Navigating Clandestinity : A qualitative study on rejected unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and solidarity work in Sweden and France

Abstract: This thesis aims to study how unaccompanied asylum-seeking children navigate through the asylum systems of two European member states, Sweden and France. By using a qualitative approach, five interviews have been conducted in order to study the complex situation of three Afghan young adults, having experienced a rejection to their asylum application in Sweden and who now live in France, engaged together in solidarity work with two European civil society activists and their experiences across these questions. The method used, a narrative analysis, together with theories on citizenship, deportability, and civil society activism helps bring to light how the informants speak about their situation and perceptions of belonging and solidarity. With the European migration policies having become stricter in recent years, this study finds how asylum-seeking migrants have resisted threats of deportability and border control. With civil society activism and solidarity work playing an important role in the migrants supporting themselves, their volunteered engagement can be viewed as crucial when it comes to stepping in with help where the state response has withdrawn, leaving them in a temporary phase and position of clandestinity.