In my postdoctoral project (2016-2018) in social work at Linköping University, I continued my focus on children and youngsters that are categorized as unaccompanied minors, but with a focus on the municipal social work. In the project I investigated how the children’s situations and needs were constructed by social workers, and the significance of gender in intersection with age, ethnicity and class in assessments of the children’s situation. In addition, the project also investigated the conditions for social work with asylum-seeking children and youngster in the aftermath of the restrictions in Swedish migration policy after 2015.
Ulrika Wernesjö
Associate Professor
My research is mainly concerned with belonging, social rights and processes of inclusion and exclusion in the welfare state, with particular focus on migration, citizenship, children and youth.
Inequalities and inclusion / exclusion in the Swedish welfare state
My research interests concern inequalities and inclusion / exclusion in the Swedish welfare state, with particular focus on migration, citizenship, ethnicity and young age.
I hold a Ph.D. in sociology from Uppsala University. In my doctoral thesis Conditional belonging: Listening to unaccompanied young refugees’ voices (2014), I investigated negotiations of belonging among young people that upon arrival in Sweden were categorized as unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors. The thesis demonstrates how belonging is a process that interacts with – and is shaped by – social relations, place, exclusion and racialization.
In my postdoctoral project (2016-2018) in social work at Linköping University, I continued my focus on children and youngsters that are categorized as unaccompanied minors, but with a focus on the municipal social work. In the project I investigated how the children’s situations and needs were constructed by social workers, and the significance of gender in intersection with age, ethnicity and class in assessments of the children’s situation. In addition, the project also investigated the conditions for social work with asylum-seeking children and youngster in the aftermath of the restrictions in Swedish migration policy after 2015.
In my postdoctoral project (2016-2018) in social work at Linköping University, I continued my focus on children and youngsters that are categorized as unaccompanied minors, but with a focus on the municipal social work. In the project I investigated how the children’s situations and needs were constructed by social workers, and the significance of gender in intersection with age, ethnicity and class in assessments of the children’s situation. In addition, the project also investigated the conditions for social work with asylum-seeking children and youngster in the aftermath of the restrictions in Swedish migration policy after 2015.
Publications
Publication list
2026
Bordering the outermost safety net: social assistance for irregularised migrants in Sweden, 1982-2018
European Social Work Research, Vol. 4, p. 295-309
(Article in journal)
https://dx.doi.org/10.1332/27551768y2026d000000095
Social work in restrictive migration contexts
European Social Work Research, Vol. 4, p. 285-294
(Article in journal)
https://dx.doi.org/10.1332/27551768y2026d000000096
Bordering the outermost safety net: social assistance for irregularised migrants in Sweden, 1982-2018
European Social Work Research
(Article in journal)
https://dx.doi.org/10.1332/27551768Y2026D000000095
2025
Separatism, community and emancipation: Football for girls as critical pedagogy
Citizenship Teaching and Learning, Vol. 20, p. 249-265
(Article in journal)
https://dx.doi.org/10.1386/ctl_00185_1
How do changes to social rights happen?: Tracing changes in the right to social assistance for irregularised migrants in Sweden
International Journal of Law in Context
(Article in journal)
https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1744552324000430