Abstract
The arrival of migrants from various parts of Africa in relatively large numbers to the central Mediterranean island of Malta was an unprecedented experience for the locals prior to the early 2000s. This article focuses on exploring the processes that unaccompanied minors go through to become asylum-seekers in Europe and to move on from there to further evolve their life projects. It also explores the role that ethnographers play in retelling their stories, so as to show how these transitions can be better understood. This is particularly because, in most cases, Malta serves as a transit country which they will eventually leave to settle elsewhere. The article shows how the active participation of ethnographers does not simply serve as an “add on” to the data acquired but rather contributes to a co-construction of meanings in an inter-cooperative way.
Highlights
This article aims to acquire a greater depth of conceptual understanding of asylum-seeking young people’s life projects. It focuses on how ethnographic methods are used in order to explore how the migrants’ migration plan fits in with their own evolving life projects on having left Africa but not yet made it to their long-term destination of choice
In 2011 alone, more than 876,000 people worldwide appealed for refugee status, 34% of whom were younger than 18 years (UNHCR, 2012)
The article uses an ethnographic approach, where ethnography is being seen as a “family of methods involving direct and sustained social contact with agents” (Willis & Trondman, 2000, p. 1)
Summary
This article aims to acquire a greater depth of conceptual understanding of asylum-seeking young people’s life projects It focuses on how ethnographic methods are used in order to explore how the migrants’ migration plan fits in with their own evolving life projects on having left Africa but not yet made it to their long-term destination of choice. This focus on forging a future and being proactive in its construction contrasts with studies that tend to focus on the problems that migrants from an asylum-seeking background face, including those that target understanding how they confront trauma-inducing events such as violence, major disruptions, and (sometimes intense) experiences of loss (Essuman-Johnson, 2011; Huijts, Kleijn, van Emmerik, Noordhof, & Smith, 2012; Norredam, Jensen, & Ekstrøøm, 2011, Schmitter-Heisler, 2000). At the end of 2009, there were an estimated 43.3 million forcibly displaced people. In 2011 alone, more than 876,000 people worldwide appealed for refugee status, 34% of whom were younger than 18 years (UNHCR, 2012)
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