Lyssnandets politik

Barns och ungas politiska representation i en tid av restriktiv migrationspolitik

Abstract

The Politics of Listening: the political representation of children and youth in a time of restrictive migration politics

The listening to children and youth has been given a prominent role in today’s politics. Surveys and interview studies that focus on young people’s experiences are increasingly being used by government authorities and civil society organizations to make possible democratic participation and to suggest new policy initiatives. However, given young people’s protests movements on issues such as climate, racism and migration, there are good reasons to reflect more closely on the relationship between the ways in which state authorities represent children and youth and how young people self-organize to represent themselves and claim rights. By comparing the Swedish Children’s Ombudspersons annual reports with recent years protests by young Afghan migrants for a right to stay in Sweden, this article points to how right claims of different actors expose problematic tensions in how we conceive of political representation of children and youth in a time of restrictive migration politics.