Abstract
Abstract
This study explored inter-personal and communicative aspects of the interviews with unaccompanied minor asylum seekers. The aim was to explore how child-specific aspects are being taken care of through the interview form and guardian’s support.
Six persons voluntarily engaged as guardians of unaccompanied minors were individually interviewed with the purpose to address the research question. Data material was collected using qualitative, semi-structured interviews. The research material was analyzed and discussed in the light of the dialogical perspective on communication. Children's specific status as informants and all children's right to express their views as emphasized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child were central in this study.
The study showed that the guardian's role was a significant one with respect to the formal and emotional preparation of the child for the asylum interview, support during the interview, and the follow-up of the child after the interview. The results indicated that guardians could contribute to a profound background for the minor’s asylum claim. The quality of the rapport between the interviewer and the child proved to be varying, from caring and less formal to businesslike and impersonal. Report writing and interpreter-mediated character of the interview tended to challenge the rapport building. The study showed that the communicative process could be described as schematic and highly structured, which limited the interviewer's possibilities to follow the minor's initiative. When open-ended questions were asked, children seemed to narrate their asylum stories on the layer of action and that of context, while the emotional layer stayed untouched. This indicates the possible weakness of the asylum interview with respect to its purpose, which is getting a profound and complete understanding of the child's situation from the child's perspective.
The child's right to express his or her views is about a fundamental right of the child to be heard and influence decision-making. However, conducting interviews with children in a way that enables them to come forward with their views proves to be challenging. With a dialogical perspective on communication, it is possible and realistic to take care of both child-specific and legal aspects of the asylum interview. The study indicates that communication skills, which are likely to include personal elements such as skills to establish a rapport and communicate, is an important area for further development. More research on the processes in the asylum interview is needed.