Abstract
This article explores and unfolds the category of the ‘unaccompanied asylum-seeking minor’ in Denmark. By studying the notions that are embedded in the category, namely age and childhood, I analyse, through the narratives of the young refugees, what it means for both their sense of self and for their everyday lives to belong to, or to be excluded from, ascribed asylum categories, while finding themselves in complex situations of uncertainty. Using ethnographic material gathered during the refugee crisis of 2015–2016, I show that the young refugees’ narratives point to contradictions in their understandings of the ‘self’, which are linked respectively to the notions of chronological age, upheld by the asylum system, and relational age operating within the context of their family relations. I further describe the changes that take place when a young refugee’s status changes from minor to adult. Finally, I suggest how these changes may be linked to contemporary Western and welfare-related notions of childhood. The findings suggest that a relational approach that goes beyond the fixity of categories in the asylum and refugee system allows for a better understanding of the young people’s situation and sense of self.
Highlights
They [Immigration Services] told me that if you are under or over 18, your asylum case does not change
Despite Jabriil’s explanation that belonging to the category of unaccompanied minor has no impact on the legal outcome of asylum applications, this does influence in significant ways how unaccompanied refugees experience their everyday lives in Denmark
I challenged the rigidity of these categories and explored the different categories that the young refugees navigated by doing fieldwork in places representing the different stages of refugeehood: the asylum centres for the newly arrived unaccompanied asylum-seekers, the centres for adult asylum-seekers for those whose status as minors had been rejected or who had come of age, and the municipalities where the unaccompanied minors were placed after being granted the right to stay
Summary
They [Immigration Services] told me that if you are under or over 18, your asylum case does not change. Despite Jabriil’s explanation that belonging to the category of unaccompanied minor has no impact on the legal outcome of asylum applications, this does influence in significant ways how unaccompanied refugees experience their everyday lives in Denmark. This study draws on recent studies that examine the ways in which notions of age, childhood and youth shape the lives of unaccompanied minors In their comparative study of Finland and Sweden, Kaukko and Wernesjö (2017) explore how unaccompanied minors in the two countries experienced participation as providing a sense of belonging in their everyday lives. By directing exclusive attention to the situation of unaccompanied minors in Denmark, this article fills an important gap in research, and moves beyond the dichotomous approach mentioned above to consider the co-existence of, and inter-relationship between, the vulnerability and resourcefulness of young refugees in a vein similar to that suggested by Wernesjö (2012: 500). The total numbers and relative importance of this group underscores the significance of devoting special attention to young refugees who arrive as unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors
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