Unaccompanied Minor Refugees in the Swedish Landscape: Visualizing Double-Edged Risk

• In Event: Outside In: The European Refugee Crisis through the Prism of Risk

Abstract

This study is part of a larger project Outside In, an interdisciplinary project between social scientists, artists and refugees, which aims to explore the contours of unaccompanied minor refugees’ double-edged risk, being at-risk and being viewed as risky. Being young and unaccompanied they are incredibly vulnerable, but being young, Islamic males they are viewed as a major threat to public safety by some Swedish citizens. Some view them as super-predators (a term given to young, African-American males in the U.S.). Not only are they stereotypically viewed as capable of violent street-crime, but they are perceived to have possible links to terrorist groups and to possess an uncontrollable, patriarchal sexuality. In reality many of them are isolated being tucked neatly into the stark landscape with few links to their homelands and kin. They live in a state of uncertainty, not knowing if they will be able to stay. They are forced into hiding, as there were 50 cases of arson against asylum-seekers’ camps.
These young refugees collaborate with artists and researchers to create a film about being seen and unseen in Sweden and how this relates to risk. A workshop is held in an undisclosed camp where they explore how they fit into the Swedish landscape, along with their impressions of Swedish reception and their hopes for the future. Through this project, we hope that they can gain a political voice and speak to Swedish publics concerned with safety and unconvinced of their vulnerabilities.

Author

• Sara Jordeno, University of Gothenburg