https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6759-8882
![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child stipulates that unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) are entitled to specific and adapted accommodation structures and care. Despite the general strive in EU policy to reach common standards for those reception structures, they still vary largely, resulting in unequal treatment and care conditions. In this article, we aim to build an analytical framework, based on central features of concrete reception practices in different EU countries, which can serve as a tool for in-depth comparative researches of reception and care systems. Starting from the comparative framework of Watters and Hossain [(2008). Policy in practice: Reception practices and minimum standards (End report for ARG project)], we draw a new framework on reception structures for URM based on insights from various disciplines and extensive participant observations in 58 accommodation settings for this group in different EU Member States. Our framework includes four analytical axes: (1) separation versus integration; (2) control versus autonomy; (3) immigration control versus welfare protection; and (4) low intensity versus high intensity care and illustrates how organisational arrangements and choices made within the different axes strongly influence the realisation of care and support. As such, this framework may serve as a first, necessary step in creating increased evidence on how reception structures may impact URM’ well-being.
SAMENVATTING
Het VN Verdrag inzake de Rechten van het Kind bepaalt dat niet-begeleide minderjarige vluchtelingen (NBMV) recht hebben op specifieke en aangepaste opvang– en zorgstructuren. Ondanks een algemeen streven in EU beleid om tot gedeelde standaarden te komen voor dergelijke opvangstructuren, verschillen deze onderlig nog zeer sterk van elkaar, wat resulteert in ongelijke behandeling en opvangcondities. Dit artikel heeft als doel een analytische kader te ontwikkelen met de essentiële eigenschappen van opvangpraktijken in verschillende EU landen, een kader dat als instrument kan dienen om meer diepgaand vergelijkend onderzoek te voeren naar opvang- en zorgsystemen. Met het vergelijkend kader Watters en Hossain (2008) als het startpunt, wordt een nieuw kader ontwikkeld om de opvangstructuren voor NBMV in beeld te brengen. Dit kaders is gebaseerd op inzichten uit verschillende disciplines en uitvoerige participerende observaties in 58 opvangstructuren voor deze doelgroep in verschillende EU lidstaten. Het bevat vier analytische assen: (1) separatie versus integratie; (2) controle versus autonomie; (3) immigratie controle versus welzijnsfocus; en (4) lage zorgintensiteit versus hoge zorgintensiteit en er wordt geïllustreerd hoe organisatorische realiteiten en keuzes binnen deze assen, een grote invloed hebben op de effectieve zorg en ondersteuning. Dit kader is een eerste en noodzakelijke stap naar meer inzicht in hoe opvangstructuren een impact hebben op het welzijn van NBMV.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Ine Lietaert holds a PhD Social Work (Ghent University, Belgium), and works as assistant professor at the United Nations University – CRIS in Bruges and at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy. She is also a research member of the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) – Ghent University. Her main research topics relate to return migration, reintegration, assisted voluntary return and reintegration programmes, detention, unaccompanied refugees minors, well-being, belonging and social work. Further she teaches the course International Social Work at Ghent University.
Malte Behrendt graduated in Clinical/Developmental Psychology in 2015. During an internship, he gained research experiences working with minors in situations of extreme violence and displacement (Colombia). Following his graduation he started working in an emergency shelter for unaccompanied refugee minors in Berlin as a psychologist and social worker. Shortly thereafter he started the training as psychological psychotherapist at an NGO specialised in the treatment of victims of torture. He is now a PhD student (Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University) in the project CHILDMOVE (longitudinal follow-up of the psychological well-being of URM and the impact of their flight experiences) and focusses on the experiences and well-being of URM in Belgium.
Océane Uzureau holds a Master in Migration Studies (University of Poitiers) and is a PhD student (Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University) in the project CHILDMOVE (longitudinal follow-up of the psychological well-being of URM and the impact of their flight experiences) where she focusses on the experiences and well-being of URM in Italy. Before that, she investigated the appropriateness of shelters for URM (Hope for Children UNCRC Policy Center, Cyprus) and was involved as project officer in several participative research projects with unaccompanied minors, which promoted the integration of unaccompanied minors at the local level and was developed in close collaboration with local organisations and NGO’s. (University of Poitiers, France).
Sarah Adeyinka has worked in the field of humanitarian aid for over a decade with a focus on vulnerable population such as refugees, asylum seekers, and survivors of human trafficking for sexual exploitation. She worked on board two rescue vessels operated by Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) involved in the rescue of migrants at sea. Her role included providing cultural mediation, identifying vulnerable women and referring them to the right channels for assistance. She is now a PhD researcher at Ghent university where she is part of the ERC funded Childmove project and is conducting research on the impact of transit experiences on the well-being on unaccompanied minors. Her part of the project is focussed on young female Nigerian refugees arriving in Italy. She is also conducting research on the well-being of Sub-Saharan women in prostitution in the Schaerbeek municipality of Brussels, a project which is funded by the municipality.
Marina Rota holds a Master in Criminology and a PhD in Sociology (Athens Panteion University) focussing on offender profiling as an investigative method. She has extensive experience as external trainer and consultant regarding topics such as child trafficking, migration health issues and support for vulnerable groups. Further, she has experience as counsellor of undocumented people, refugees, victims of trafficking and ex-offenders (MSF) and developed guidebook on social street-work method of approaching vulnerable children (ARSIS). Currently she is involved as a PhD candidate (Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University) in the project CHILDMOVE (longitudinal follow-up of the psychological well-being of URM and the impact of their flight experiences) where she focusses on the experiences and well-being of URM in Greece.
Floor Verhaeghe is currently working on a PhD about assimilation processes in an inter- and multigenerational perspective. The PhD focusses on various aspects of assimilation, such as structural inequalities, language shift, diversity in social networks, identifications and belonging.
Charles Watters is Professor of Wellbeing and Social Care and Director of the Centre for Innovation and Research in Wellbeing. His international research includes a four-year Horizon 2020 funded project examining refugee and migrant wellbeing in schools and an international project on migrant ‘place making’ and wellbeing in urban areas. His research encompasses the impact of green and open spaces on wellbeing and religion, spirituality and mental health. He has previously led comparative research into the mental health and social care of refugees in four European countries on behalf of the European Commission and studies of reception arrangements for asylum seekers across Europe. His international activities have resulted in teaching and research collaborations with universities across the globe, including in the USA, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. His publications include Refugee Children: Towards the Next Horizon (Routledge, 2007) and Mental Health and Wellbeing: Intercultural Perspectives, (Macmillan 2020).
Ilse Derluyn obtained her PhD in Educational Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium) and is currently affiliated as lecturer to the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy (Ghent University), where she teaches courses in migration and refugee studies. Ilse's main research topics concern the psychosocial well-being of unaccompanied refugee minors, migrant and refugee children, war-affected children, victims of trafficking and child soldiers. She is also actively involved in supporting refugees and practitioners working with refugees and migrants, in policy research and policy-influence. Ilse published over 50 international publications and several books and is holder of an ERC Starting Grant. Prof. Derluyn is heading the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) and is co-director of the Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations (CCVS).
ORCID
Floor Verhaeghe http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6759-8882
Ilse Derluyn http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5450-1239
Notes
1 The URM in the study originated from following countries (ranked from high to low prevalence): Afghanistan, Eritrea, Pakistan, Guinea, Syria, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Albania, Iraq, Tunisia, North Sudan, DR Congo, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Somalia, Palestine, Morocco, Senegal, South Sudan, Serbia, Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt and Sierra Leone.