems that can occur is that the court often discharges the investigation done by social services, and instead bases their decision on an overall-assessment that often results in the state’s best interest getting prioritized over the children’s best interest. The United Nations convention on the rights of the child has since 2020 had the same value as Swedish law and should therefore be prioritized in the same way as the Swedish laws about immigration. The main purpose with this essay is to further investigate a child’s best interest when a parent is deported because of criminal activity. It is also my intention to investigate how often the Swedish court actually uses the social services investigation before coming to any conclusions. With this study I have been able to answer a fair number of questions. For example, I have found that the Swedish court tries to prioritize, and judge based on the United Nations convention, but that the connection itself is too generally formulated when it comes to explaining what actually is in the children's best interest. The Swedish laws about immigration have more structured and specific guidelines that gives the court a better understanding of situations where deportation is at stake