Children in focus- for a sustainable integration for families with children

The study is conducted on behalf of Save the Children within the framework of their project "Children in focus – for a sustainable integration for families with children" (2022-2025), which focuses on supporting refugee children and their families. Through close cooperation with municipalities, the project aims to promote sustainable integration for these families throughout the country. The assignment involves interactive and collaborative research that aims to generate insights for project development and to provide both theoretical and practical knowledge. The assignment includes increasing the understanding of how civil society actors, in collaboration with public organizations, can promote sustainable and inclusive integration for children and their parents in the local reception.
The main research question is: What effect does cooperation between civil society and the municipality have for the integration of newly arrived children and families into society? How can cooperation be established as a long-term and sustainable process? The research will continuously identify success factors and challenges in local cooperation to continuously improve the possibilities of achieving impact within the framework of the project.
The research is conducted by Anne-Charlott Callerstig, Anna-Karin Larsson, and Lina Sandström at Örebro University. Together, they have extensive experience of follow-up research on work to support vulnerable groups, program and project implementation, research on municipal organizations, cooperation between the public and civil society, implementation of programs and projects, and expert competence in integration- and child perspectives, gender equality and discrimination issues.
Within the framework of the research, local case studies and interviews with representatives of Save the Children and the municipalities will be conducted. The study is conducted with an interactive and collaborative research effort and the ambition is to investigate and learn together with the participants. The research also applies an intersectional perspective, which highlights how children and families are not homogeneous groups and that different social categories such as gender intersect with other norms and structures such as age, class, and ethnicity.