The aim of this study is to explore the recognition, communication and discourses in relation to childhood, children and children’s rights in civic orientation programs for newly arrived adults in Sweden. Civic orientation has become one of the dominant immigrant integration policies in western Europe, with the aim of transmitting knowledge, norms, and values, thereby furthering “integration” into the new country (cf. von Brömssen et al. accepted; Council of Europe, 2017; SFS: 2010: 1138; Abdulla & Risenfors, 2013, Milani et al. 2021).  However, there is a not much research regarding how the educational content, e .g. knowledge constructions in the civic orientation programs are communicated,  negotiated and reproduced in practice. This paper is a contribution to this field of research, and in a broader perspective on migration, adult education, and integration.

Discourses on childhood, children and children’s rights are interesting to analyse as they show perceived constructions of norms and values on the family, on children and their upbringing, as well as on the society at large. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (ECHR) is seen as a basis for all international legal standards for children's rights today. There are several other conventions and laws that address children's rights around the world and current and historical documents affect those rights, including “The Convention of the Rights of the Child” (cf. Mattsson, 2020; Vandenhole, 2015).  A Human Rights approach and accordingly a “Rights of the Child” approach is also emphasized in courses on civic orientation from the European Union, as well as in the Swedish policies for this activity (Council of Europe, 2017; SFS: 2010: 1138).

The “Convention on the Rights of the Child” (CRC) was adopted by the United Nations in 1989 and soon thereafter, in 1990 it was signed by Swedish authorities. However, it didn’t become a law in Sweden until 2020 after a lot of investigations and discussions (see f.ex. Åhman, 2011; Stern, 2019).  The CRC currently counts 195 states parties and is the most widely ratified human rights treaty (Vandenhole, 2015). During the time the CRC has existed as a law in different countries around the world, the focus of the CRC has shifted onto the measures being taken at national level to give effect to children's rights, with specific reference to legal incorporation both direct incorporation (where the CRC forms part of domestic law) and indirect incorporation (where there are legal obligations which encourage its incorporation), (Kilkelly, Lundy & Byrne, 2021). Moreover, the legal effect is highly contingent upon the constitutional and legal systems of individual countries and can best be understood by those writing from a specific national context (Ponnert & Sonander, 2019). Therefore, it is interesting to explore discourses on childhood, children, and children’s rights in civic orientation courses for newly arrived adult migrants in Sweden. The overall research question guiding our work is as follows:

1)           What content is communicated, negotiated and reproduced concerning childhood, children and children’s rights in civic orientation courses for newly arrived adults in Sweden?

This paper presents an ethnographic case study (Parker-Jenkins, 2018) of civic orientation courses in Sweden. Civic orientation is regulated by the state but is locally organized by municipalities (SOU 2010:16). Each newly arrived migrant must be offered this orientation which currently includes at least 100 hours (Swedish Government, 2020). Courses should, if possible, be in the participant's mother tongue or another language that he or she speaks in order to avoid misunderstandings (SOU 2010:16). Fieldwork was conducted in civic orientation courses in three larger Swedish cities, as courses there are run continuously, thus giving as the possibility to follow them without interruption. We conducted fieldwork on site during spring 2020 in courses in Arabic and English. Several in our research team understand and speak Arabic as well as English, so there was no need for external translators. As researchers we mainly took the position of participant observers. Occasionally when being asked we took part in discussions but tried to interfere as little as possible during sessions. The participants in the courses had a background from many different parts of the world, even though there is a predominance of data from course participants with Arabic as their mother tongue. Each of the participants gave their consent to the study which follows ethical guidelines in accordance with the Swedish Research Council (2017). Ethnographic data consisted of fieldwork notes written by hand and an accumulating written record of the observations were compiled. Themes that provided insights into discourses on childhood, children and children’s rights made up one theme and constitutes data for this paper. The analyses were informed by a narrative- and discourse analytic approach which focused the function of talk in terms of its discursive accomplishments and practices of fact constructions. A narrative approach explores the ways in which speakers make use of ‘stories’ as representational devices to position themselves and others (De Fina & Johnstone, 2015). Additionally, the ethnographic data invoke theory rather than being derived from theory. Each of the reflections in the paper are illustrated with quotes from participants and presented verbatim. The study started in real classroom contexts, although it had to be conducted (from April 2020) through Skype due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant that data from two-thirds of our research were produced during classes on Skype.

In the data from the civic orientation courses for newly arrived adult migrants in Sweden we find discursive themes and narrations about childhood, children and children’s rights. Here we give two examples. Ethnographic Fieldwork Reflections I - Concern for the upbringing of children. Many of the participants in the courses were parents and expressed several times through the course concern about what the children's upbringing would look like; was it possible to teach the children in an appropriate way in the new country? However, the biggest and most serious concern, expressed by several participants were the fear that the children would be taken care of by the social authorities. As one mother voiced: “My greatest worry is parenting. I come from Africa, and I like Sweden. In Sweden it’s…They might take your child from you. You are criminal. As much as I learn the Swedish way, I want to be African.” Ethnographic Fieldwork Reflections II – Children’s rights. Information of the Convention of Children’s rights was included in the courses. The communicator explained: “The convention of the Child is an interesting topic. It’s good to know as a lot of newcomers fear the social services, not knowing what my role as a parent is”. It was further explained that Sweden was one of the very first to sign the convention and in 2020 it became a law in Sweden. The communicator continued that children’s rights “is really on the table, now it’s a basic and praxis”. The communicator explained that “In Sweden it is important that children can express their ideas, for children to learn that they are important and to listen to. This was at first a cultural shock”. Some additional themes as well as analyses will be presented at the conference.

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