Unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers in Switzerland : a critical appraisal of procedures, conditions and recent changes

This article investigates recently imposed restrictions in the asylum regimes in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The purpose of the paper is twofold. First, we aim to identify general changes in asylum policies and asylum legislation. Second, we discuss and compare the policy tools, practices and legislation that have undermined the rights of unaccompanied Afghan minors. We also observe new tools of internal and external deterrence and restrictive asylum policies, combined with tighter border controls. In the case of adult asylum seekers from Afghanistan, high rejection rates and deportations were used for years as an important tool of deterrence. However, these tools were seldom used against unaccompanied Afghan minors before the large influx of asylum seekers in 2015. Since 2015, increased use of rejections, combined with temporary protections, have emerged as the major tools for restriction. We identify similarities and differences in the policy restrictions targeting unaccompanied minors between the countries. Although we identify some recent diverging trends in Scandinavian asylum policies regarding unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan, the general trend of policy restrictions still prevails in all three countries.

IntroductionAsylum seekers and refugees are at an elevated risk of self-harm, with younger age and traumatic experiences found to further increase such risk. Despite this, evidence regarding self-harm among unaccompanied...

A critical analysis of the creation of separated care structures for unaccompanied refugee minors

This study investigated the level and predictors of depressive symptoms among unaccompanied refugee minors after resettlement in Norway. Participants (N = 414) were resettled in 26 municipalities from all regions of the country. The average length of resettlement time was 3.4 years. They originated from 33 different countries, mainly Afghanistan (n = 116), Somalia (n = 74), Sri Lanka (n = 41) and Iraq (n = 43). Participants completed a self-report questionnaire administered in groups. Findings show that unaccompanied minors are a high-risk group for mental health problems also after resettlement in a new country. A multilevel model predicting depressive symptoms from individual and contextual demographic factors indicated that, controlling for post-traumatic stress, females had more symptoms than males and Somalis had fewer symptoms than participants from other countries. Variation in symptom levels as a function of gender and ethnic background indicates that some groups may have inherent protective or vulnerability factors that need to be further studied to understand differences in psychosocial adaptation among unaccompanied minors. Further, findings imply that researchers, policy makers and mental health care workers need to expand their attention beyond the first phases of arrival of unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee minors to the continuing experience of mental health problems after resettlement.

Responding to misrecognition – A study with unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors

There is a lack of knowledge about psychosocial resources that may sustain post-resettlement psychological adjustment among unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of social support from family abroad and friends on acculturation, discrimination, and mental health among these vulnerable children and youth. Questionnaire data were collected from a population-based multi-ethnic sample involving 895 unaccompanied minors resettled in municipalities in all regions of the country. They met in groups in their local communities. The informants were on average 18.6 years, and had an average length of stay in Norway of 3.5 years. The findings showed that the participants suffered from high levels of ongoing war related intrusive symptoms and depression. Still, at the same time they engaged in adaptation processes that are normative to youth with immigrant backgrounds, in terms of constructing supportive networks and developing culture competence. In accordance with the main effect hypothesis, social support had direct effects on depression and indirect effects by increasing culture competence that may aid the young refugees in dealing with discrimination. However, there were no effects of social support on symptoms of PTSD. The findings give direction to areas of interventions, beyond dealing with the sequel of the traumas the unaccompanied minors have been exposed to, not only for clinicians, but also social workers and school personnel.

Asylum-seeking unaccompanied children and youngsters are situated at the crossroads between exclusionary and repressive asylum policies, on the one hand, and relatively inclusive and caring child welfare policies, on the other. This is the ‘asylum-child welfare paradox’ (Dursun and Sauer 2021). In this article, we explore the role of affect, feelings, and emotions in how unaccompanied minors respond to and process but also co-construct and resist this structural paradox through their ‘affective narratives’ (Bargetz and Eggers 2022). Based on qualitative interviews conducted with (former) unaccompanied minors in Austria in 2015, we observe that minors mobilize a set of feelings of fear, disappointment, frustration, and uncertainty due to experiences of rejection or loss of control; but unaccompanied minors also express feelings of confidence, joy, hope, and solidarity vis-à-vis their new environment and their future. Furthermore, the highly affective issues of belonging and non-belonging to their host country, of proximity and distance to other human beings hold an important place in their narratives as well as the ordering of time. We conclude that, rather than merely reacting to paradoxes that structure their social positions, minors actively shape such paradoxes and render them tangible and workable by means of narrating contradictory feelings and emotions and by mobilizing affectivity.

Despite the understanding that unaccompanied minors’ (UAM) experience high rates of post-traumatic stress, the provision of evidence-based trauma-focused therapies is low for this population. Narrative exposure therapy (NET) is an effective short-term intervention for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after multiple traumatic experiences, such as those experienced by UAM. Within the existing literature, there is a lack of research investigating unaccompanied minors’ experiences of NET or any trauma-focused therapy. Participants were four UAM experiencing PTSD who formed part of a pilot delivery of NET within a dedicated child and adolescent mental health service for refugee children. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). This project identified five themes that encapsulated unaccompanied minors’ experiences of receiving NET, including the process of preparing for this therapy, what it was like to receive it, and the differences they identified at the end of treatment. The significance of this taking place within a safe therapeutic relationship was explored within the context of the attachment losses experienced by UAM, and the impact this has on emotion regulation was considered. The potential of a reduction in PTSD symptoms facilitating a positive spiral in adolescence was reflected on within this paper.Key learning aims(1)To understand the experience of unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors (UAM) receiving narrative exposure therapy (NET) for post-traumatic stress disorder.(2)To understand the key concerns and motivators for UAM when considering engaging in NET.(3)To understand how these experiences relate to theoretical frameworks and the existing literature relating to emotional difficulties in adolescence.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee minors (URMs) present with high levels of mental health problems, but also remarkable psychological resources to cope and adapt in their destination country. Research has indicated that life satisfaction and self-efficacy are resources that over time can promote adaptive psychological outcomes in children exposed to adversities. The interrelations of these resources in relation to depressive symptoms during short time spans can provide us with a better understanding of URMs’ mental health. Therefore, the aim of this exploratory study is to investigate the longitudinal interrelations between these resources and depressive symptoms during a period of 3.5 months among youth who had participated in a trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy group intervention, Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT). Questionnaire data were collected from 120 URMs residing in Norway, at two time points (baseline and 8 weeks after the TRT). The majority were males (86%), and mean age was 17.22 (1.72). Most of them were from Afghanistan (61%) and Eritrea (22%), and 82% reported clinical-range levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms at baseline. The results from a cross-lagged panel analysis showed that life satisfaction positively predicted self-efficacy and negatively predicted depressive symptoms at the subsequent time point among participants. There were no effects from self-efficacy or depressive symptoms on life satisfaction across time, but there was co-development of all three variables. This exploratory study indicates that for URMs in Norway, higher levels of life satisfaction are associated with positive mental health outcomes over a 3-month time. Future research should continue exploring how life satisfaction affects URMs’ resilience and building new knowledge about the complexities of their mental health.

Background: Worldwide, up to 50 million children have migrated across borders or been forcibly displaced, with 300,000 unaccompanied or separated. The prevalence and negative effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been thoroughly studied in accompanied refugee and asylum-seeking minors, but fewer studies have focused on PTSD in unaccompanied minors (UAMs). Objective: Review literature regarding PTSD in unaccompanied refugee and asylum-seeking minors; define what factors separate this group in PTSD prevalence; identify …

This chapter demonstrates how ‘nonlegal forms of normative ordering’ (Merry 1988: 870) such as those that inhere in national discourses and perceptions, and that are held by legal subjects themselves, can interrupt and recast formal legal structures. The chapter focuses on unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Greece and their experiences of residing both in shelters and refugee camps. The ethnographic material presented includes narratives of the minors about their life in Greece while waiting for the examination of their asylum application. The chapter highlights the shortcomings of reception for unaccompanied minors in Greece, the ways in which care is often experienced as constraint by unaccompanied minors, and the ways in which they are able to exert agency and defy their categorization as vulnerable victims.

ABSTRACTThis article addresses the everyday lives of young male migrants in a state care facility for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in Istanbul, Turkey. We focus on how the EU-Turkey Statement, which came into force in March 2016, affected the young people’s options and hopes and how they responded to the resultant strengthening of border control. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Istanbul and the Aegean area between 2015 and 2016 we show how this agreement became enmeshed with the young people’s life trajectories during a period of increasing authoritarianism in Turkey. While current contributions to border studies in Turkey mainly discuss new strategies of joint border management, the border spectacle of the irregular corridor to Europe and emerging humanitarian interventions at the borders, this article traces how political and legal transformations of border control trickle down to the everyday of unaccompanied minors. We suggest analysing the EU–Turkey border regime in 2015/16 as a ‘critical event’ (Das [2007]. Life and Words: Violence and the Descent Into the Ordinary. Berkeley: University of California Press) and show how violence, exclusion and humanitarianism affect young men’s lives.

Building knowledge on how child welfare services (CWS) should tailor services for unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) is important. URMs and youth in foster care are high-risk groups taken care of by the CWS in Norway. Little is known on whether knowledge gained from youth in foster care can inform services for URMs, and if these groups are comparable in terms of experiences of potential traumatic events (PTEs) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom load. Eighty-one URMs reported PTEs and PTSD-symptoms using an adapted version of the Child and Adolescent Trauma Screen (CATS). Responses were described and compared with a sample of 303 youth in foster care in linear regression models. We present relative risks (RR) and standardized mean differences (SMD) for the PTEs and the PTSD subscale and total score between the groups in forest plots. URMs had experienced a mean (standard deviation) of 6.4 (3.4) PTEs and 43.9% reported to have PTSD-symptoms at or above the clinical cut off. Compared to the foster youth, URMs reported more exposures of interpersonal violence outside of the family (RRs ranging from 66.4 [95%CI 18.1; 243.5) to 1.3 (1.0, 1.5)], and more PTSD-symptoms in the re-experiencing subscale [SMD = 0.3 (95% CI 0.1, 0.6)]. The frequency and types of PTEs and the PTSD-symptom load and profile among URMs and youth in foster care differed. Findings underscore the importance of qualified and targeted care for URMs, and that this care should differ to that of other high-risk groups in the CWS.

The Swedish National Board of Institutional Care (SNBIC) is an independent governmental agency that provides compulsory care for minors with psychosocial problems, criminal behavior, and substance abuse. During recent years, a noticeable number of the youth placed at compulsory care institutions have been asylum-seeking minors who have arrived in Sweden without parents or guardians. This steady increase in placements has raised questions and concerns among the involved actors regarding the motives and needs underlying these placements. This qualitative study investigates the main motives that lead unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors to be placed at SNBIC residential homes and the problems that are to be solved during their placement, according to social workers and SNBIC staff. The study is based on 28 in-depth interviews with social workers and SNBIC staff. Findings indicate clear disagreement between social workers and SNBIC staff with regard to the motives for placing unaccompanied minors at SNBIC homes. Although the social workers and SNBIC staff explain that most of the unaccompanied youth placed at SNBIC homes have some form of criminal behavior or substance abuse, SNBIC staff believe, in some cases, the problem is not sufficiently serious to warrant compulsory care. As these disagreements and misunderstandings between the actors have an impact on their collaboration and, consequently, the situation of the unaccompanied minors, all attempts to reach a consensus on the leading causes for placement and the problems that need to be solved with SNBIC placement would increase security for both the young people and the relevant staff.

Method Unaccompanied minors used a colour sticker system to answer questions about their abilities, function, social habits and desires, and worries during contact sessions with local charity. Results “I worry about….feeling sad all the time” 83% respondents “I worry about….not being able to sleep” 92% respondents “I worry about….having nightmares” 66% respondents “I worry about….the police” 50% respondents “I worry about….my health” 42% respondents 55% described difficulty accessing health services 42% interviewed said that if they had a problem they would definitely share it with only 1 person, or no-one. Conclusions The NHS is currently facing a crisis in providing mental health for young people-many young people with acute mental health needs are unable to access CAMHS beds in the wider area. Our study has highlighted the potential for mental health problems in a group of young adults where ‘feeling sad’, ‘nightmares’ and ‘not sleeping’ are common occurrences. It is well documented that access to mental health services to asylum seekers during the resettlement period is very poor, however these unaccompanied minors are at further risk as they are on their own and often living with unknown adults and in undesirable accommodation. Protective factors to refugee/asylum seeking children have been documented as good settlement and social support in new country. However, for this specific group of children this is stability they often lack, putting them at further risk. Studies and recent highly publicised reports have found that children in care are at higher risk of physical and sexual abuse and mental health problems, our study found that 16% would not feel comfortable sharing a problem with anyone, and a further 25% would only share it with 1 named role. Ensuring a proactive approach to mental health in this community is key, small specialist organisations are vital for providing additional support to these unaccompanied minors, providing stability and facilitating positive, trusting relationships with adults.