How do we ensure that all children and young people get the help they need?
Lilly Augustine from Jönköping University is leading the research project Navigating Vulnerability for Post-pandemic Social Sustainability: Migrant Children with Disabilities in Nordic Countries (HOPE). They examine how we as a society can best support children from immigrant backgrounds who have a disability when faced with crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
When COVID-19 hit the Nordic countries, we were forced to react and behave differently than usual. We had to think about how much distance we should keep from each other, who could go to school and who could stay at home. Such a state of emergency can occur again, and according to Lilly Augustine, it is important that we consider the needs of those groups that do not have such a large voice and who need extra help and support.
"We have children with disabilities whose parents do not speak Swedish or any other Nordic language, or who for other reasons may find it difficult to navigate the system or society's expectations. We also know that when a society is under pressure, we tend to streamline the rules, and then the opportunities for variation and adaptation to those with special needs disappear," says Lilly Augustine.
Collaborative projects fill a knowledge gap
The HOPE project is a collaborative project between two previously NordForsk-funded children and young people's projects, namely EXPECT and D-Youth.
Read more about EXPECT: Kindergartens must prepare for the next pandemic
Read more about D-Youth: Students with self-reported disabilities have a higher risk of school burnout
"When we worked on the EXPECT project, the first step was to carry out a systematic review of the practice in the kindergarten. When we reviewed it, it became very clear that there was no mention at all of children with special needs or migrant backgrounds. They focused on the majority and forgot about the minority. It wasn't intentional, but the focus was on making an exercise work. It revealed a vulnerability in our society when we are exposed to stress," says Lilly Augustine.
The starting point of the project is the COVID-19 pandemic, but the researchers want to look ahead. It is more about what lessons we can learn from the pandemic in the future than about what happened during the pandemic.
"What happens if we take two really significant risk factors, immigrant background and disability, and examine them in crisis situations? There are very few studies that look at this combination. We hope to identify insights that decision-makers and professionals can take away. We would like to sit down with, for example, local authority staff and decision-makers to discuss how we should act during a future crisis to support this group of children with an immigrant background and a disability," says Lilly Augustine.
Human rights oblige us to care for all children
Why is it important to conduct research specifically on this group of children and young people?
"In my view, the most important thing is that we have committed ourselves to and signed a number of conventions and rights. We have human rights, which also cover children and people with disabilities, and we have a duty to ensure that people’s rights are recognised. We must therefore ask the question: how can we organise ourselves so as to reduce the risk of some people being subjected to injustice? I believe it is an important democratic principle that we identify vulnerable groups in society so that we can help them," she says.
