The social care needs of unaccompanied minors: the Irish experience

ABSTRACT

This article examines forms of care which can be used by social workers to best respond to unaccompanied minors (UAMs) given their complex needs and particular vulnerability combined with their agency and resilience. The vulnerabilities and agency/resilience of UAMs are examined in the context of multiple borders (cultural, political and physical) being negotiated by these young people. While it focuses on Ireland as an example of a country where care provision for UAMs has improved considerably in recent years, it draws on both the Irish and international literatures. This article critically analyses the shift from hostel to foster care provision for UAMs in Ireland and explores benefits and difficulties associated with using foster care, while also discussing the use of alternative forms of care, such as residential care. We argue that social workers must always give consideration to a range of care options, to the needs of the individual child and to both their vulnerability and their resilience/agency. This is especially true given the diversity within the population of UAMs. Given the increasing numbers of refugees entering Europe and the mix of provision for UAMs across the continent, the Irish situation may represent a useful site for examination of their care.

KEYWORDS:

• Unaccompanied minors
• vulnerability
• resilience
• foster care
• residential care

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Deirdre Horgan is a lecturer in Social Policy in the School of Applied Social Studies at University College Cork. Her research interests include child welfare and protection, children’s rights and participation, children’s research methods and child migration. She has conducted a number of funded research projects using child participatory methods as well as reporting on government consultations with children on a range of policy issues. She has published on the Safe Care for Trafficked Children in Ireland (Children’s Rights Alliance, 2012) and Early Childhoods in the Global South (Peter Lang, 2013) as well as in journals on issues relating to research methods, child participation and children in direct provision in Ireland.

Muireann Ní Raghallaigh is a lecturer in Social Work at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin. She previously worked as a social worker with separated children. Muireann’s PhD focused on the coping strategies of unaccompanied minors and she has since conducted research on their experiences of living in foster care. She has published on these topics as well as on the experiences of refugees transitioning from Ireland’s ‘direct provision’ system for asylum seekers, social work perspectives in relation to direct provision and gender-based violence in Ethiopia.

ORCID

Deirdre Horgan http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4684-1975