The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Isabel Schoultz

Isabel Schoultz

Senior lecturer

Isabel Schoultz

Seeking Asylum and Residence Permits in Sweden : Denial, Acknowledgement, and Bureaucratic Legitimacy

Author

  • Isabel Schoultz

Summary, in English

Sweden's reputation as one of the most encompassing welfare states in the world is maintained by means of a good self-image, not least in relation to refugee policies. At the same time, external authorities have been critical of Sweden's handling of the process of seeking asylum. Drawing on Stanley Cohen's concepts of denial and partial acknowledgment, the article explores how Swedish state officials respond to complaints regarding the process of seeking asylum and other forms of residence permit. The study analyzes judgments from the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the Chancellor of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. The analysis suggests that even within the well-developed democratic state, denials constitute a form of account that may be utilized to maintain bureaucratic legitimacy. In addition, partial acknowledgments serve to present state actors as decent and self-correcting. At the same time these acknowledgements could be understood as constituting a means of avoiding moral censure.

Publishing year

2014-05

Language

English

Pages

219-235

Publication/Series

Critical Criminology

Volume

22

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Law and Society

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1205-8629