The uncharted territories of integration : A qualitative study of how personell at HVB-homes for unaccompanied children describe the children´s integration into the society.

This study discloses Swedish human service organizations and their methods of integrating unaccompanied children into the Swedish society. The purpose of the study is to investigate how social workers at HVB-homes for unaccompanied children depict their experience in and knowledge of how the unaccompanied children are integrated into Swedish society. The method of investigating the questions raised by the purpose of this thesis has been qualitative analysis of answers derived from interviewing personnel at HVB-homes for unaccompanied children. In doing so we have made use of a semi-structured method of interviewing the above-mentioned personnel. The data derived from these interviews has thereafter been analysed and filtered through the concept of integration and the theoretical formations human service organizations and street-level bureaucrats. A result shown in this thesis is that personnel at the HVB-homes strive towards integrating the unaccompanied children into society. The personnel has, however, experienced problems in describing the integration process, since they feel that they lack in understanding of the concept of integration. The HVB-homes have different methods of integrating the children and they feel confident in their approaches, as they perceive that the children are well integrated into society. The personnel describe numerous factors both promoting and obstructive, which affect each other and influence the integration of the unaccompanied children