'Burning without fire' in Sweden : the paradox of the state's attempt to safeguard deportees' psychosocial wellbeing

Abstract

This chapter critically analyses the official discourse of protection of migrants’ psychosocial wellbeing by drawing on first-hand experiences of migrants who are living through the forced return migration process in Sweden. Forced migrants resist their return decision in various ways. For the authorities, they have become ‘police cases’; therefore people who need to be removed from the territory by force. Sweden is a developed welfare state which has earned an international reputation as a country where human rights are respected (Grimheden 2006). It also fares well with respect to migrants’ rights and entitlements in both the legal and welfare systems (MIPEX 2014). However, little is known about the psychosocial wellbeing of migrants’ who are living with the imminent risk of deportation and how they, themselves, perceive and are influenced it.