Undocumented and unaccompanied: children of migration in the European Union and the United States

Abstract

Thousands of minors are migrating unaccompanied to high-income countries. This special issue focuses on unaccompanied migrant minors from the Global South to Europe and the United States. In this introduction we seek to complement the contributions to this special issue by shedding light on what resources and experiences unaccompanied migrants arrive with, stressing these young migrants’ challenges at each stage prior to arrival and the challenges they face navigating the receiving context. We first clarify how the international community defines “unaccompanied minors” or “unaccompanied children.” We then provide brief histories of unaccompanied minors in immigration flows to the U.S. and the EU. Next, we review the literature on the experiences of unaccompanied minors before, during, and after migration. Finally, we discuss key themes and insights from the articles provided in this special issue.

A Better “Best Interests”: Immigration Policy in a Comparative Context

“…The past five years have brought increasing visibility to unaccompanied children in the media and among policymakers. We see a corresponding growth in the literature on unaccompanied children (Bhabha ; Cardoso et al 2014; Heidbrink , ; Zayas ; Statz ; Menjívar and Perreira ). Importantly, several researchers have analyzed the institutions caring for children (Uehling ; Ensor and Gozdziak ; Terrio ) and the legal systems that seek their removal (Bhabha and Schmidt ; Zatz and Rodriguez ), while others have traced children's health, safety, and well‐being following release from federal custody or into federal foster care programs (Roth and Grace ; Heidbrink ; Crea et al ).…”

21st Century Migration: Opportunity, Calamity or Weapon of War? A Critical Discourse Analysis

“…EUROSTAT counts asylum applications but not arrivals themselves, with the potential for undercounting. In the absence of other statistical sources of information for all EU-countries, it would be useful to note this limitation [16].…”

“…Journeys to the EU entail crossing several countries and migrants' fi nal destinations are not always fi xed at the beginning of their trips, but rather decided along the way. Thus, social media and the Internet have played central roles in aiding migrants' journeys and decision-making prior to migration through sharing of immigration about smugglers and routes of the trip [16]. In parallel, burgeoning economic areas such as Persian Gulf states, China and India, should see that the private sector as well as the governments of these countries take their share of a global issue, move beyond short-term profi t focus and put more emphasis on environmental and social issues in business models to achieve sustainable results [5].…”

Child-Computer Interaction SIG

“…According to UNICEF, in 2017, 10 million child refugees were forcibly displaced from their countries and an additional 17 million had to move within their own countries due to violence [9]. The challenges of child migration are not new, but recent developments have increased their worldwide visibility [5]. Something else that is new is the common reliance of migrants on interactive technologies before, during, and after their journey [1,4].…”