Being True to Myself and Finding Balance – My Experience as an Asylum Case Officer at the Swedish Migration Agency During the Largest Influx of Asylum Seekers in History
I started working as an asylum case officer for the Swedish Migration Agency during fall of 2015. It is precisely during this period that Sweden received more asylum seekers than ever before. What I saw and experienced during these months and the next year and a half created a conflict within me. I wanted to use my training in elicitive conflict transformation and my master thesis to explore how compatible it was to work as an Elicitive Conflict Worker within the frame of asylum case officer at the Swedish Migration Agency. I explored this topic through the tool of Elicitive Conflict Mapping. This method helped me to engage with my own personal motivation for doing this job, how it affected me personally, as well as voice my experience from inside the Migration Agency. Thus, this thesis gives an unusual insight into the work of the Swedish Migration Agency, through the lenses of an Elicitive Conflict Worker.
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Coming to Innsbruck, the topic of home and belonging was close to my heart. Working for the Swedish Migration Agency, I felt that the feeling of home and belonging became even more important and on the edge of what I was doing every day. I felt in conflict with my work, deciding who should stay/belong and who could not. I also felt that my personal life and work were not compatible, since I lived close to people who were not supposed to belong. This conflict ripped me apart and I felt I had lost my voice both at work and private Using the Elicitive Conflict Mapping on my inner conflict of being an asylum case officer helped me realize the wounds this job gave me, nevertheless, it also helped me to heal some of them. As my voice grew stronger, I became aware that being true to myself is one of the core principles to stay balanced both in my private and professional life. The role as an asylum case officer did not allow me to stay true to myself. I, therefore, decided to leave this job to stand up for what I do believe in.