Governance of Refugee Children Protection in Turkey: Between Vulnerability and Paternalism

Abstract

This study addresses the questions of to what extent, through which mechanisms and to what ends child rights and protection become part and parcel of national and local refugee governance schemes. To examine complex relations and coordination mechanisms, it sets forth a conceptual framework drawing from the scholarship on child rights governance, vulnerability and humanitarian paternalism. We argue that the politics of subsidiarity among local, national and international actors, their capabilities, paternalism in humanitarian intervention and the utilization of vulnerability terminology shape the process in which international principles and standards on children rights and protection translate into practices and programs. Based on interviews and participatory observation with multiple stakeholders in 2018 and 2019 in three border cities of South-Eastern Turkey, we show how the refugee children protection field of Turkey experience the lack of the desired level of coordination and cooperation among actors, actor hierarchies and short-term earmarked funding, especially at reception. These problems impede creating remedies not only for urgent protection risks such as gender-based violence and child labor but also establishing a long-term rights-based perspective.