Children of the crisis: ethnographic perspectives on unaccompanied refugee youth in and en route to Europe

Abstract

This special issue explores the ways unaccompanied refugee youth in and en route to Europe actively deal with the intensification of exclusionary practices towards migrants and refugees. In the Introduction we aim to set the scene for the individual articles by sketching the various political, historical and discursive levels at which the unaccompanied minor has come to be constructed as a crisis figure in Europe. We show how the sense of exceptionality attached to this figure translates into ambiguous and at times extremely contradictory social practices that have far-reaching effects on the lives of refugee youth. In paying attention to the conceptual flaws and dangers inherent in linking unaccompanied minors to ideas of crisis, we aim to demonstrate the importance of taking seriously the ways young people themselves make sense of the ascriptions, ideas and practices they are subject to. We suggest that ethnographically driven research that lays the focus on the ways young people actively navigate the ambiguous social landscapes they are confronted with can form an important means to move beyond the simplistic and ahistorical models of explanation put forward by frameworks of crisis.

Across the threshold: negotiations of deservingness among unaccompanied young refugees in Sweden

“…In light of the 'refugee crisis' and the dramatic developments since then, I suggest that it may be even more crucial today for unaccompanied minors, and asylum seekers in general, to narrate themselves as deserving in order to claim their rights to stay. Both against the backdrop of the public debates on migrations, and the restrictions enforced in policy (Lems, Oester, and Strasser 2020). These developments may also contribute to reshape how deservingness is conceptualised.…”

“…Thus, narratives of the unaccompanied child in need of protection were increasingly challenged by narratives of problematic youth, or, to use Fassin's (2005) words, went from 'compassion' to 'repression'. However, these suspicions did not originate in the language of 'the crisis' but are part of a longer history concerning migration in Europe (Lems, Oester, and Strasser 2020;cf. Fassin 2005).…”

“…In this article, narratives from unaccompanied youth with permanent residency collected in 2011-12 are used to illustrate that the unaccompanied minor as an ambiguous discursive figure was not an effect of the 'crisis' discourse in 2015. Rather it is part of the genealogy of the 'refugee crisis' that unaccompanied youth were struggling with also before then (Lems, Oester, and Strasser 2020). The narratives were collected as part of a research project that investigated unaccompanied youth's negotiations of belonging, with particular attention paid to social relationships, home and experiences of exclusion.…”

Being inside out: the slippery slope between inclusion and exclusion in a Swiss educational project for unaccompanied refugee youth

“…As magnifying glasses of wider societal issues, school settings offer an interesting entry point into a deeper understanding of the ways the contradictory policies, practices and discourses regarding unaccompanied refugee youth as 'crisis figures' (Lems, Oester and Strasser 2020) are lived and grappled with on the ground. For while schools are commonly perceived as places of future-making, they also represent the state's attempt at creating 'ideal' citizens.…”

“…As the emergence of the unaccompanied minor as a crisis figure plays a crucial role for understanding Swiss educational and policy responses and for the ascriptions young people have to deal with, I will first take some time to think through the divergent and often times conflicting expectations and ideas that become attached to this figure. In embedding the deeply ingrained ambiguity of the unaccompanied minor in political and social processes, I will argue that the logic of inclusive exclusion inherent in policy responses needs to be read against the backdrop of wider dynamics underwriting contemporary asylum policies in Europe that constantly swing back and forth between public moral outbursts of compassion and repressive countermoves (Fassin 2005;Lems, Oester, and Strasser 2020). By shedding light on the educational project where I conducted my research, I will show that the form of exclusion that is the outcome of these dynamics takes on an ambivalent shape: Whilst relying on inclusionary language and ideas, it reproduces distinct practices of social segregation.…”