Unaccompanied Asylum Research Articles

Leaving Care: Unaccompanied Asylum- Seeking Young Afghans Facing Return

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the United Kingdom approach adulthood knowing that they will be encouraged or even forced to return to their countries of birth. Drawing on a project that promoted voluntary return to Afghanistan, we use interviews with twelve young people, professionals working in the Home Office and in education, local authorities, and voluntary-sector agencies to describe a complex area of immigration policy. We show how the state’s obligations as “corporate parent” clash with increasingly punitive migration controls and with growing political scrutiny of public spending. We propose education as a way to prepare young people for futures as global citizens in either country of settlement or of origin.

The Evolving Identities of Unaccompanied Young Male Asylum Seekers in Malta

This article focuses on the experience of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers who recently traveled to Malta and who aspired to journey on from there to mainland Europe. It is a phenomenological study of people who are on the move and in transition, and adopts a qualitative ethnographic-style research design. The analysis combines grounded theory and discourse analysis to explore how language served to frame these young people's ideas of themselves, their travels, and their lives. It suggests a core theory of how their definition and understanding of their African origins offers them stability despite the uncertainties that they encounter.

Uledsagede flygtningebørn med særlige omsorgs- og behandlings-behov i Danmark: En pilotundersøgelse af uledsagede mindreårige asylansøgere på Dansk Røde Kors børnecentre i perioden januar 1997-december 1997

Danish Red Cross Asylum Department runs 2 asylum centres for unaccompanied minors. During 1997 246 minors have attended these two centres for a period. A retrospective pilot study has been performed in order to identify children with special needs. 24% of these minors are registered as having special needs for care or/and treatment. The actual number of such children is probably higher as children who have extended need for contact to paedagoges, teachers or nurses are not included. Unaccompanied children with special needs are significantly younger than the whole group of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers, also waiting time before having a decision about asylum status is significantly longer for this group. This group have experienced a series of potentially traumatizing events, 37% imprisonment, 29% torture, and 31% had taken part in military activities. These children have few severe physical problems at arrival to Denmark, but many psychological symptoms such as sleeping problems (46%) psychosomatic ...

Not adults in miniature: unaccompanied child asylum seekers and the new U.S. guidelines

Not adults in miniature: unaccompanied child asylum seekers and the new U.S. guidelines