Life Projects For Unaccompanied Migrant Minors

This recommendation stresses the importance of placing the best interests of the child at the heart of all government policy and practice in this area. A life project is an individual tool based on a joint undertaking between the child and the relevant authorities for a limited duration. It defines the child's future prospects, promotes his or her best interests without discrimination and provides a long-term response to his or her needs. Each project aims to develop the capacities of the child, allowing him or her to acquire and strengthen the skills necessary to become independent, responsible and active in society. Life projects should seek to promote the social integration of the child and his or her personal and cultural development, as well as to open access to housing, health, studies, vocational training and employment. The recommendation is also aimed at improving the capacities of member states to manage migration of unaccompanied migrant children. It underlines the importance of co-operation between all the countries involved and co-ordination by the relevant authorities.--Publisher's description.

A practical guide to the Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2019)4 to raise awareness and improve the knowledge and capacities of relevant professionals in supporting young refugees and migrants in their transition to adulthood. Being among the most vulnerable, many young refugees experience violence, exploitation and trauma, as well as continued risk of violation of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. When they reach the age of 18, they are no longer under the protection of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This means that, from this point, young refugees may no longer have the protection and access to rights and opportunities previously held as children, and they can face an abrupt and dramatic change in the possibility of accessing services and support across many sectors. The rights of young refugees in transition to adulthood has been a priority of the Council of Europe over many years. In 2019, the Committee of Ministers adopted Recommendation CM/Rec(2019)4 on Supporting Young Refugees in Transition to Adulthood, recommending that member states’ governments ensure that additional temporary support is available to young refugees after the age of 18 to enable them to access their rights. The Recommendation also acknowledges the important role played by youth work and non-formal education / learning in supporting the inclusion of young refugees, and in developing competences for active citizenship and democratic participation. The Council of Europe prepared this Guide to further promote and support the implementation of the Recommendation. The Guide should inspire young refugees, youth workers, policymakers, researchers and other relevant actors to familiarise themselves with, apply and support the implementation of the Recommendation in their own contexts and communities. The Guide simplififies the language of the Recommendation in order to assist various actors and stakeholders in developing a better and clearer understanding of the proposals and policy measures. A range of promising practices are likewise incorporated to exemplify how the Recommendation is being put into practice.

This book examines the factors affecting the health and wellbeing of young people as they transition to adulthood under the shadow of migration control. Drawing on unique longitudinal data, it illuminates how they conceptualize wellbeing for themselves and others in contexts of prolonged and politically induced uncertainty. The authors offer an in-depth analysis of the experiences of over one hundred unaccompanied young migrants, primarily from Afghanistan, Albania and Eritrea. They show the lengths these young people will go to in pursuit of safety, security and the futures they aspire to. Interdisciplinary in nature, the book champions a new political economy analysis of wellbeing in the context of migration and demonstrates the urgent need for policy reform.

This book considers the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communication procedure as a key contributor to the realization of children’s Article 12 Convention on the Rights of the Child participation rights. Weaknesses in the current formulation of the CRC communication procedure (its first iteration since entry into force 14 April, 2014) are examined and suggestions for strengthening of the mechanism in various respects considered. Actual cases concerning children’s fundamental human rights in various domains and brought under various international human rights mechanisms are considered as hypothetical OP3-CRC communications/complaints. In addition certain domestic cases brought to the highest State Court are considered as hypothetical OP3-CRC communications brought after exhaustion of domestic remedies. In this way various significant weaknesses of the OP3-CRC are illustrated in a compelling meaningful case context and needed amendments highlighted.

This edited collection situates the migration of children and young people into Europe within a global framework of analysis and provides a holistic perspective that encompasses cultural media, ethnographic research and policy analysis. Drawing on a unique study of young unaccompanied migrants who subsequently became ‘adult’ within the UK and Italy, it examines their different trajectories and how they were impacted by their ability to secure legal status. Divided into three interlinked sections, it begins by examining the cultural repertoires about migration and adulthood to which migrants are sensitized in their countries of origin from a young age. This forms the contexts within which their direct experiences of turning 18 in a different country are explored. These combined insights are framed by an analysis of related policies which bureaucratically and institutionally shape these migratory experiences. This interdisciplinary volume will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of migration studies, international development, geography, sociology, anthropology, youth studies, law, education, health and wellbeing, social care and cultural studies.

Taking a multi-disciplinary perspective, and one grounded in human rights, Unaccompanied young migrants explores in-depth the journeys migrant youths take through the UK legal and care systems. Arriving with little agency, what becomes of these children as they grow and assume new roles and identities, only to risk losing legal protection as they reach eighteen? Through international studies and crucially the voices of the young migrants themselves, the book examines the narratives they present and the frameworks of culture and legislation into which they are placed. It challenges existing policy and questions, from a social justice perspective, what the treatment of this group tells us about our systems and the cultural presuppositions on which they depend.

The essays that make up this book examine the question of child migration from legal, sociological and anthropological angles, examining the situation in both countries of origin and receiving countries.--Publisher's description.