Postdoc position in asylum decision-making with medical documentation - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

The Research team Child Health and Parenting (CHAP), Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences at Uppsala University, Sweden, is seeking applications for a two-year postdoctoral position in refugee health. This position provides strong mentorship in a supportive, multi-disciplinary environment, and an excellent opportunity to further develop research skills and prepare for a career in academia, government, or clinical research.

Description of the project: The widespread variations in recognition rates for asylum claims constitute a fundamental puzzle in refugee research: Why, despite decades of legal harmonisation and international jurisprudence, are national decisions not more aligned? Asylum decision-making, or refugee status determination, is a complex process revolving around not only law, but also subjective assessments of applicants’ credibility and the import of medical evidence, such as age assessments, torture examinations, or psychiatric evaluations. Consequently, little is known about how these aspects interact and shape outcomes.

By creating a better understanding of the factors shaping asylum outcomes the Nordic Asylum Law & Data Lab aims to contribute to basic science as well as to inform ongoing policy processes and public discourse. The lab is funded by a large research grant from the Nordic Research Council (NordForsk and involves the University of Oslo, Uppsala University and the University of Copenhagen.

The combination of different disciplines – data science, law and medicine – is at the heart of this project. As part of our research, we will compare large numbers of individual asylum decisions from the Nordic countries and use e.g. natural language processing (NLP), sentiment analysis, machine learning, and process mining to unpack and provide a unique understanding of asylum decision-making.

Research tasks: To inform the analyses above, a selection of asylum decisions involving medical evidence will be reviewed from all three participating countries and the resulting analyses fed into the model. Medical knowledge is required to determine if and how the medical evidence has informed the decision and in aiding colleagues in the project to feed adequate data into the algorithms being developed.

The position involves document analysis, presentations at research group meetings, writing reports and research papers and interacting with the international project team. In addition, you are expected to actively participate in the activities of CHAP; i.e. team meetings, research seminars, supervising students and contributing with your knowledge to ongoing projects.

The postdoc position in medicine is accompanied by a postdoc in law at Uppsala University, forming the two partner disciplines from Uppsala in the project.

Qualification requirements: Degree in medicine (MD) or odontology with or without licence to practice in Sweden and PhD in a relevant discipline, such as global health, public health, psychiatry, psychology, sociology, behavioural sciences, or medical law. Language requirements include Swedish, as all asylum documentation is in Swedish. English is also an absolute requirement, as the language of the research group and project group is English and we publish internationally. Similarly, previous scientific publication in peer-reviewed journals is a requirement. You have to have good social skills as the project requires regular interaction with the international, as well as the local team.

Additional merits of significance: Proficiency to a certain degree in Danish or Norwegian constitutes a strong merit. Previous experience with refugee health or asylum seekers, medicolegal aspects of asylum, age assessment or torture documentation will be specially considered.

Salary: Individual salary.

Starting date: 2022-01-10 or as agreed.

Type of employment: Temporary position ending after 2 years.

Scope of employment: 100%.

For further information about the position please contact: Anna Sarkadi, anna.sarkadi@pubcare.uu.se, 018-471 6572.

Please submit your application by 15th of November 2021, UFV-PA 2021/3303.

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