About this ebook
“The statistics show that children move in great numbers, and many do so alone. While some of the reasons which motivate them to undertake such journeys alone are similar to those of adults – e.g. wars, pursuing aspirations for better social and economic opportunities, ethnic violence, cultural differences, examples of others migrating – others are more specific to children, such as forced child marriages, lack of educational opportunities, forced conscription or being sent ahead to realize family reunification in another country. Similar to adult companions, they suffer and react to ‘democratic deficit’ and ‘developmental (economic) deficit’ and yet they may become more vulnerable in their flight. Reaching their destination often does not mean they are then less vulnerable either. They are faced with specific challenges of integration on economic, social, and cultural dimensions and in many cases also face burdens of the reunification of their family. Yet, there is little attention paid to unaccompanied minors in the literature on ‘forced’ migration. This was an important reason to initiate this book. This book largely focuses on unaccompanied minors who arrived in a European country in 2015, with special attention paid to the top-three nationalities of unaccompanied minors, namely Syrian, Afghan and Eritrean minors.”
Content
INTRODUCTION – Işık Kulu-Glasgow, Monika Smit, Ibrahim Sirkeci
CHAPTER 1 Syrian Unaccompanied Minors Journeys to Germany and initial experiences upon arrival – Raphael Kamp and Katie Kuschminder
CHAPTER 2 ‘I just wanted to be safe’: Agency and decision-making among unaccompanied minor asylum seekers – Işık Kulu-Glasgow, Sanne Noyon, Monika Smit
CHAPTER 3. Ways into and out of exploitation Unaccompanied minors and human trafficking – Hilde Lidén and Cathrine Holst Salvesen
CHAPTER 4. Best Interests of the Child assessments to facilitate decision-making in asylum procedures – Carla van Os and Elianne Zijlstra.
CHAPTER 5. Navigating the Immigration Process Alone: Unaccompanied Minors Experiences in the United States – Jennica Larrison and Mariglynn Edlins.
CHAPTER 6. Dropping out of Education: Refugee Youth Who Arrived as Unaccompanied Minors and Separated Children – Aycan Çelikaksoy and Eskil Wadensjö.
CHAPTER 7. Eritrean Unaccompanied Refugee Minors in The Netherlands: Wellbeing and Health – Anna de Haan, Yodit Jacob, Trudy Mooren and Winta Ghebreab.
CHAPTER 8. Social Inclusion Processes for unaccompanied minors in the city of Palermo: Fostering Autonomy through a New Social Inclusion Model – Roberta Lo Bianco and Georgia Chondrou.
About the author
Işık Kulu-Glasgow, PhD, is a researcher at the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. She has been involved in many research projects on asylum, migration and integration issues, including evaluation of policy measures. Currently, she is working on topics related to unaccompanied minor asylum seekers and refugees. Recently she completed a research project regarding migration decisions and destination choices of these minors in the Netherlands. At present, she is involved in a project on the future of (ex-) unaccompanied minors in the Netherlands.
Monika Smit was an assistant professor of Child and Youth Care at Leiden University where she carried out several studies on unaccompanied minor asylum seekers until 2000. From 2000-2009 she worked at the Bureau of the Dutch national rapporteur on trafficking in human beings. Currently, she heads the research division Administration of Justice, Legislations and International and aliens Affairs of the Research and Documentation Centre at the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice, and holds an endowed chair at Groningen University on Psycho social care for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers.
Ibrahim Sirkeci is Professor of Transnational Studies, Director of Regent’s Centre for Transnational Business and Management, Head of Marketing Subject Cluster, and Associate Dean for Research (Interim) at Regent’s University London. Previously he worked at the University of Bristol, Atilim University, Hacettepe University and Bilkent University. He earned his PhD from the University of Sheffield. His research focuses on migration, integration, labour market outcomes, remittances and transnational marketing. He has founded Migration Letters journal with Jeffrey Cohen and Elli Heikkila in 2003 and has been a chief editor or associate editor of several other journals including Remittances Review, Transnational Marketing Journal, and Goc Dergisi. He has chaired the Migration Conference series since 2012.
