Åldersbedömningar i svensk asylprocess – Gräsrotsbyråkrati eller expertstyre?

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore how central Swedish actors experience and handle the work with age assessments of asylum-seeking children in Sweden. Furthermore, the article aims to discuss how these actors use their discretion to balance between legal regulations on the one hand and the child’s rights and needs on the other. We use Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy as our analytical frame. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with officials at the Migration Agency and coroners. The results show that officials at the Migration Agency have many opportunities to use their discretion when assessing the age of asylum-seeking children, but to a large extent leave decisions about age to the coroners. On the contrary, the coroners have limited opportunities to use their discretion; this is because coroners use statements from dentists and radiologists, who actually determine which age assessment that is made.