Unaccompanied Minors Policy and Practice in
European countries
Detailed Program: https://mna.sciencesconf.org/
Organizers:
Organizing Committee:
Bernadette Tillard, Lucy Marquet, Sarah Mosca & Coralie Aranda (CLERSE) Amy Stapleton (Trinity college Dublin)
Collective work realized in Lille by Young Migrants and French people, received Amnesty International France's award 2017
University of Lille
Campus « Cité Scientifique » / Villeneuve d’Ascq
(Salle des conférences, Bâtiment SH2) Free entry but registration required
Thursday 27 th June 2019
9:00 AM – 18:00 PM
Presentation of the Study Day
In many European countries, the number of unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents has increased in recent years.
Countries that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child must protect them, provide for their education and enable them to access the care. The administrative name currently adopted is that of unaccompanied minors (UM). Despite the commitment of European countries to welcome UMs, they often are in an uncomfortable position between their migrant status and their children status. In France, after a very brief takeover by the State upon their arrival on the territory, young people should take in charge but the child protection service [“Aide Sociale à l’Enfance” - ASE] and the territorial level that provides to their needs is the “department”. Their minority is often called into question. More other, when their 18th birthday comes, their protection can be interrupted, or, at best, extended until the age of 21, that become a new deadline for their administrative status. After 21, they must provide for their own needs by asking, if necessary, to universal services.
In a comparative perspective, we invite participants from European countries to present the main features of the policy for unaccompanied minors in their country and the concrete methods of implementing them. Several aspects can be developed:
accommodation housing, access to schooling and training, access to health care, organization of educational support, status and follow-up to young people after 18 years. In this comparison, we would like to favour a sociological perspective that focuses on the concrete implementation of the reception and integration of these children in each country.
Detailed Program
9:30 - A review of needs and profiles of unaccompanied minors as well as services and practices in Spain
Jorge F. del Valle, Amaia Bravo and Iriana Santos, GIFI Research Group, University of Oviedo
Spain has received a massive arrival of unaccompanied minors mostly from North Africa in the last ten years, but particularly in the last three years. Residential care is the most common service for them but many autonomous communities had to open a large number of new facilities for them. Addressing the needs of these young immigrants is one of the most serious challenges faced by our child welfare system. In this presentation, we will show results from research reviewing practices in autonomous communities in Spain and also from interviews and focus groups with unaccompanied minors to analyse their specific needs. Some conclusions for matching services and needs will be presented as well as some good practices in services for unaccompanied minors.
10:15 - Research into the development of unaccompanied minor refugees in foster care
Johan Vanderfaeillie, Lore Van Den Daele, Lenny Trogh & Frank Van Holen, Belgium
In Flanders, unaccompanied minor refugees (URM) are increasingly cared for in foster care. In 2017, 331 URM of 1920 (17.2%) stayed in a foster family; 74 in non-kinship foster families and 257 in kinship foster families. Non-kinship foster families are mostly autochthonous foster families, kinship foster families have the same cultural background. Although URM increasingly live in foster care, little is known on their development in foster care. In addition, the question can be asked if residing in foster families of the same culture is a protective factor. This study aimed at investigating the development of URM in kinship and non-kinship foster care and the association of positive development with foster child, foster parent and placement characteristics.
11:15 - Participatory Action Research approach with aged-out separated children
Amy Stapleton, Paula Mayock, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Aged-out separated children (those who are outside their country of origin, without their parent or customary/ legal guardian and have recently turned eighteen) confront significant challenges as they navigate the transition to adulthood due to a lack of family support and because of their distinctly limited access to state support. It is imperative when developing new policies and attempting to resolve an issue as pressing as the displacement of people across Europe, that the contexts and concerns of those most affected are among the informing factors. Despite this, there is a lack of research on this highly marginalised youth population and their voices are rarely heard or considered.
Using qualitative research and a participatory action research (PAR) approach, the research includes separated young people’s voices and examines how they negotiate the transition to adulthood in two European countries, Ireland and France, respectively. Drawing from a youth transitions lens, the study seeks to understand the transition to adulthood in the larger social context, directing particular attention to the interplay of the individual (such as agency and resilience) and
social/structural factors (child protection and immigration policies, institutional responses, etc.) which shape their experiences. The paper will thus present preliminary findings of the research in the French context while highlighting the impact of structural and social constraints, including the care, reception and integration systems, on separated young people’s experiences of the transition to adulthood.
14:00 - Unaccompanied minors in France, results from ELAP
Lucy Marquet, MCF - Univ. Lille, CLERSE, France
In France, UAM may be taken into care by the child protection services and go into the system for asylum seekers, although this is much less common. In 2016, 8054 new UAM were taken into care by the child protection authorities and only 474 were processed as asylum seekers. As at end 2016, UAM represented 8% of minors in care. However, these figures do not include UAM who were not acknowledged as such by the child protection services. The French child protection system is organized by department. Each of the 96 departments in Metropolitan France and the five overseas French departments finances and conducts its own child protection policy within the framework of the national legislation. The cost of care provision for UAM is thus the core issue, far ahead of the question of what support they are given.
14:45 - Children, parents, migrants: categorizations and subjective perceptions of unaccompanied minors becoming parents
Claire Ganne, MCF - Univ. Paris-Nanterre, CREF, France
The migration of unaccompanied adolescents in Europe puts two logics of categorization of public policies under tension, highlighting the figure of the migrant to be controlled or the child to be protected, and the situations of unaccompanied minors or young adults becoming parents themselves blur these categorizations once again (Vervliet, De Mol, Broekaert, &
Derluyn, 2014). As part of the ELAP research (Frechon & Marquet, 2016), 10 interviews were conducted with 6 young parents who had been taken into child protection care as unaccompanied minors (4 women and 2 men). The near-exclusivity between different statuses (child to be protected, young adult, mother with a child) highlights the institutional categorization processes relating to these situations, which do not always correspond to the subjective perception of the young people themselves.
16:00 - Unaccompanied Minors in Denmark – Policy and Practice
Mette Lausten, PR – VIVE, The Danish Centre for Social Science Research, Denmark
Historically, Denmark has been a liberal force in regards to asylum policy, being the first country to ratify and sign the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Since 1983, however, the Danish Aliens Act has been amended more than 100 times, from 2001 onwards nearly once every second month, thereby changing the image of Denmark from a liberal front-runner to a country with right-wing restrictive asylum policies. Asylum seeking children have not been unaffected by these changes. Firstly, this presentation takes you through recent Danish history and the main features of the policy on unaccompanied minors, minors that are trapped between the tight immigration law and the more generous social democratic welfare state model, and secondly the results are shown from a project implemented in a municipal with the purpose to strengthen the integration of the unaccompanied minors into education, employment and leisure activities.
16:45 - Accommodation, education, and wellbeing for unaccompanied refugee minors in high-income countries: findings from international systematic reviews and research in England
Ellie Ott, Research Fellow at the Rees Centre, Univ. of Oxford, UK
This presentation covers an overview of policy and practice with URMs in England, building on the author’s previous work and ongoing projects on concepts of ‘care’ and narratives of education for this population in England. One recent project on the education of URMs in England included semi-structured interviews (n=14) with social workers, virtual school heads, teachers, and third sector education providers, document analysis, and analysis of administrative data where available.
Analyses indicate that some URMs in England receive education provision that does not meet their needs or statutory obligations while others receive tailored and thoughtful provision. Findings also indicate consensus among practitioners not only that unaccompanied refugee children have particular educational and accommodation needs tied with wellbeing, language acquisition, past trauma, and acculturation, but also that these young people demonstrate a marked resilience given their past histories.
Organizing committee
Bernadette Tillard (PR), Sarah Mosca & Coralie Aranda (PhD students - CLERSE), Amy Stapleton (PhD student - Trinity college Dublin), Lucy Marquet (MCF)
Scientific Committee:
Bernadette Tillard (Clersé UdL), Lucy Marquet (Clersé UdL), Hans Grietens (Groningen, Netherlands), Jorge Del Valle (Oviedo, Spain)
Speakers
Claire Ganne, Lecturer, Univ. Paris-Nanterre, CREF, France
Mette Lausten, Senior Researcher at the VIVE – The Danish Centre for Social Science Research, Denmark
Lucy Marquet, Lecturer and Demographic Researcher, Univ. Lille, CLERSE, France
Ellie Ott, Research Fellow at the Rees Centre, Univ. of Oxford, UK
Amy Stapleton & Paula Mayock, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Jorge F. del Valle, Amaia Bravo & Iriana Santos, GIFI Research Group, University of Oviedo
Johan Vanderfaeillie, Lore Van Den Daele, Lenny Trogh & Frank Van Holen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Moderators
Coralie Aranda, PhD student in Sociology, Univ. Lille, CLERSE, France
Loch Dietmar, Professor of Sociology, Univ. Lille, CLERSE, France
Juliette Halifax, Demographic researcher, APRADIS Studies & Research Department (Amiens – France)
Judith Hayem, Lecturer and Researcher in Anthropology, Univ. Lille, CLERSE, France
Sarah Mosca, PhD student in Sociology, Univ. Lille, CLERSE, France
Domitille Roucou, Social worker and project officer in GRDR association (Migration, Citizenship, Development), France
Bernadette Tillard, Professor of Sociology, Univ. Lille, CLERSE, France
