Encountering the Magical State: Experiences of Asylum-Seeking Children in the Margins of the Norwegian State

Abstract

At the time of writing this thesis, a group of asylum-seeking children often referred to as October children was turning 18 and facing deportation to Afghanistan as their temporary residence permits were about to expire. Situating this study in the urgency imposed by the so-called refugee crisis of 2015, I explore the encounters between asylum-seeking children and the practices of the Norwegian state in its margins. Using a theoretical framework built on the concepts of rational and magical forms of governance, I follow what I call the trajectory of exclusion through which the state, gradually removes asylum-seeking children from its realm. Starting by showing how the Norwegian state renders their needs for protection illegitimate, I argue that it moves on to exercise a subtle form of control by maintaining the emptiness of children’s everyday life and an ostensible sense of distance. Left with little agency and power over their own lives, the resolute children who had overcome an untraceable number of obstacles on their flight to the North disappear into the despair of mental health problems such as depression, aggression and suicidality. In a situation where the political will enters not only legal frameworks, but human lives as well, the Norwegian state takes on a new, magical form that I aim to uncover throughout this thesis.