Caringscapes and belonging: an intersectional analysis of care relationships of unaccompanied minors in Belgium

Abstract

Through testimonies of guardians and young adults looking back upon their lives as unaccompanied minors in Belgium, this paper aims to obtain better understanding of the multifaceted and simultaneous intersections that shape the unaccompanied minors’ care relationships. It claims that while age as a criterion for the entitlement to care might work as an enabling structural element in the care trajectories of unaccompanied minors, the young people’s intersectional positioning as both minor and immigrant translates into a minimalistic and bureaucratic apparatus of care that often fails to accommodate the young people’s actual needs. The paper aims to explore what a focus on care relationships can offer in light of the prevalent emphasis in policy on equal rights, rationality and equal opportunities and argues that an intersectional focus on affect and relationships might need us to reconsider assumptions of just care in greater depth.

Keywords:

• age
• belonging
• care
• intersectionality
• minors
• unaccompanied

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the research participants for their time and invaluable contribution. We also want to thank the anonymous peer reviewers and the editors of Children’s Geographies and this special issue, for their supportive and thoughtful advice on our manuscript.

Notes

1. For a comparison between unaccompanied minors and transnational adoptees of what is considered appropriate care in the two groups of children, see De Graeve and Bex (2015).

2. We use the term ‘pupil’ to refer to the minors who are under the care of a guardian, a term that is quite common in European policy documents and research reports. The Flemish term is pupil, the French term pupille.

3. In 2013, for instance, Belgium had 1682 recognized unaccompanied minors not applying for asylum, the third highest number of all EU countries after Italy and Spain, and 470 asylum applications by unaccompanied minors, which was the 6th highest number in the EU (after Sweden, Germany, UK, Austria and Italy). See the European Commission website: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/e-library/multimedia/infographics/index_en.htm#0801262488c18d4d/c_ [accessed April 14, 2015].

4. See the website of the Office of The Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons: http://www.cgvs.be/sites/default/files/asielstatistieken_december_2015.pdf [accessed February 23, 2016].

5.  See the Fedasil website (the Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers): http://fedasil.be/nl/inhoud/niet-begeleide-minderjarige-vreemdelingen-nbmv-0 [accessed July 3, 2014].

6. OKAN is the acronym for Onthaalonderwijs Anderstalige Nieuwkomers or reception education for non-Dutch-speaking newcomers; DASPA stands for Dispositif d’Accueil et de Scolarisation des élèves Primo-Arrivants or provision of reception and education for newcomer pupils.

7. Due to Belgium’s federal state structure, authorities have been divided between the federal government and the community/regional governments, with migration regulation a federal matter and youth welfare a community responsibility. Which government is responsible for the care for unaccompanied minors is therefore dependent on their status.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) [grant number FWO13/PDO/030].