Photo of Ulrika Wernesjö

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. 

Publications

Cover of publication ''
Elaine Chase, Laura Otto, Milena Belloni, Annika Lems, Ulrika Wernesjö (2020)

Journal of ethnic and migration studies , Vol.46 , s.457-473 Continue to DOI

Cover of publication ''
Ulrika Wernesjö, Gustavsson Holmström Marie, Magnus Dahlstedt (2020)

Metoder för forskning i socialt arbete: hur, var och varför? , s.79-95

Publication list

2024

LISA MARIE BORRELLI, ANITA HEINDLMAIER, ANNA LUNDBERG, SANDRA MANTU, MARIA PERSDOTTER, ULRIKA WERNESJÖ (2024) Banishment Critical Social Policy, Vol. 44, p. 683-699 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI

2023

Isabel Goicolea, Anne Gotfredsen, Frida Jonsson, Ulrika Wernesjö (2023) The Promise of Belonging: Racialized Youth Subject Positions in the Swedish Rural North Journal of International Migration and Integration, Vol. 24, p. 695-713, Article https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-022-00973-y (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Maria Persdotter, Anna Lundberg, Annika Taghizadeh Larsson, Ulrika Wernesjö (2023) Rätten till en skälig levnadsnivå i förhandling De sociala rättigheternas politik: förhandlingar och spänningsfält, p. 85-102 (Chapter in book)
Ulrika Wernesjö, Anna Lundberg (2023) Omfördelning, erkännande, representation - Nancy Fraser teori om rättvisa De sociala rättigheternas politik: förhandlingar och spänningsfält, p. 33-48 (Chapter in book)
Anna Lundberg, Ulrika Wernesjö (2023) De mänskliga rättigheternas framväxt De sociala rättigheternas politik: förhandlingar och spänningsfält, p. 49-66 (Chapter in book)

The Welfare Law research field

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