Reinventing the Refugee Camp as the City: Theoretical Considerations about Unaccompanied Minors

Abstract

The visible presence of migrant children (including unaccompanied minors) in current migratory flows manifestly requires some form of state attention in migrant destination states. In recent decades, the question of who is entitled to rights has become ever more discussed. At the same time, immigration regulations have tightened with increasing punitive measures taken against those labelled ‘undeserved and undocumented’. This paper seeks to connect a critical discussion of camp urbanization with the discourse on child rights within the context of the refugee camp space. Considering the urban not simply as a physical space, but also as a particular form of political community and the exercise of citizenship space, the paper explores the question: how does the reinvention of the camp as an urban space contribute to a new and better understanding of experiences and resources that unaccompanied minors arrive with? The article uses the analyses of the reference literature and provides an overview of some concepts to get a broader picture of spatial childhood within the camp. The conclusion is that children do not feature in the discussion of camp urbanization as individual subjects of concern. They are considered as possessions of adults. Moreover, they are trapped in a liminal situation of permanent temporariness. To spend one’s life in such a limbo of disenfranchised destitute has particularly devastating consequences for children.