An Organizational Field Analysis about Granting Children Residing in Sweden without Permits their Statutory Right to Schooling

Abstract: The centre of analysis in this research has been the new welfare legislation in Sweden 2013 granting children residing in the country without a permit tuition free and legal access to the Swedish educational system. Methodological triangulation has been used were a quantitative analysis has been made involving efforts taken to identify the number of children in the municipalities of Sweden having a high proportion of the country’s asylum seekers. The quantitative data is triangulated with the qualitative informant interview data as a way to understand their condition on organizational level and enhance theoretical understandings. As a part of the research problem of welfare policy implementation and realization of it entails the organizational field level analysis has been used selecting three organizational actors in the Region of Skåne: the Swedish Migration Board, the Border Police and Malmö City. The theory used is dynamic process model of new institutional theory. In the research two organizational fields has been conceptualized: the Regulated Immigration Field and the Human Rights Field. 531-703 children in Sweden were identified and partook in schooling autumn term 2013 and the source of the information was to a large extent headmasters and pre-school heads. In the middle of 2013, 450 children were identified by the Swedish National Schools Inspectorate which indicates the reform has had an effect as a larger number of children realizing their statutory rights. Estimates however indicate there is still a large group of these children not partaking in education. Two organizational fields were conceptualized. The human rights field is highly decentralised involving a number of micro-level decision-making and the regulation is weak in its coercive functions. The field involved these children in the schooling operations and a voluntary institution had been established a number of years ago. Micro-strategies were pursued to protect these children from disclosure and the logic was normative and cultural-cognitive and organizational legitimacy came from the same origin. Children were seen as subjects of protection and actions taken based on actual needs. The Regulated Immigration field is highly regulated, strong governance with cooperation and coordination with its organizations in Sweden and EU level in order to enact national and supra-national migration and asylum policies. The logic was instrumentality and compliance to rules and laws were source of organisational legitimacy and the field is the source of the children’s socio-legal status. The two fields had established a mutual awareness not to interact or provide intelligence about these children, nor entering near or in the schools as professional actors.