Unaccompanied young refugees in the European Union: a perennial limbo situation studied in a longitudinal perspective

ABSTRACT

The notion of waiting has always been part of the migration procedure, also for unaccompanied refugee minors. During their journeys throughout the EU, some unaccompanied minors obtain a definitive residence status, while others become undocumented after their temporary protection ends at age 18 or they are still waiting for the outcome of their asylum application. In this article, we focus on the meaning of ‘waiting’ for 14 unaccompanied refugee minors and how this chronic state of waiting impacts their well-being and access to services. This ‘existential’ form of waiting shows how these young people are de facto caught in between EU – and national legislations, in a ‘politics of exhaustion’, where they find themselves somehow stuck in a perennial limbo where movement is nothing but an illusion.

Πϵρίληψη

Η έννοια της αναμονής ήταν πάντα μέρος της διαδικασίας μϵτανάστϵυσης και οι ασυνόδϵυτοι ανήλικοι πρόσφυγϵς δϵν θα μπορούσαν να αποτϵλέσουν ϵξαίρϵση. Κατά τη διάρκϵια των διαδρομών τους στην ΕΕ, ορισμένοι αποκτούν μόνιμο νομικό καθϵστώς, πολλοί καθίστανται χωρίς έγγραφα μϵτά τη λήξη της προσωρινής τους προστασίας σϵ ηλικία 18 ϵτών ή πϵριμένουν για χρόνια το αποτέλϵσμα των αιτήσϵων ασύλου τους. Στο άρθρο αυτό ϵξϵτάζουμϵ πως οι ασυνόδϵυτοι ανήλικοι αντιμϵτωπίζουν αυτήν την αναμονή και πως αυτή η χρόνια κατάσταση ϵπηρϵάζϵι την πρόσβαση τους σϵ υπηρϵσίας και αγαθά, σημαντικά ως προς την ϵυημϵρία τους. Στα συμπϵράσματα συζητάμϵ για το πώς οι ασυνόδϵυτοι ανήλικοι βρίσκονται συχνά μϵταξύ σφύρας και άκμονος, μϵταξύ Ευρωπαϊκών και Εθνικών νομοθϵσιών μϵτανάστϵυσης και ασύλου και τι ϵπιπτώσϵις έχϵι αυτή η αναμονή στην ψυχική τους υγϵία. Ακόμα και όταν μϵτακινούνται, η διαρκής κατάσταση νομικού κϵνού τους οδηγϵί σϵ ένα φαύλο κύκλο, σαν να μην ξϵκίνησαν ποτέ.

KEYWORDS:

• Unaccompanied minors
• psychological well-being
• asylum procedures
• waiting

ΛΕΞΕΙΣ ΚΛΕΙΔΙΑ:

• ασυνόδϵυτοι ανήλικοι
• ψυχολογική ϵυημϵρία
• διαδικασίϵς ασύλου
• αναμονή

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants for sharing their stories with us, as well as all colleagues who contributed to this work with their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Definition of Limbo. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/limbo.

2 Brighter future report (2013), https://www.brighterfutureslondon.co.uk/.

3 https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/wait_1.

4 Directive 2008/115/EC. Retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32008L0115&from=EN.

5 Directive 2013/33/EU. Retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32013L0033&from=EN.

6 In this chapter, we use ‘apply for international protection’ and ‘asylum application’ interchangeably. In this article we refer only to family reunification cases within the context of article 8 of Dublin III procedure. see here for more information https://migration.gov.gr/en/gas/diadikasia-asyloy/asynodeytoi-anilikoi/.

7 FRA Opinion on fundamental rights in the 'hotspots' set up in Greece and Italy https://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2018/fra-opinion-fundamental-rights-hotspots-set-greece-and-italy.

8 Council Directive 2003/86/EC. Retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32003L0086&from=EN.

9 International Law Blog- https://internationallaw.blog/2019/10/10/the-european-court-of-human-rights-and-the-best-interests-of-unaccompanied-migrant-minors-a-step-towards-a-more-substantive-and-individualized-approach/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Research Council under grant CHILDMOVE; project number: 714222

Notes on contributors

Marina Rota

Marina Rota (PhD) is a Sociologist with postgraduate studies in Criminology in Greece and Belgium. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Athens’ Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences and has graduate seminars in Social Street Work. She has worked in the field of migration and asylum as a field worker since 1995, mainly with unaccompanied refugee minors and children victims of human trafficking. Since 2017, she has been working at Ghent University as a researcher in the ChildMove project.

Océane Uzureau

Océane Uzureau holds a Masters in Migration Studies from the University of Poitiers (MIGRINTER). She previously worked as Project Coordinator at the Observatory of the Migration of Minors (University of Poitiers/MIGRINTER – CNRS) on research projects with young male migrants in France. She is currently a PhD candidate in Educational Sciences at Ghent University and a researcher in the ERC-funded ChildMove project. Her research interests are focusing on migrant children’s mobilities within Europe, participatory research with young migrants, border-crossing experiences and expressions of migrants on the move.

Ine Lietaert

Ine Lietaert holds a PhD in Social Work, studying the return and reintegration processes of assisted return migrants. She works as an assistant Professor at the United Nations University – CRIS, where she coordinates the Migration and Social research cluster, and at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy (Ghent University). Her main research topics relate to migration governance, return migration, reintegration processes, migration trajectories, unaccompanied refugees minors, well-being, internal migration, displacement, borders and social work practices. She teaches the course International Social Work at Ghent University and is (co) supervising various research project.

Ilse Derluyn

Ilse Derluyn (PhD) is a full professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy (Ghent University, Belgium). Her research focuses mainly on the psychosocial well-being of (unaccompanied) refugee minors, war-affected children and victims of trafficking. She is actively involved in supporting refugees and practitioners working with refugees and in policy research. She has published over hundred international publications and books, heads the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) and is co-director of the Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations (CCVS). Besides being the PI of the ERC-SG ChildMove, she coordinates the H2020-project RefugeesWellSchool.