Andersson, ‘Can You Prove Your Inner Emotional Process?’, 2024

Alexandra Andersson, ‘Can You Prove Your Inner Emotional Process? Exploring Caseworkers’ Perspective on Assessing SOGIE Asylum’, Master’s thesis, Lund University, 2024

Abstract

This thesis explores the role of the Swedish Migration Agency (SMA) caseworkers in sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE) asylum assessments. Through seven semi-structured interviews with the SMA caseworkers, this thesis investigates their understanding, experience, and interpretation of the SOGIE asylum assessment and their role. This research queries how bureaucratic structures influence the caseworkers’ role. Concepts of identity, identification, and power are discussed in the analysis by employing a queer theory and social constructivist framework. The findings and analysis shed light on the bureaucratic violence ingrained in the SMA’s essentialist understanding of SOGIE asylum seekers, simplifying identity and ignoring diversity. To distinguish between ‘true’ queer refugees and unreliable asylum seekers, caseworkers adopt a sceptical and interrogative stance during the assessment. In this setting, asylum caseworkers function as executors of state policy and struggle internally to balance their compassion and bureaucratic efficiency, resulting in emotional detachment. The thesis finally suggests that the SMA SOGIE asylum system may be inappropriate due to lack of training, unclear guidelines, and inadequate time and staffing – crucial for fair and just assessments.

Keywords: SOGIE, asylum, caseworker, Sweden, migration agency, queer theory