Unaccompanied young adult refugees in Sweden, experiences of their life situation and well-being: a qualitative follow-up study.

Objective: In the late 1980s unaccompanied children began arriving in Sweden. Many of them were teenage boys who had been called up or were at risk of being called up for military service in a war in their home country. Others had fled their homeland for political reasons. The purpose of the study was to describe how unaccompanied young adult refugees experienced their own life situation and well-being seven years after they had gained permanent residency.

Design: The original sample comprised 34 unaccompanied refugees who at 16-26 years of age were placed in a municipality in Sweden. Eleven of these participated in the present second follow-up study after a mean of 10 years in their new country. Qualitative interviews were conducted and analysed according to Giorgi's descriptive phenomenology.

Results: Most of the participants expressed contentedness with their lives and had begun to adjust to their new country. They had a social network of friends from the same ethnic group, and their Swedish contacts were mostly workmates. A few felt lonely and expressed despondency and depression. They were single and reported a small network and limited social support. One participant described symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even after 11 years in the new homeland.

Conclusion: It appears that most of the participants in the present follow-up study had worked through the problems that typically face refugees and had begun adapting to their new country, while a few still felt lonely and did not feel part of the community. The results may be affected by non-response. Those who dropped out may live with more distress in everyday life and suffer depression more frequently.