"We have inspection from the county governor". The tension between the institutional and the professional voice in conversations between social workers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in the Norwegian Child Welfare

In this paper I will present findings from my ongoing PhD-study on communication between social workers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in the Norwegian Child Welfare Service. The focus of the project is the children's... [ view full abstract ]

In this paper I will present findings from my ongoing PhD-study on communication between social workers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in the Norwegian Child Welfare Service. The focus of the project is the children's communicative participation as children’s participation is a key principle in psycho-social work in general and in child welfare in particular. However, practitioners and researchers report that it is a major challenge to achieve actual participation from and for children in child welfare (Raundalen et al., 2012; Vis, Holtan, & Thomas, 2012; Vis & Thomas, 2009).

Eight institutional conversations are subject to microanalysis, and the goal is to describe how participation is interactionally constructed. These eight talks are part of a larger ethnographic material collected through participatory and non- participatory observation. Theoretically , the project has a dialogical foundation, where the conversation and not the individual actors constitutes the object of analysis, and where dialogue and language are understood as fundamentally ambiguous, dynamic and contextual (Linell, 1990, 2003, 2011; Linell, Gustavsson, & Juvonen, 1988; Rommetveit, 1979, 2008).

The conversations are analyzed as encounters between different voices, understood as the actors’ different perspectives, agendas and linguistic styles, and the focus of my presentation is the tension between the institutional and the professional voice. The Social Workers have two communicative projects in the conversations with the children. On the one hand, they have to inform, map and evaluate, using standardized guides and forms, with predefined categories and a bureaucratic linguistic style: They use the institutional voice. On the other hand, they have to meet the children with sensitivity and empathy, and build a good relationship: They should use the professional voice. There is a tension between these two voices, and the tendency in my study is that the institutional voice dominates. This restricts the children’s opportunity to participate.