Multi-layered mobilities: unaccompanied minors’ trajectories, decision-making and mobility after arrival in Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the evolution of unaccompanied minors’ (UMs’) decisions and migratory experiences after arrival in Italy through Libya. Until now, research has not longitudinally documented UMs’ decision-making processes and experiences during their migration in Europe. We draw on data collected within the ERC-ChildMove project, a multi-sited and follow-up study, and used a trajectory approach (Schapendonk et al. [2020]. “Re-Routing Migration Geographies: Migrants, Trajectories and Mobility Regimes.” Geoforum; Journal of Physical, Human, and Regional Geosciences 116: 211–216.) to analyse in-depth interviews initially conducted with thirty-nine participants that were followed across Europe over a two-year period. We use the notion of ‘mobility-in-migration’ (Veale and Donà [2014]. Child and Youth Migration: Mobility-in-Migration in an Era of Globalization. Springer.) to question UMs’ migratory decisions and analyse the periods of mobility and immobility experienced during these trajectories. Our findings indicate that UMs’ decisions in Europe are heavily influenced by the quality of formal support and care, the length and outcomes of legal procedures, and trans-local support networks. The study analyses how such factors may repeatedly re-route or distort initially planned trajectories, produce involuntary mobility or end the minors’ trajectories. Finally, the paper demonstrates that periods of mobility and immobility coexist at different local scales within the overall migration trajectory of unaccompanied minors.